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Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass), Vol 2, Books 7-11
The Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) of Apuleius (born c. 125 CE) is a romance combining realism and magic. Lucius wants the sensations of a bird, but by pharmaceutical accident becomes an ass. The bulk of the novel recounts his adventures as an animal, but Lucius also recounts many stories he overhears, including that of Cupid and Psyche.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 158
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Apuleius
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The Golden Ass
, work of Roman philosopher and satirist Lucius Apuleius.
Apuleius (Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis “Africanus”; Berber: Afulay) wrote Latin-language prose.
This Berber of Numidia lived under the empire. From Madaurus (now M'Daourouch, Algeria), he studied Platonism in Athens and traveled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt. Several cults or mysteries initiated him.
In the most famous incident in his life, people then accused him of using magic to gain the attentions and fortune of a wealthy widow. Apuleius declaimed and then distributed a witty tour de force in his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apuleius
Apuleius (Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis “Africanus”; Berber: Afulay) wrote Latin-language prose.
This Berber of Numidia lived under the empire. From Madaurus (now M'Daourouch, Algeria), he studied Platonism in Athens and traveled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt. Several cults or mysteries initiated him.
In the most famous incident in his life, people then accused him of using magic to gain the attentions and fortune of a wealthy widow. Apuleius declaimed and then distributed a witty tour de force in his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apuleius
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 19, 2025
This half of the work was difficult to get through at times due to the nature of the internal stories being so uncomfortable (in terms of ancient misogyny and inter-species sexuality as well as constant danger and gore), and the denouement felt like it both came too late but was also super rushed. Unfortunate as I really enjoyed reading the first part with the myth of Cupid and Psyche, and the writing is certainly engaging.
August 27, 2022
I first read Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass as it is sometimes known, over forty years ago. That was a Penguin Classics translation by Robert Graves. Later I read a more modern Penguin Classics translation and I think there has been at least one more Penguin Classics translation since then. So, the message is, if you don’t read Latin, get a good, modern, accurate translation, and as Apuleius says at the start of Volume I, you will be entertained.
This is the story of a young man, Lucius, who is insatiably curious and fascinated by the occult. He can’t keep his nose out of magic and rituals and witchcraft and whatnot. The result is that he finds himself turned into an ass when he was hoping to transform himself into an owl. On the night of his metamorphosis the house he is staying in is attacked by robbers. He is loaded up with loot and dragged off into the mountains to the robbers’ lair. He has many adventures over the course of a year as his various owners come to grief and he is sold on. He has a dreadful time carrying heavy loads from A to B or plodding along in circles to operate a mill. Meanwhile he is all ears and he tells us all the yarns that he picks up in his wanderings. Some of the bawdier ones have found their way into later literature such as the Decameron. Eventually at the end of the year he is transformed back into a man by the goddess Isis and he becomes her passionate disciple. This has led scholars to wonder what the heck this book is about. We know the story but what’s the message?
Apuleius himself was born in what is now Algeria in about 125CE. His native language was Punic and he learned Greek and Latin as second and third languages. His family were well off and he was able to travel a great deal. He also married money. At one point he worked as a lawyer in Rome. Later he seems to have been an academic and philosophy lecturer in Carthage. He claims to have written a vast amount of stuff, including plays and philosophical works in Greek and Latin. Unfortunately all his Greek works are lost and only a few of his Latin works survive. Metamorphoses is the most well-known of these. It is now generally regarded as an early example of the novel. I have two other Apuleius texts. One covers the story of Cupid and Psyche (from Volume I of Metamorphoses) with a detailed introduction and notes. The other analyses several stories from both volumes that the narrator overhears and shows how ingenious – and cunning – Apuleius is as a storyteller. His Latin can be difficult but it’s often very beautiful and that beauty can be lost in translation. In this volume the part where the narrator sees Isis appearing out of the sea and the prayer he utters to her is an amazing piece of Latin. Apuleius wrote what classicists call “African Latin”, which stands in relation to “standard Latin” like Irish English compared to British English. That is, just as many of the greatest writers of “English Literature” were Irish (Swift, Joyce, Yeats et al.), many of the greatest classical Latin writers were African (Tertullian, St Augustine of Hippo, Apuleius et al.). They take the Latin language to another level.
