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The Golden Ass or, the Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass)

by Apuleius, William Adlington, Timothy Wutrich (Introduction)

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 4,070 ratings · 251 reviews

The Golden Ass or, the Metamorphoses holds a unique place in world literature as the only complete Latin novel to survive from antiquity. An unusually diverse and original piece of prose, it is by turns funny, dramatic, touching, erotic, and exciting.

Telling the story from the perspective of a young man, Lucius, the second century AD work begins with his travels to Thessal

...more

Paperback, 252 pages

Published June 17th 2004 by Barnes and Noble (first published 160)

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Aug 20, 2012 Nathan "N.R." Gaddis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Asses

Recommended to Nathan "N.R." by: Mikhail M. Bakhtin

Shelves: classic-literature, latin

"What's this we have to put up with now? An ass giving us a philosophy lecture?" Book 10, chapter 33.

The genre of the novel sprung full-formed out of Apuleius’s . . . Ass. The Golden Ass is one of those infamous contenders for the title of First Novel along with such masters as Rabelais, Cervantes, Richardson (come on, people! really?) and Madame Murasaki. It is the only surviving complete exemplar of the Roman novel. Give it some credit. It’s all there. Then there is also Petronius’s work whose...more "What's this we have to put up with now? An ass giving us a philosophy lecture?" Book 10, chapter 33.

The genre of the novel sprung full-formed out of Apuleius’s . . . Ass. The Golden Ass is one of those infamous contenders for the title of First Novel along with such masters as Rabelais, Cervantes, Richardson (come on, people! really?) and Madame Murasaki. It is the only surviving complete exemplar of the Roman novel. Give it some credit. It’s all there. Then there is also Petronius’s work whose incomplete status makes me weep. Do we learn something about the novel when its earliest instantiations are comic and satiric?

Apuleius is oddly very contemporary. Perhaps this impression is due to my inordinate immersion in the postmodern aesthetic and its strategy of replenishing the possibilities contained within the genre of the novel by returning to original and ancient sources of fictioning. It might be due to my having recently read the Greek stories in John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse. Apuleius’ Ass may have been appended to that short collection and one wouldn’t have known the difference. The strategies of Barth’s fictions are here--the coast-line measurement problem (no end to the possible, infinitely more precise delineation of that shoreline); the relatedly Mandelbrot Set with its equally infinitely recursive possibilities; the arabesque; the frame-tale (why not slip in another fantastical story while we’re having lunch along the road?); the too clever by half first-person narrator; the consciousness of the fact that one is telling a story and the humility of perhaps not always being up to the task (that is, at the very beginning, the novel was always already meta-fictional). In a similar manner, Herodotus felt like a contemporary, having as I had at that time just recently read Infinite Jest. These books make our contemporary realist literature look pretty futzy.

Plot? Well, yes, there is a plot. And it’s as self-indulgent as a donkey in a kitchen, munching on the meats and the sauces and the croissants and the chocolates. It’s also simple. In part it’s a road story framing a series of other stories, roughly 18 of these, perhaps, depending on your count. What’s a donkey to do but make the most of those long ears and listen in on his various masters telling this and that story? Overhearing those stories is a hell of a lot more pleasant than undergoing the kind of life in store for a donkey, what with all the whippings and beatings and death threats and threats of castration--well, it’s just awful! Fortunately, Lucius has a memory to outstrip any donkey’s memory and does us the favor of relaying to us all of these marvelous little morsels. Centrally located is the story of Psyche and Cupid, which is marvelously inserted without much ado about justifying its existence. But what else is a novel but an excuse to tell stories? And then add a few more stories in there? And then just a few more? And let me tell you the most wretched story which took place in this very household. . .

I read the recent translation from Sarah Ruden who writes a delectably prancing contemporary English. Apuleius’s fancifully dancing Latin is quickly apparent. His skilled linguistic performance makes The Ass a candidate for repeated translation. His little novel is a trove of hapax legomena which are words appearing only a single time within all of the extant Latin corpus. That situation must be either hair-pullingly frustrating for a translator or an opportunity to let the language create itself, giving onto multiple possible renderings. I will give highest praise for the work which Ruden has created and simultaneously insist on Apuleius’s Latin providing a platform for additional Englishings. Of the reading of the Ass there is surely no end.

“But perhaps, persnickety reader, you take issue with my narration, objecting in these terms: ‘All right, you little smart-ass, the mill’s walls were your restrictive boundaries. How could you know, as you claim to, what the women did in private?’ Learn, then, how a curious human being in the form of a pack animal found out about every act directed toward the destruction of my friend the baker.” Book 9, chapter 30.(less)

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Jan 21, 2013 Mala rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-ever-enduring-appeal

Picked it up on a whim & what a rollicking ride it turned out to be!
It could very well be a tale told by the granny-full of magic & adventure (with all the salacious bits cut out ofcourse,but that would make it a very short tale!).

