Which mythological pair inspired C.S. Lewis’s 1956 novel Till We Have Faces?

Cupid and Psyche inspired C.S. Lewis’s 1956 novel Till We Have Faces.

The novel retells the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of Psyche’s older sister, here called Orual. Lewis places the story in the fictional kingdom of Glome, where questions about love, jealousy, identity, sacrifice, and divine silence shape the narrative.

The title comes from the novel’s concern with hidden motives and the need to become fully known. Unlike a straightforward retelling, the book gives substantial psychological depth to its narrator and treats the myth as a framework for exploring human experience.

Till We Have Faces was Lewis’s last work of fiction. It was published in 1956, the same year he married Joy Davidman in a civil ceremony. Readers sometimes classify it simply as a children’s myth retelling, but its tone and themes are aimed primarily at adults.