[2] The work received critical acclaim; Coventry Patmore expressing the opinion that Bridges's version would become the standard form of Apuleius myth.
[3] As Psyche - the youngest daughter of a petty Cretan king - grows into the full flower of womanhood, she becomes worshiped by the common people as the living apotheosis of Aphrodite.
Commanding her own son (Cupid) for her purpose: Aphrodite orders him to make the Princess Psyche fall in love with some ugly, worthless vagabond.
Arriving in Crete and seeing Psyche: Cupid himself falls helplessly in love with her, and resolves to marry her himself and protect her from his own mother's jealous ire.
Guerard points out that Bridges made embellishments the Apuleius myth to make the tale appear more lucid and easier for the reader to understand.