A parable,a road trip,a romance, with diversions,tales within tales,satire,containing tragedies bordering on the grotesque & farcical,bawdy comedy ,sexual escapades & deviance of various sorts- ancient literature was so rich,no wonder our literary great...more Picked it up on a whim & what a rollicking ride it turned out to be!
It could very well be a tale told by the granny-full of magic & adventure (with all the salacious bits cut out ofcourse,but that would make it a very short tale!).

A parable,a road trip,a romance, with diversions,tales within tales,satire,containing tragedies bordering on the grotesque & farcical,bawdy comedy ,sexual escapades & deviance of various sorts- ancient literature was so rich,no wonder our literary greats turned to these texts for inspiration!

Written in the 2nd century AD,the only complete Latin novel to survive,The Golden Ass' one singular feature is its contemporaneity- the book feels so modern! Whether its in the tale or its narration or its translation- is hard to say. The meta aspect,moral lawlessness & subsequent spiritual regeneration or metamorphosis are likely to strike a chord- the central placement in the narrative of the story of Cupid and Psyche is specially relevant in this regard as it's a commentary on the ordeal & final deliverance of the hero. It also presents a sharp contrast on the baser & higher forms of love & thus shows the Platonic influence of Apuleinus.
The book will appeal to the philosophers ( with its rich grounding in philosophical thoughts & classical myths & legends) & the religious minded.
There is entertainment as well as edification here. Do give it a try.

Here's a passage I liked:

"Now, you sweepings of humanity, you beasts of the bar, you gowned vultures, do you wonder that nowadays all judges and juries put their verdicts up for sale, when in the very dawn of time, in a suit between gods and men, the course of justice was perverted by corruption and subornation? When a judge chosen by the wisdom of great Jupiter, a rustic shepherd-boy, sold the first judicial decision in history to gratify his lust and destroyed his whole race into the bargain? Yes, and there was that later case between the two famous Greek generals, when the wise and learned Palamedes was falsely accused of treason and condemned to death and Ulysses was preferred to Ajax, greatest and most valiant of warriors. And what about that verdict that was returned by the Athenians, those acute lawgivers with their encyclopedic learning? An old man of godlike understanding, whom the Delphic oracle had pronounced the wisest of all human beings, ensnared by the malignant envy of a vile faction on the charge of corrupting the young, whom he had always curbed and restrained, was put to death by the deadly juice of a poisonous weed, leaving his fellow countrymen bearing the stigma of perpetual shame -- when now, all those years later, distinguished philosophers embrace his doctrines as holy writ and in their devoted pursuit of happiness swear by his name. But I have allowed myself to be carried away by my indignation, and my readers may be objecting -- 'Do we now have to put up with an ass playing the philosopher?' So I will come back to where I digressed in my story." Book 10.(less)

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Apr 09, 2012 Bill Kerwin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: proto-novels, picaresque, fantasy, weird-fiction

If you remember the old toga movies from the '50's--the ones where all the Romans are played by Brits and all the Jews and Christians by Americans--then I am sure you also remember those orgiastic banquet sequences crammed with sweaty wrestlers, kinky dancers, amphora after amphora overflowing with wine, and culinary surprises like roast oxen stuffed with pheasants (the pheasants in turn stuffed with oysters), and golden salvers heaped high with hummingbird tongues.

"The Golden Ass" is a lot like...more

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May 17, 2009 Pierce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

This is the only Roman novel to survive in its entirety, and I for one wish more of them had made it. The Golden Ass is one of very few books I've read more than once.

Lucius (a character very loosely based on the author) is a young citizen growing up in a Roman provincial town in Greece. After completing his studies in Rome, Lucius decides to go on a trip through Boiotea, the region around Thebes. (Thebes was, in the ancient world, a literary punching bag that became almost synonymous with nefar...more This is the only Roman novel to survive in its entirety, and I for one wish more of them had made it. The Golden Ass is one of very few books I've read more than once.

Lucius (a character very loosely based on the author) is a young citizen growing up in a Roman provincial town in Greece. After completing his studies in Rome, Lucius decides to go on a trip through Boiotea, the region around Thebes. (Thebes was, in the ancient world, a literary punching bag that became almost synonymous with nefarious magic and divine mischief, having been the setting for most of the weirder classical Athenian tragedies, such as the exploits of incestuous Oedipus and his messed up kids).

Apuleius provides a uniquely Roman perspective on what had been traditionally Greek themes of divine retribution and magic by saturating his tale with the kind of X-rated sexual, fecal, and slapstick nonsense that Roman Senators and American teens seem to love. "Lucius'" sexual appetite and relentless curiosity find a way to change the young Roman citizen into a ne'er-do-well donkey whose travels become significantly more fun because of his new perspective.

