277 pages
English language
Published June 14, 2008 by Oxford University Press.
The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety.The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity (curiositas) and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with inset tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins.
The vast majority of this book is “humor”, but not any type of humor that I can appreciate. I found it to be a real chore to read this book, and I only persisted in doing so for its historical significance. At least I was rewarded with a final chapter which was devoid of “humor”, and which gave some hints as to what the Roman cults of Isis and Osiris were like.
