An award-winning novelist, poet and researcher with a doctorate in fairytale studies, Kate Forsyth is known for her female-led novels that bring together familiar threads of myth and magic with the predictable comforts of romance and history. In Psykhe, she takes on the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, which she credits as being the “taproot” for one of her favourite stories, Beauty and the Beast.
In Greek mythology, Psyche, the most beautiful of three human sisters, falls in love with a god, Eros, the son of Aphrodite and the embodiment of love itself. But, as is the way in all good mythology, Eros comes with strings attached: Psyche is forbidden to see him. If she does, the story goes, he’ll disappear for ever. But Psyche’s sisters, envious of her happiness, plant seeds of doubt until, in the middle of the night, Psyche tries to catch a glimpse of her husband by the light of an oil lantern, which drips on him and wakes him up. As promised, he flees. Unlike many myths though, Eros and Psyche are given a happy ending, earning the favour of the gods and living happily ever after in the sky.