The tone of The Golden Ass is much like a report of findings and observations during an exploratory journey to a new world, but the majority of the book is composed of vignettes telling the stories of countless people meeting there demise under hilarious circumstances. The book can be loosely labeled a comedy of errors, but more accurately features several comedies with myriad errors that in some way affect a hapless donkey. How could that not be fun?

The distribution of fun tales is very similar to but less structured than in the later Canterbury Tales. The difference is perhaps a product of TGA having be written in prose, but also because Apuleius performs the doubly-difficult duty of developing (whoa...alliterative much?) small tales capable of standing on their own while also starting, developing, and completing a much larger story and still having everything work together seamlessly. Maybe Chaucer felt he had to be fancy and write a poem instead because his pretense for sticking all his tales together was, when you think about it, kind of lame. ("I'm going to church. You are, too? Yay! Let's tell stories.")

TGA is also a valuable first-hand (well, sort of first-hand) account of Imperial Roman provincial life. Close examinations will reveal a complicated system of Roman magistracies and gruff centurions interwoven with a much older and highly religious Greek culture that still features (ostensibly) "Athenian" trial courts and what seem to be a few localized monarchies. The author and his homonymic narrator often rely on common cultural features such as religion to provide a setting and explanations, and to move a very ambitious story along. However, Apuleius' Greco-Roman theology becomes confusing at times (wait...Cupid is Venus' lover? ew.) and for some reason Egyptian deities play a much more prominent role in Apuleius' story, and Apuleius presents them as being greater than and/or composed of all their Olympian counterparts. Yeah...I dunno.

Disclaimer: The Golden Ass is not a children's book. I don't think the MPAA has a rating high enough for some of this stuff. But, hey, the classical world wasn't as easily offended by vulgarity. And, since we still read Aristophanes and Catullus today, clearly we aren't either, so just calm down and allow yourself to enjoy old literature. This book is worth the time. (less)

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Mar 23, 2012 Hend rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, african-literature, favorite-novels, unique-novels

رواية كلاسيكية رائعة وشيقة ممتعة الى اقصى درجة تشعر و كانك تقرا الف ليلة وليلة اليونانية
هو عمل رائع , استثنائى ,آسر , تحفة فنية
مسلي في أي وقت ولأي ثقافة
فهو كتاب ترفيهى ويقدم نقد لاذع للمجتمع فى ذلك الوقت

اجمل ما فى الرواية هو قصة حب كيوبيد وبسايكي, أحب كيوبيد بسايكي الفتاة الجميلة حبا شديد ولكنه لم يكن يريد أن تعلم هي بحبه لها بسبب خوفه من غضب أمه فأمر والدها أن يذهب بها إلى جزيرة بعيدةو على اعلى صخرةعالية فى الجبل ، يتخلى عن ابنته و اخبره أنها هناك ستتزوج ,و قال لها أنها ستتزوج شخص لن يظهر ل...more

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Oct 20, 2009 مهرة,,Mohra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

لم استطع ان ابعد عن خاطري انها اول رواية في التاريخ طوال فترة قراءتي لها..
حقيقة ..اعجبتني القدرة التصويرية الرائعة للمؤلف..والدقة في تحليل المشاعر الإنسانية..كنت اعتقد بأن علم الذكاء العاطفي علم جديد..وان من سبقونا لم يكونوا على معرفة عميقة بعالم العواطف الإنسانية بهذة الدقة..
إضافة إلى وضع احضارة الرومانية في ذك الوقت..كانت هناك المدارس العسكرية والمدارس التعليمية..إضافة إلى تطورهم في الطب وغير ذلك..كانت لديهم مهرجانات وكرنافالات تقام في الشوراع..حقيقة انبهرت بما استنتجته من يوميات البطل..
أما ال...more

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Aug 27, 2007 Luis Salas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Apuleius is eerily familiar to a modern eye. His seamless blending of suggested mystery cults, Platonic references, and frolicking humor and sexuality make The Golden Ass an entertainment worth repeating. Whether or not the reader is intent on making a sustained foray into the issue of book 11 and treats the book as a religio-philosophical piece or reads it just as a romp through Latin humor and lustiness bears little weight on the ultimate pleasure of the novel as a good read.

Not so much the Fl...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read the E.J. Kenney translation, the current version in Penguin. The second-century story of one Lucius, who through a miss-cast spell becomes an ass and then suffers through 10 books of comic misfortune, including but not limited to vicious robbers, wily millers, lecherous wives, lecherous apprentices, stupid husbands, corrupt judges, horrifying witches, ghosts, the undead, and beautiful girls. Finally in book eleven he suddenly (and as far as I can tell) truly and sincerely has a vision of...more

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Feb 18, 2012 ميّ أحمد rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات

...
كما يقال هذه الرواية هي أول رواية مكتملة في تاريخ الإنسانية وهي نفسها التي قبعت في مكتبتي لأعوام طوال ربما لولا أنه تم اختيارها مادة للقراءة في نادي الرواية على تويتر لما خطرت في بالي لعل المشكلة كانت في العنوان أو ربما هو الغلاف وكونها أول رواية توقعت صعوبة كبيرة في إجتيازها وفي عملية هضمها كل ذلك صرفني بعيدا عنها
توقعت إنها لن ترضيني !

