Which Greek myth does C.S. Lewis retell in his novel Till We Have Faces?

C.S. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche in Till We Have Faces. Published in 1956, the novel presents the ancient story through the perspective of Orual, the ruler of the fictional kingdom of Glome.

Lewis drew especially on the version of the myth found in Apuleius’s Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass. In the classical story, Psyche is forbidden to look at her mysterious husband, while Lewis transforms the material into a darker psychological and philosophical narrative about love, jealousy, identity, and the demands people place on the gods.

The novel is not a simple retelling with the original names preserved throughout. Psyche remains a central figure, but the narrator’s viewpoint, the kingdom of Glome, and the expanded moral argument are distinctive features of Lewis’s adaptation.