Psyche
An English word meaning the human mind or soul, derived from Psyche, the mortal woman whose love for Eros and trials among the gods became an allegory for the soul's journey
The Meaning of Psyche
The word "psyche" derives from the Greek ψυχή (psyche), meaning breath, life, or soul. In mythology, Psyche was a mortal princess of such extraordinary beauty that people worshipped her instead of Aphrodite. The jealous goddess sent her son Eros to make Psyche fall in love with something vile, but Eros himself fell in love with her. He visited her nightly in darkness, forbidding her to look upon him. When Psyche's sisters convinced her to light a lamp and see her lover, a drop of oil fell on Eros and he fled. Psyche wandered the earth searching for him and was eventually forced to complete impossible tasks set by Aphrodite: sorting a mountain of mixed grain, gathering golden wool from dangerous sheep, collecting water from the River Styx, and descending to the underworld to obtain beauty from Persephone. She completed each task with divine assistance and was eventually reunited with Eros and granted immortality by Zeus. The story, told by Apuleius, has been read as an allegory of the soul's purification through suffering. The Greek word gave English psychology, psychiatry, psyche, psychic, and psychosis.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
The entire field of psychology — from clinical therapy to neuroscience — takes its name from this mythological princess whose story was an allegory of the soul
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Psyche
💭 conceptThe breath-soul that animates and survives death
The Greek concept of the soul — originally meaning breath, it evolved to encompass mind, self, and the immortal essence.
Oedipus Complex
💭 conceptPsychoanalysis and psychology
A Freudian psychoanalytic concept describing a child's unconscious desire for the parent of the opposite sex, named after the mythological king who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother
Narcissistic Personality
💭 conceptPsychology and mythology
A psychological condition characterised by grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy, named after Narcissus, the beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection
Electra Complex
💭 conceptPsychoanalysis and psychology
A psychoanalytic concept proposed by Carl Jung describing a daughter's unconscious rivalry with her mother for her father's affection, named after the mythological princess who urged the murder of her mother
Elysian
💭 conceptLanguage and the afterlife
An English adjective meaning blissful, heavenly, or supremely happy, derived from the Elysian Fields, the paradise in the Greek underworld reserved for heroes and the virtuous
Metempsychosis
💭 conceptTransmigration of souls
Metempsychosis was the belief that souls transmigrate after death into new bodies — human or animal — central to Orphic and Pythagorean thought.
Narcissism
💭 conceptSelf-obsession, vanity, psychology
Excessive self-love or self-absorption, from the hunter Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection.
Nous
💭 conceptPhilosophy and Mind
The Greek concept of pure intellect or mind, the highest faculty of the soul and the organizing principle of the cosmos.
Eros and Psyche
💭 conceptNarrative
The love story between the god of desire and a mortal princess that became an allegory of the soul's journey
Lēthē
💭 conceptmythology, philosophy
Forgetfulness or oblivion — the river or force of forgetting in the underworld, and the philosophical problem of how the soul loses or retains its knowledge.
Catharsis
💭 conceptEmotional purification through art
Aristotle's concept that tragedy purifies the audience by arousing and then releasing pity and fear.
Stygian
💭 conceptLanguage and the underworld
An English adjective meaning extremely dark, gloomy, or hellish, derived from the River Styx, the boundary between the world of the living and the Greek underworld