لكن الحمد لله إن كل توقعاتي خابت وجاءت الرواية في منتهى السلاسة والمتعة هذه الرواية مسلية من الدرجة الأولى كما قلت إنها الرواية التي تصلح للقراءة قبل النوم ت...more

...
كما يقال هذه الرواية هي أول رواية مكتملة في تاريخ الإنسانية وهي نفسها التي قبعت في مكتبتي لأعوام طوال ربما لولا أنه تم اختيارها مادة للقراءة في نادي الرواية على تويتر لما خطرت في بالي لعل المشكلة كانت في العنوان أو ربما هو الغلاف وكونها أول رواية توقعت صعوبة كبيرة في إجتيازها وفي عملية هضمها كل ذلك صرفني بعيدا عنها
توقعت إنها لن ترضيني !

لكن الحمد لله إن كل توقعاتي خابت وجاءت الرواية في منتهى السلاسة والمتعة هذه الرواية مسلية من الدرجة الأولى كما قلت إنها الرواية التي تصلح للقراءة قبل النوم تنسى كل همومك وتضحك من مصير بطل الرواية

تذكرت المثل الذي يقول الفضول قتل القطة !
وصاحبنا لم يقتله الفضول إنما حوله لحمار غير إن هذا الحمار يختلف عن بقية الحمير فمازال يفكر بعقل إنسان لكن لم يمنعه ذلك من تلقى الصفعة تلو الأخرى لكي ينجو بحياته وهكذا في أسلوب ملىء بالسخرية والطرافة والنقد الذي طال حتى الآلهة يتعرض بطلنا إلى
الكثير من المغامرات والكثير من الحكايات المسلية التي تنتقل من فم لآخر تسرد كحكايات ألف ليلة وكقصص علي بابا أو دليلة والزيبق هذه الحكايات المليئة بالسحر والعواطف النبيلة ، البطولات والخيانات حكايات المجرمين وحكايات الآلهة والتي لا تخلو من فلسفة
تنتهي حين يعود الحمار إلى هيئته الأصلية برعاية الإلهه إيزيس وأسرارها المقدسة

من اللافت للنظر أن يعتقد أهل ذلك الزمان على الرغم من تعدد آلهتهم بأن الدين هو المخلّص ويأتي الدعاء من قلب مخلص كحل لقضية ذلك التحول الذي جاء نتيجة للفضول الإنساني المبالغ به كما إنني لاحظت ما تفعله الأحلام في تلك الحكايات فهي تأتي لتفك لغز جريمة أو تخبر خبرا عن خيانة ويبدو أن هناك إيمان شديدا بالمادة التي تأتي من الحلم .. لم ينتصر دائما الخير في قصص لوكيوس على لسان تلك الشخصيات الحكائية لكن مع ذلك لا يترك الشرير حتى ينال جزاءه

كان وقتا ممتعا ونلتُ حظي من التسلية والحق إنني وددت لو لم ينتهي هذا الكتاب لشدة ما أمتعتني تلك الحكايات(less)

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Mar 16, 2012 Abeer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

لسوء الحظ أن نسختي الإلكترونية توقفت عند الصحفة 305
وعليّ أن أبحث مجددًا عن نسخة كاملة،،

على أية حال، الكتاب غاية في الظرافة ومسلٍّ جدًا، وقد جاء على لسان المتكلم لوقيوس الذي يدفعه فضوله بتهور ليجرب أمرًا لم يفكر ولو للحظة بعاقبته، حيث انقلب إلى حمار بعد أن كان إنسانًا، حمار تعيس بعقل وروح إنسان
يتنقل بين ملّاك مختلفين يحاول أن يحافظ على حياته بينهم ويتلصص على حكاياتهم ويحاول المساهمة كثيرًا في قلب الأحداث مدفوعًا بضميره الإنساني!

أتمنى حقًا أن تعيش كل حمير هذا العالم ببلادة وأمان.