If you want to read the Latin, I think the Loeb edition is the only available complete text. It has a facing English translation (dating from the 1980s) which is pretty good – and helpful when the original text gets complicated. This edition has a brief introduction in Volume I and useful footnotes. I first got this edition in 1996, and I’ve reread it about seven or eight times since then. I would recommend this edition to anyone who wants to read one of the earliest surviving novels. You will definitely be entertained but you could also spend years wondering what it all means.
This is the story of a young man, Lucius, who is insatiably curious and fascinated by the occult. He can’t keep his nose out of magic and rituals and witchcraft and whatnot. The result is that he finds himself turned into an ass when he was hoping to transform himself into an owl. On the night of his metamorphosis the house he is staying in is attacked by robbers. He is loaded up with loot and dragged off into the mountains to the robbers’ lair. He has many adventures over the course of a year as his various owners come to grief and he is sold on. He has a dreadful time carrying heavy loads from A to B or plodding along in circles to operate a mill. Meanwhile he is all ears and he tells us all the yarns that he picks up in his wanderings. Some of the bawdier ones have found their way into later literature such as the Decameron. Eventually at the end of the year he is transformed back into a man by the goddess Isis and he becomes her passionate disciple. This has led scholars to wonder what the heck this book is about. We know the story but what’s the message?
Apuleius himself was born in what is now Algeria in about 125CE. His native language was Punic and he learned Greek and Latin as second and third languages. His family were well off and he was able to travel a great deal. He also married money. At one point he worked as a lawyer in Rome. Later he seems to have been an academic and philosophy lecturer in Carthage. He claims to have written a vast amount of stuff, including plays and philosophical works in Greek and Latin. Unfortunately all his Greek works are lost and only a few of his Latin works survive. Metamorphoses is the most well-known of these. It is now generally regarded as an early example of the novel. I have two other Apuleius texts. One covers the story of Cupid and Psyche (from Volume I of Metamorphoses) with a detailed introduction and notes. The other analyses several stories from both volumes that the narrator overhears and shows how ingenious – and cunning – Apuleius is as a storyteller. His Latin can be difficult but it’s often very beautiful and that beauty can be lost in translation. In this volume the part where the narrator sees Isis appearing out of the sea and the prayer he utters to her is an amazing piece of Latin. Apuleius wrote what classicists call “African Latin”, which stands in relation to “standard Latin” like Irish English compared to British English. That is, just as many of the greatest writers of “English Literature” were Irish (Swift, Joyce, Yeats et al.), many of the greatest classical Latin writers were African (Tertullian, St Augustine of Hippo, Apuleius et al.). They take the Latin language to another level.
If you want to read the Latin, I think the Loeb edition is the only available complete text. It has a facing English translation (dating from the 1980s) which is pretty good – and helpful when the original text gets complicated. This edition has a brief introduction in Volume I and useful footnotes. I first got this edition in 1996, and I’ve reread it about seven or eight times since then. I would recommend this edition to anyone who wants to read one of the earliest surviving novels. You will definitely be entertained but you could also spend years wondering what it all means.
July 19, 2013
Earliest attested use of the word "adorabile," which is nice. Bit out of place in a narrative about a man who's magically transformed into a donkey and who gets involved with criminal mischief, violence, and cross-species sexuality, but nice.
