Divine Intervention In The Golden Ass

The power of Gods and their divinity are used to intervene during multiple occasions in the Golden ass and Genesis. These acts are no simple feat when they are brought into the story, and build on the basis that something impossible to explain is happening. In the Golden Ass divine intervention is used as a punishment. “Venus, with her words, rousing his natural impudence and wildness to new heights, led him to the city and showed him Psyche in person (Golden Ass IV:29-31).” Cupid would do anything for his mother, and Venus used this to her advantage, and sent cupid on a terrible task, to give her fiery passion and love to the most ugly of men. Venus played on Cupids naturally childish behavior, because all she had to say was “by bond of maternal

Enraged by her betrayal “Well, know that I’ll produce a better son than you. You’ll feel the insult all the more when I adopt one of my slave boys, and grant him your wings and torches, bow and arrows, and all the rest of the gear I gave you (Golden Ass V:28-31).” In the midst of her rage she punishes Cupid, by stripping him of what makes him divine, and threatening to give all powerful gear, to a slave. He disregarded a godly, maternal order and for that Venus views him as nothing but a lowly slave. Cupid is not the only one punished for this act; Psyche is also met with the wrath of Venus. Once Psyche is found she is met with “fallen into my hands and a good thing too, now you’re in Death’s claws indeed, and you’ll pay the price for this endless defiance (Golden Ass VI:5-8).” Venus has no mercy for her, and punishes her with three tasks, that would only be possible with divine help. The first task to sort buttons, and she was met with a group of ants to aid her. The second task was to gather Golden Fleece, and she “was divinely inspired to prophesy thus (Golden Ass VI:11-13)” being told how and when she should gather this cloth. And finally the third task to gather a vial from the sacred fountain, which Jupiter helped her. Some sort of divine intervention guided all these accounts, because without that she would have been

God had given the task to simply not eat from the tree, because it would kill their innocence, giving them the knowledge of good and evil. However, disregarding the warning they ate it and god struck them down, first with the serpent “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life (Genesis 3:14).” Giving a direct command god smites the serpent to be even lowlier than cattle. Cattle being dumb creature are now given an animal that they can be smarter than. The serpent is also restricted to only the ground, squirming and eating from the dust, which is where life returns in