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Dec 31, 2011 Hend Aboul Gada rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

رواية جميلة جدااااااااا
طول ما انا بقراها وفكرة انها
تعتبر اول رواية فى دماغى

عجبنى الانتقال من قصة لاخرى
تشبه الف ليلة وليلة فى حاجات كتير
العبيد والاسياد والخيانة الزوجية
وحب العفاريت والالهة للانس بجد نحفة

يعيبها بسس الوصف الطويل شوية
بس فكرتها جميلة وبتبين ميل الانسان الفطرى للدين
وانه هو سبب خلاصه من كل الالام

من اجمل المقولات:
لست فضوليا وانما اود معرفة ما تخوضان فيه كله او اكبر قدر منه

هب هاتين العينين المغمضتين الى الابد نعمة الشمس برهة

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Dec 23, 2009 Nicholas Whyte added it · review of another edition

"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1225331.html[return][return]I knew nothing about this book other than that it was very popular among the dead people whose libraries are catalogued on LibraryThing (including C.S. Lewis, Lawrence Durrell, T. E. Lawrence, William Faulkner, W.B. Yeats, Robert E. Howard, and Danilo Kia�). It turns out to be a very entertaining story of one Lucius, who witnesses (or hears about, or participates in) various fantastic escapades, most of them involving sex, mostly after h...more

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Dec 30, 2012 اندروماخي rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

كتاب ظريف جدا
فكرة "حلوة" وممتعة
رواية تعود للثقافة الامازيغية الى نيوميديا "الجزائر" وهي اول رواية بالتاريخ
*******************************

رواية الحمار الذهبي ذات طابع ملحمي وفانتازي غريب، حيث تعتمد على فكرة المسخ وتحويل الكائن البشري الى حيوانات أو أشياء على غرار الإبداعات اليونانية. إذ يتحول لوكسيوس في هذه الرواية إلى حمار بسبب خطأ حبيبته فوتيس التي كان يحبها لوكيوس كثيرا حينما ناولته مادة دهنية هي ملك سيدتها بامفيلا زوجة ميلون التي تمارس السحر في غرفتها السرية، وبهذه المادة يتحول الكائن البشري...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in October 2001.

Lucius Apuleius' tale of a man transformed into an ass and his adventures in that shape has long been popular as an amusing, slightly bawdy story. Parts of it appear in The Decameron and it is, I suspect, one of the inspirations behind the story of Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Lucius is a young nobleman who travels to the Greek town of Hypata, well known for its witches. There, a mistaken application of a salve turns him into an ass, a...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Mel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: translation, 2nd-century-lit, latin

I thought this book was ok. I thought it started quite well, and enjoyed the first few stories. I enjoyed all the descriptions of witchcraft and really liked the setting of the city full of witches. It remineded me an awful lot of Xena (but unfortunately with less lesbian subtext). I started to loose interest with the story of Cupid and Psyche. Instead of being about interesting and different popular superstition it seemed to turn into a story very much like any other in Roman mythology. (Which...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Bruce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel was written in Latin late in the second century CE. Apuleius was born in north Africa, in Algeria, traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean, including Athens and Rome, and lived most of his life in Carthage. He was a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations cannot provide a starker contrast with The Golden Ass. This classic work, far different from the works of history, tragic drama, and philosophy that we usually associate with the Classical world, is more in the tradit...more This novel was written in Latin late in the second century CE. Apuleius was born in north Africa, in Algeria, traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean, including Athens and Rome, and lived most of his life in Carthage. He was a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations cannot provide a starker contrast with The Golden Ass. This classic work, far different from the works of history, tragic drama, and philosophy that we usually associate with the Classical world, is more in the tradition of the comic dramatists. And it foreshadows later works by Boccaccio, Rabelais, Cervantes, and Chaucer, to name only a few.

This is the story of the young man Lucius, insatiably curious, especially about magic. In the course of his bawdy and comic adventures, he tries to turn himself into a bird using magic spells and instead ends up an ass. Many adventures ensue, most resulting in his own misery. In the middle of the text, Apuleius interpolates the story of Cupid and Psyche, a tale that functions as the keystone for the entire work. On one level this is an amusing divertissement, but one wonders if Apuleius had a more serious intent. Is this a commentary on human hubris, on our endless desire to understand and explain the mystery of existence, on our apparent need to control fate, a need that again and again has unforeseen consequences and leads to suffering and disillusionment? And perhaps this is the point of the entire novel, in addition to its comic content and pure entertainment value.

From this point on misadventure follows misadventure, with Lucius the Ass repeatedly finding himself in desperate circumstances with brief rescues occurring at critical moments. Some of the episodes are familiar, such as a variant on the Phaedra theme from Greek tragedy; some are also picked up and elaborated by subsequent authors. Able to think but not to speak, Lucius is incapable of appealing to human pity and making his situation known. He is fully aware of his predicament and does not pretend that everything will turn out well (unlike Candide and Pangloss in Voltaire’s novel), and he perpetually is unable to find and eat roses, the only means by which to reverse the spell he is under.

The reader with a modicum of familiarity with Classical mythology and with a knowledge of Ovid’s writings will find his enjoyment of this present work much enhanced, since Apuleius abundantly sprinkles classical allusions throughout his text. Indeed, the dénouement involves Lucius’ appeal to “the goddess” in whatever form she might take to restore his lost humanity. The Queen of the Gods who answers his prayers is the synthesis of all the goddesses, Isis, revealing the extent to which Egypt’s influence had permeated the Mediterranean region by the time this work was written. Of course, religious syncretism was still much at work in this generally polytheistic culture, despite the recent appearance of Christianity. At any rate, the final book of Apuleius’ work describes the cultic rituals related to the worship of Isis and describes how Lucius ultimately becomes one of her priests. It must be admitted that this ending comes with a somewhat awkward shift in tone and a sense of anticlimax.

