Ugolino and His Sons

In July 1288, Archbishop Ruggieri imprisoned Ugolino, with his two sons and two (or three) grandsons in a tower in Pisa, known afterwards as Hunger; they probably died in March 1289.  When the boys see Ugolino chew his hands in rage they believe it is from hunger and plead with him to eat them. Exactly what happened in the tower has never really been known, but it wasn't long before rumors surfaced that, to save his own life, Count Ugolino had devoured the younger men as they died one by one.

The story is included in Dante's Inferno.

Jean–Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827–1875)

Psyche and her sisters

Psyche was one of three sisters.  All three were beautiful, but Psyche was the most beautiful.  Aphrodite was jealous of Psyche.  So she summoned her son, Eros, and told him to put a spell on Psyche.

Eros flew down and sprinkled the sleeping Psyche with a potion that would make men avoid her.  Accidentally, he pricked her with one of his arrows (which make someone fall in love instantly) and she startled awake.  Her beauty, in turn, startled Eros, and he accidentally pricked himself as well falling in love with Psyche. 

Sure enough, Psyche could find no husband.  An oracle said that there was a creature on the top of a mountain that would marry her.

She headed for the mountain and saw that her new home was a rich and beautiful palace.  Her new husband never permitted her to see him, but he proved to be a true and gentle lover.  He was, of course, Eros himself.

After some time, she grew lonely for her family, and asked to be allowed to have her sisters visit.  When they saw how beautiful Psyche's new home was, they grew jealous.  They went to her and told her not to forget that her husband was some kind of monster, and that, no doubt, he was only fattening her up in order to eat her.  They suggested that she hide a lantern and a knife near her bed, so that the next time he visited her, she could look to see if he was indeed a monster, and cut off his head.

the rest of the story...