It's an alternate universe. Psyche never attempted to find out Eros' identity. She died without ever knowing the true face of her husband. What happens then?


Eros and Psyche (The Official Story at least in this alternate universe)

In the days of ancient Greece, when the gods of Olympus were powerful, it was said that Eros the god of love fell in love with a mortal woman who was so beautiful that men started to worship her instead of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Naturally the goddess of love was annoyed and commanded Eros to make her fall in love with a terrible, vile monster.

However, the god of love could not bear to lay such an awful fate onto the maiden and fell in love with her instead. As the legend went, he married her in secret and made his home with her in a lush, green valley that was well hidden from the eyes of his mother and the other gods.

Fearing that his secret might be discovered by some god or other, he never showed himself to his wife and only visited her during the dark hours of the night, so she could not look upon his face. He strongly made her promise never to make any attempt to discover his identity or look upon his visage.

She promised him to never make any attempt to discover his identity, and it was said, that even though she bore him many children, who were all very beautiful, she never broke her promise till the day she died, for she was only mortal.

This was however the undoing of Eros, his heart shattered into a thousand pieces and he fell into a deep despair, so that the feathers of his golden wings began to drop and his skin and hair turned a grey pallor, so that in a few years after her death, he looked like a much older man. Of course, by then, Aphrodite discovered her son's secret and as punishment, had him locked away in a grand mansion for a few centuries.

Aphrodite loved her son, but she could not stand his stubborn independence. She wanted a son, but one who would serve her and her goals till the end of time itself, and not a golden god with his own whims and fancies that ran counter to her own schemes.

When she finally allowed her son out of his imprisonment, the golden age of the Greek world had ended and the Olympian gods had waned in their power. However, this all mattered not to Eros, for he had in his despair, wasted away till he lay as a sick man in his bed, unable or unwilling to move. He had apparently tried to kill himself while in his imprisonment, but failed in all attempts. He spent most of his imprisonment chained hand and foot in a dungeon so he could not hurt himself.

In her despair for her son, Aphrodite sought the help of Hades, lord of the Underworld, in locating Psyche, his son's wife and lost love. However, by then, the maiden had died and gone to the Asphodel fields many times and had been reincarnated and was lost in the teaming sea of humanity. There was nothing left to be done, except hope that Eros would get over his lost wife.

In order to spare the god of love the pain of loss, Hades allowed Aphrodite to bring back with her a measure of the waters of the Lethe from the deepest part of the spring that fed this river of the waters of forgetfulness. Perhaps Hades had hoped that the cool waters of the Lethe would banish even the memories of a god. From these waters, Aphrodite made a medicine which erased Eros' memories, especially his memories of Psyche. She had hoped that after taking the medicine, he would forget his pain and return to his old self. However, he grew even more morose and his physical condition became far worse, and he had no idea why he felt that way.

This was the end of the love story of Eros and Psyche, considered in classic human literature to be one of the greatest tragedies that was ever spawned by the Greek world.