This is an interesting and entertaining work, easy to read and filled with adventure and humor. It provides insight into the culture and society of its time and place, and it is also of interest in terms of its theme and genre that link classical themes and writings to subsequent literature.
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Feb 01, 2012 Shai-Hulud rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: roman-literature, funny, trippy

O Asno de Ouro, para quem não sabe, é o único "romance", ou como quer que se queira chamar uma ficção em prosa, a ter sobrevivido inteiro da época do Império Romano.

Foi escrito por um Lucius Apuleio, no segundo século depois de Cristo, e lida com as aventuras e problemas enfrentados pelo protagonista, também de nome Lucius, que, em certo momento da história, se vê transformado em um asno.

Como é comum em muitos textos antigos, a história principal é interrompida para a narrativa de diversos peque...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Mary Overton added it · review of another edition

The eternally true story of how man makes an ass of himself.
Our hero, Lucius, is terminally curious about the magic arts. Photis, his lover, describes the work shop of her mistress, Pamphile, a powerful witch:
"On the far side of the house there is an area which is uncovered and exposed to the elements. It commands every view on the eastern side, as well as those in other directions. So it is especially convenient for those magical arts of hers, and she practises them there in secret. First of al...more The eternally true story of how man makes an ass of himself.
Our hero, Lucius, is terminally curious about the magic arts. Photis, his lover, describes the work shop of her mistress, Pamphile, a powerful witch:
"On the far side of the house there is an area which is uncovered and exposed to the elements. It commands every view on the eastern side, as well as those in other directions. So it is especially convenient for those magical arts of hers, and she practises them there in secret. First of all she fitted out her infernal laboratory with the usual supplies, including every kind of aromatic plant, metal strips inscribed with unintelligible letters, the surviving remains of ill-omened birds, and a fairly large collection of corpses' limbs, earlier mourned over by relatives and in some cases even buried. Noses and fingers were in a heap in one place, and in another, nails from the gibbet to which there still clung flesh from the men hanged there. In yet another place the blood of slaughtered men was kept, and also gnawed skulls, torn from the fangs of wild beasts."
Kindle location 1131-39

Lucius begs:
"Let me watch your mistress when she sets in train some application of her supernatural art. Let me see her when she summons the gods, or at any rate when she changes her shape. I am all agog to witness magic from close up."
1147-50

Photis refuses. But she does bring to Lucius a magic ointment used by Pamphile to turn herself into an owl. Unfortunately, unknown to Photis, she has purloined the wrong box. Lucius is ecstatic.
"First I hugged and kissed [the box], and prayed that it would bring me happy flying hours. Then I hastily tore off all my clothes, dipped my hands eagerly into the box, drew out a good quantity of the ointment, and rubbed all my limbs with it. I then flapped my arms up and down, imitating the movements of a bird. But no down and no sign of feathers appeared. Instead, the hair on my body was becoming coarse bristles, and my tender skin was hardening into hide. There were no longer five fingers at the extremities of my hands, for each was compressed into one hoof. From the base of my spine protruded an enormous tail. My face became misshapen, my mouth widened, my nostrils flared open, my lips became pendulous, and my ears huge and bristly. The sole consolation I could see in this wretched transformation was the swelling of my penis - though now I could not embrace Photis.... [I] came to the realization that I was not a bird but an ass."
1183-91(less)

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Aug 25, 2011 Meg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ancient-texts-comedy

This is one of my favorite books. I read it for a class on the origins of the cult of the Virgin Mary. As a graduate student in the History of Art, I was using this class to better understand the early Christian representations of the Virgin (pre 8th century).

The professor had placed it on reserve so I had to read it within the library. I never expected to be able to read it in one sitting, but once I started the book I just could not put it down. I had to move to a corner where there were no s...more This is one of my favorite books. I read it for a class on the origins of the cult of the Virgin Mary. As a graduate student in the History of Art, I was using this class to better understand the early Christian representations of the Virgin (pre 8th century).

The professor had placed it on reserve so I had to read it within the library. I never expected to be able to read it in one sitting, but once I started the book I just could not put it down. I had to move to a corner where there were no students because I could not help myself from laughing out loud quite frequently. No one prepared me for this delightful, sideways walk on the wild side of the Roman Mediterranean in the 2nd century.

Apuleius was a devout worshiper of Isis. For the class, we were instructed to pay close attention to the attributes of Isis, since Mary would eventually take on these same abilities. After all, Isis was the Egyptian mother goddess whose son, Horus, died and was reborn (only his birth/death cycle happens every year -- corresponding with the seasonal flooding of the Nile, if I remember correctly), so it was only logical that Mary would become her in many ways.

