Referencing Wikipedia

Psyche

In Greek mythology Psyche ("soul" or "butterfly") was the human bride of Eros, the god of love. Before she is allowed to marry Eros she is forced to undergo many difficult ordeals. Apuleius tells the story of Eros and Psyche in his Metamorphoses.

Eros' mother, Aphrodite, was jealous of the beauty of Psyche. She asked Eros to use his golden arrows to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest man on earth.

Psyche – Wikipedia

That is a quote & a reference to athe opening of the item on Psyche in Wikipedia reference in 2004, saved for posterity (hopefully) in the web.archive.org. Using a slightly different structure (as there are now may more items with the title Psyche) this page has dramatically evolved in 2006, and it is different. Here is the current version (if you are reading my blog on Friday, 14 April, 2006.) of the equivalent passage

Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche

The goddess Venus, jealous of the outstandingly beautiful mortal Psyche, asked her son Cupid to cause Psyche to fall in love with the vilest wretch alive. Cupid agreed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche

I think there is marked improvement in consistency & clarity, a tribute to the spirit of Wikipedia & the people who serve her! But one thing is clear, that if I wanted to reference a passage or refer to wikipedia items in my writing I'd better do that using http://web.archive.org as that will ensure we are still looking at the same page.

I could not find any other information about how to reference Wikipedia, surely academic institutions have policy on this?  Using the Web Archive seems an excellent solution.

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