Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, child sexual abuse, and death.

Psyche mentally prepares for the wedding and greets Hades and Persephone as they arrive. She dreads Aphrodite’s discovery of the marriage, and she is equally anxious about facing her own mother, but she knows that unlike Aphrodite, Demeter is protective and loving.

Persephone asks Psyche once more if she is truly dedicated to her marriage plan. Psyche gently reminds her that she trusted Persephone’s relationship with Hades and deserves the same consideration. Persephone tells Psyche that she looks like a “goddess” and reluctantly confesses that she has invited Demeter to the wedding. 

Eros enters, and Persephone is reluctant to leave Psyche with him, suggesting somewhat cuttingly that he has no idea what it is like to care about others. Psyche stops her, realizing, “If this were a real relationship, I would never let her talk to my partner like that” (155). Eros says that there is a room set up downstairs for the ceremony. When Psyche asks what else is wrong, he reluctantly explains that his mother has left him a voicemail about the wedding and has vowed to renew her plan for vengeance.