Jesus took on the many attributes associated with Mithra (his feast day being Dec. 25th for one), as well as Horus, Osiris and even a little bit from Apollo too. Mary's cult developed much later (somewhere in the 6th century). As Christianity spread across the globe, it was famous for learning about the local deities, and if they were not able to directly convert the population, the priests would in effect say "that god you are worshiping is just like saint so & so, and if you pray to him to intercede for you to Jesus & God the Father, your prayers will be answered". This type of absorption/conversion by taking a local deity and transforming it into a saint is responsible for why it is very difficult to trace the original roots of some of the early saints to an actual person. Yes, there were actual people who were martyrs, and some of them became saints that developed into cults, but there is a large group of early saints who have conflicting origin stories, and therefor many religious historians doubt they were actual people but were created to absorb, and transform the local deities into a saint to Christianize the area.

At the time this book was written, the Isis cult was one of the major faiths, if not the most popular throughout the Mediterranean. In fact, as an art historian, The familiar mother & infant poses of Mary and Jesus that were so popular during the Middle Ages, were direct copies of the poses used to depict Isis and Horus together.

The professor also told us to notice Apuleius' treatment of the other popular religions of his day, but especially the degrading way he portrayed a female worshiper of Jesus Christ.

Apuleius' raunchy romp is meant to be absurd, but also shows great truths of the Roman world, as well as prejudices and stereotypes from the perspective of a worshiper of Isis. This is why the ending is not out of joint from the rest of the book -- Lucius has struggled with his faith, has in essence gone through the trials of Job, and has prevailed and been rewarded.

As others have mentioned, this book was known throughout the centuries to the well educated and clearly influenced The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, some of Shakespeare's Comedies, and even Dante's Divine Comedy. The Golden Ass needs to return to the required reading list for a complete education. I believe that a critical reading of this book cannot help but expand the reader's mind and general world perspective; and because of all the farcical sexual encounters, the process will be a fun one. Sadly, this country's extreme conservative temperature will not tolerate returning this book to its rightful place of required reading until perhaps at the University level (and some would not even have it there, probably wishing to burn it -- especially for the way Apuleius portrays the Christian woman).

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Sep 08, 2010 Faith Justice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

A real delight! I wish I could read the original in Latin, but Graves does a masterful job of giving us the story with great detail, but plain English. The introduction by Graves goes a long way to help appreciate the whole.

The original author Lucius Apuleius, according to Graves, was "a rich and well-connected young man born at Madaura, a Roman colony in the interior of Morocco, early in the second century A.D.; his father had been a duumvir, or provincial magistrate, who on his death left his...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arts-and-historical

The Golden Ass by Apuleius is a unique, entertaining, and thoroughly readable Latin novel - the only work of fiction in Latin to have survived in entirety from antiquity. It tells the story of the hero Lucius, whose curiosity and fascination for sex and magic results in his transformation into an ass. After suffering a series of trials and humiliations, he is ultimately transformed back into human shape by the kindness of the Goddess Isis. Simultaneously a blend of romantic adventure, fable, and...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Hend rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, novels, african-literature, mythology, fantasy

a masterpiece ,so interesting and entertaining as a read. for beneath the humorous and the sharp ironies lay a religious and philosophical thoughtful mind.
Amusing tales within tales, recollections of characters of various misadventures and misfortunes ....
Lucius A wandering spirit Suffering in his heedless traveling over the world in order to work out his salvation.

Interesting how magic plays a prominent role in the everyday life.

His deep love of life with his eager and curiosity , and mocking...more

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Jun 28, 2012 umberto rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics

Reading "The Golden Ass" translated from Latin by Robert Graves is all right if you don't mind various episodes related to 'the God' or 'the Goddess', for instance, as mentioned in the last chapter. For instance:

"At length the Goddess advised me to return home. ... (p. 288)" or

... "The God added that under his divine care this man would achieve fame in a learned profession and that Asinius himself would be richly rewarded for his trouble." (p. 290)

It seems vague to me since, I think, it's writte...more

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Nov 28, 2009 Mike Staten rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-picaresque, period-classic-civ, author-other-europe, 2009

I can't believe I've never read this before. I can't believe this book was never a part of any of the numerous classes I took in literature. I feel robbed.

I've just finished it and I've immediately started re-reading it. There's too much there to really get it all with one read. Some of the anecdotes, situations, and images it creates are entertaining enough that I was sometimes distracted from the larger whole. I also feel that I'm going to need to reread a lot of 16th and 17th century stuff to...more

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Jan 27, 2012 Shenica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

So I had to read this book for my Latin poetry course, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have read it by myself anyways.

