While we are preparing for the end of the term I thought I would mention a story call Peau d'Ane or in English Donkey-Skin by Charles Perrault which I feel is readily relatable having read Apuleius now. Perrault was a 17th century writer who was both a politician, a writer or historic and literary topics and a writer of folktales.
It is an interesting take on a royal tale of intermarriage that has both a beautiful princess, though in this case she is running away from marriage, and a donkey. The wife of the King has died and made him promise to marry only if he finds a woman more beautiful and refined than herself. So after searching in vain for awhile he decides the only way to fulfill this oath and to remarry is to marry their daughter. She gives him a number of nearly impossible tasks to do in the hopes that he will fail and she will be free. He succeeds, despite the odds much like Psyche, and she if forced to run away in the skin of his prized donkey (which poops francs because well its 17th century France and that kind of stuff seems pretty common).
It is an interesting thought when looking at both the Cupid and Psyche episode and the overarching theme of a travelling donkey to get a French, and albeit rather incestuous and odd, version which has many of the same themes.
Apparently it is also a 1970 film by Demy which refers frequently to the Beauty and the Beast story for plot devices and imagery. It is interesting to see these two tales so closely connected within the same film!
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