said was already assumed by his audience.
The epitome of his method in using these deities as object of satire is accomplished in the section subtitled "The Tale of the Old Woman." This is a retelling of the Psyche-Cupid-Venus myth - a romantic tale in its entirety - told with a comic twist here, an ironic observation there. Witness the human pique of the powerful goddess Venus as she jealously rages against Psyche, a beautiful mortal:
I the primal Mother of all living, I the elemental Source of energy, I the fostering Venus of the girdled earth - I am degraded to sharing my empire and honour with a mere wench. My name, engraved on the heavens, is defiled by the excrement of earth. I must forsooth be vaguely content with the remnants of another's worship and with the duties paid to a deputy. A girl that will one day die borrows the power of my name. It meant nothing then that the shepherd Paris, whose taste and integrity Love himself admitted, set me above the great goddesses as the Queen of Beauty. But this giglot whoever she may be shall not smugly usurp my dignities (106).
The Greek gods were always humanlike, but this layering-in of human pettiness with intimations
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