The basis of this story is that a man named Lucius goes on a journey away from home and ends up in a town called Hypata where he stays with a man named Milo and his wife Pamphile (who turns out to be a lustful witch). Lucius becomes curious about witchcraft and out of a certain turn of events he manages to change himself into an ass. And as an ass he goes on a series of wan...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Ensiform rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, latin

Translated by Jack Lindsay. An episodic picaresque novel; Lucius, a young Roman, is accidentally transformed into an ass and undergoes many trials and tribulations (being sold, stolen, nearly killed by robbers) before finally returning to his human form and, in the final chapter, becoming a priest of Isis. The book contains many digressions into travelers’ tales Lucius hears, including a long version of Cupid and Psyche.

Call me a Philistine, but I wasn’t overly impressed with this classic. It ce...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Nick Perez rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Looking back upon this read, it's been a long time since I have had this drastic of a switch in which one moment I am completely immersed in a story and the next I could care less. I felt engaged up until the point in which Luscious is turned into an ass, which of course happens somewhat quickly, since his life after transformation is the bulk of the piece. Rather than focusing on all of the adventures that he goes on as a donkey, Apuleius instead introduces those met on the journy and jumps aro...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Gijs rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: antiquity, fiction, latin, novels, humor, myths-and-legends, fairy-tales

Uitgebreid in Griekenland spelend avonturenverhaal over de nieuwsgierige losbol Lucius die zichzelf per ongeluk in een ezel verandert en zo vele avonturen beleeft, totdat hij door toedoen van de godin Isis zijn menselijke gestalte weer terugkrijgt. Eigenlijk zijn de avonturen van Lucius na zijn metamorfose niet eens zo interessant (hij moet vooral hard werken en krijgt daarbij veel slaag), maar de en passant vertelde binnenverhalen des te meer.

Ze bevatten sprookjes, tragische, erotische en humor...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Mark Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, history

The Golden Ass, aka The Transformations of Lucius, was written in the second century CE and was important enough to merit references in the writings of Augustine. What surprised me is that such an important ancient text is so funny. Not to mention filthy.

This book had a grip on me. I could barely stop reading it. Some of the credit for this must lie with Robert Graves' ingenious translation. As Graves mentions in the Appendix, rather disappointingly, he left out some passages which proved too cr...more The Golden Ass, aka The Transformations of Lucius, was written in the second century CE and was important enough to merit references in the writings of Augustine. What surprised me is that such an important ancient text is so funny. Not to mention filthy.

This book had a grip on me. I could barely stop reading it. Some of the credit for this must lie with Robert Graves' ingenious translation. As Graves mentions in the Appendix, rather disappointingly, he left out some passages which proved too crude or sexual in nature. Given some of the things he included, it makes me wonder just what the hell was in this book in the first place.

The Golden Ass tells the story of Lucius, who was accidentally transformed into an ass in a magic trick gone awry. What unfolds is a donkeys-eye view of life in the Roman Empire, mostly about how violent, uncertain and horny it is. The Golden Ass also works as a critique on the major religions of the day: the cynical greed of the established pagan temples (who, not unlike Scientology, had a never-ending succession of new rituals and products to sell the faithful), the bloodthirsty sensuality of the Great Mother Cult (run by a priesthood of self-flagellating transvestite priests) and the phony moral purity of this new-fangled Christian religion (as embodied by a miller's wife, who used her moral piety as a cover for her drunkenness and sexual infidelity).

In ass form, Lucius becomes the property of a succession of brutal thieves, cooks, farmers, soldiers and priests. As an observer, Lucius is ideally placed as a donkey, able to overhear gossip with his long ears and from whom the characters feel no need to hide their hypocrisy and ineptitude.

As the story unwinds, we follow Lucius the ass on this picaresque from one cruel fate to another. From eating rancid lettuce, being forced to perform in a Tijuana donkey show, or getting beaten up by the other donkeys at a stud farm which was supposed to be his retirement home, the misery of Lucius is the base from which Apuleius delivers his cutting and often hilarious dissection of the Roman world in which he lived.

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Aug 21, 2008 Heidi Nemo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classical-era

Strange, fragmented, hilarious...perhaps the original road novel, on donkey hooves. Bestiality, human foibles, and shenanigans galore. The weird cult-of-Isis ending is the worst since Upton Sinclair's crappy socialist-conversion ending to "the Jungle," tho.

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About Apuleius

born: c. 120 CE
died: c. 180 CE

Apuleius (sometimes called Lucius Apuleius) was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus (now M'Daourouch, Algeria). He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults and mysteries, including the cult of Isis. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic...more

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Books by Apuleius

Cupid and Psyche (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics - Imperial Library)

Metamorphoses (the Golden Ass), Volume I: Books 1-6

Metamorphoses (the Golden Ass), Volume II: Books 7-11

Apuleius' Golden ass, or, The metamorphosis: and other philosophical writings viz. On the God of Socrates & On the philosophy of Plato

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“I besprinkled their faces with my liquid dung and forced them to leave off.” — 5 people liked it

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