February 19, 2022
The book Metamorphoses was written in 161 a.C. and it was read by all social statuses and categories of people (soldiers, kings, philosophers, working people) for entertainment, and for us today is the most important text on the mystery cult of Isis, initiation to the ancient cults, and the daily life in Hellas during the Romand Era, the period of Pax Romana. Apuleius based the hypothesis of the book on a book written by another Hellene, Lucius from Patrai. The main hero is Hellene Lucius, who travels to different places of Hellas and engages in many adventures, seeing people from different social positions as he is transformed into an ass/donkey. He visited Thessalia to find a friend (Milon) and then learns that his wife is a witch. So, in his effort to experience witchcraft he uses an ointment, but a mistake transformed him into a donkey, instead of an owl. He starts to live as a donkey and he made several efforts to transform into a human again. The donkey changes owners throughout the adventurous life he has and sees different people, lives different situations, and learns a lot of things from people and society. In books four to seven, he is a member of a thieves gang. In book eight he is serving a bunch of fake priests of Cybele. He makes fun of their ill passions, being homosexuals. Book nine is working to a mill and witnesses more unfaithful wives. In book ten he is making tricks and having sex with a woman. In the end, in book eleven, due to his bad luck, he escapes and goes to the beach and prays to the female goddesses to help him. Isis appears to him in order to help him. After that, he becomes an initiate and a priest of Isis in Hellas, in Rome, and of Osiris, being initiated three times. We see how his life completely changed after the appearance of the goddess Isis, his actions, and his communion with the Gods. We also learn a lot about witchcraft, magick, and mystery religions.
The book is full of adventurous stories, it is funny, full of unfaithful wives, sex, witchcraft and bad luck, interesting and one of the best books you will ever read in your life.
The book is full of adventurous stories, it is funny, full of unfaithful wives, sex, witchcraft and bad luck, interesting and one of the best books you will ever read in your life.
August 28, 2019
“Senties, efficiam, misero dolori naturales vires adesse”
I will make you learn that bitter grief has inborn strength
Metamorphoses, Liber VII, Stanza 27
Inborn strength that turns to valor is the overcoming that leads to the holiness of Eleusian fields.
V.I.T.R.I.O.L/L.O.I.R.T.I.V
May the Great Goddess IO thrive eternally, for her eyes are the stars, and her robes the cosmic night that gathers all children upon the starry wondrous fields of eternity.
I have been consoled by the sight of her rainbow wings once, may She gather all of us.
I am thankful to master Apuleius, from ancient times into the modern, while reading the last Liber I was moved to tears, almost forgetful of my past gratitude and Divine occurences. Eoai!
I will make you learn that bitter grief has inborn strength
Metamorphoses, Liber VII, Stanza 27
Inborn strength that turns to valor is the overcoming that leads to the holiness of Eleusian fields.
V.I.T.R.I.O.L/L.O.I.R.T.I.V
May the Great Goddess IO thrive eternally, for her eyes are the stars, and her robes the cosmic night that gathers all children upon the starry wondrous fields of eternity.
I have been consoled by the sight of her rainbow wings once, may She gather all of us.
I am thankful to master Apuleius, from ancient times into the modern, while reading the last Liber I was moved to tears, almost forgetful of my past gratitude and Divine occurences. Eoai!
June 17, 2020
This is a complex book, and a difficult one to review. As a scholar of ancient religion and magic, it is worth the price of admission for the descriptions of magic and especially the initiation into the Isis Cult. The tale
of Cupid and Psyche is justly famous. Yet the ancient Roman misogyny is on display again and again. A profoundly complex and thought-provoking book.
I found the Loeb translation very readable.
of Cupid and Psyche is justly famous. Yet the ancient Roman misogyny is on display again and again. A profoundly complex and thought-provoking book.
I found the Loeb translation very readable.
November 27, 2021
*NOMÉS Psique y Cupido
December 12, 2023
Read this in the Latin
February 16, 2021
Strangely entertaining fantasy tales of Lucius’s curious adventures he observes when transmogrified into jackass, by a witch’s spell. The tales are both funny and at times filthy. (Some were later borrowed by Boccaccio in his tales of the Decameron.)
January 4, 2015
I read Volume II as well!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews