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The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, which according to St. Augustine was referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus) by Apuleius, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. Lucius Apuleius (c. ...
For the first Archbishop of Canterbury, see Saint Augustine of Canterbury. ...
Lucius Apuleius (c. ...
Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...
A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. ...
Origin
Lucius wrote it in the second century AD, adapting the story from a Greek original, possibly by Lucius of Patrae (if that name isn't merely derived from that of the lead character and narrator). The Greek text has been lost, but there is Λουκιος η Ονος (Lucios or the Ass), a similar tale of unknown authorship that is possibly an abridgement or epitome of Lucius of Patrae's text, wrongly attributed in ancient times to Lucian of Samosata, a contemporary of Apuleius. The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...
Lucian of Samosata (c. ...
Story The text is a precursor to the literary genre of the episodic picaresque novel, in which Quevedo, Rabelais, Boccaccio, Cervantes, Voltaire, Defoe and many others have followed. It is an imaginative, irreverent, and amusing work that relates the ludicrous adventures of one Lucius, a virile young man who is obsessed with magic. Finding himself in Thessaly, the "birthplace of magic," Lucius eagerly seeks an opportunity to see magic being used. His over enthusiasm leads to his accidental transformation into an ass. In this guise, Lucius, a member of the Roman country aristocracy, is forced to witness and share the miseries of slaves and destitute freemen who are reduced, like Lucius, to being little more than beasts of burden by their exploitation at the hands of wealthy landowners. The picaresque novel (Spanish: picaresco, from pÃcaro, for rogue or rascal) is a popular subgenre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts in realistic and often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his or her wits in a...
Quevedo is an Spanish surname. ...
François Rabelais François Rabelais (ca. ...
Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 - December 21, 1375) was a Florentine author and poet, the greatest of Petrarchs disciples, an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including On Famous Women, the Decameron and his poems in the vernacular. ...
For the singer/songwriter of the same name, see Voltaire (musician). ...
Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] – April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ...
The Sorceress by John William Waterhouse Magic and sorcery are the influencing of events, objects, people and physical phenomena by mystical or paranormal means. ...
Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek ThessalÃa; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ...
Binomial name Equus asinus Linnaeus, 1758 The donkey or jackass, Equus asinus, is a domesticated animal of the horse family, Equidae. ...
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ...
Slave redirects here. ...
A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ...
The term exploitation may carry two distinct meanings: The act of utilizing something for any purpose. ...
The Golden Ass is the only surviving work of literature from the ancient Greco-Roman world to examine, from a first-hand perspective, the abhorrent condition of the lower classes. Yet despite its serious subject matter, the novel remains imaginative, witty, and often sexually explicit. Numerous amusing stories, many of which seem to be based on actual folk tales, with their ordinary themes of simple-minded husbands, adulterous wives, and clever lovers, as well as the magical transformations that characterize the entire novel, are included within the main narrative. The longest of these inclusions is the tale of Cupid and Psyche, encountered here for the first but not the last time in Western literature. Sexually explicit material (video, photography, creative writing) presents sexual content without deliberately obscuring or censoring it. ...
Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, material culture, and so forth, common to a particular population, comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of that culture, subculture, or group. ...
Adultery is generally defined as consensual sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than his or her lawful spouse. ...
The Abduction of Psyche by William-Adolphe Bouguereau Cupid and Psyche by Canova, at the Louvre Museum. ...
The term Western World or the West can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ...
Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ...
Style Apuleius' style is as amusing as his stories, for though he wasn't a Roman by birth he was a master of Latin prose and could play with the rhythm and rhyme of the language as if he were a native speaker. In the introduction to his translation of The Golden Ass, Jack Lindsay writes: To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
- Let us glance at some of the details of Apuleius' style and it will become clear that English translators have not even tried to preserve and carry over the least tincture of his manner... Take the description of the baker's wife: saeva scaeva virosa ebriosa pervicax pertinax... The nagging clashing effect of the rhymes gives us half the meaning. I quote two well-known versions: 'She was crabbed, cruel, cursed, drunken, obstinate, niggish.' 'She was mischievous, malignant, addicted to men and wine, forward and stubborn.' And here is the most recent one (by R. Graves): 'She was malicious, cruel, spiteful, lecherous, drunken, selfish, obstinate.' Read again the merry and expressive doggerel of Apuleius and it will be seen how little of his vision of life has been transferred into English.
Lindsay's own version is: "She was lewd and crude, a toper and a groper, a nagging hag of a fool of a mule." Portrait of Robert Graves (circa 1974) by Rab Shiell Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English scholar, poet, and novelist. ...
final chapter Yet in the last chapter, the style abruptly changes. Driven to desperation, Lucius calls for divine aid, and is answered by the goddess Isis. With the goddess' help, Lucius is able to return to his human form, subsequently becoming initiated in and dedicating his life to the mystery cults of Isis and Osiris. The humorous prose of the earlier chapters is exchanged for an equally powerful, sometimes quasi-poetic, style that draws upon Lucius' religious experiences. :This article discusses the ancient goddess. ...
This does not cite its references or sources. ...
For other uses, see Osiris (disambiguation). ...
The meaning of this last chapter has been debated, and there are several possibilities of what it could mean in correlation to the entire novel. The novel could be seen as an Isiac testament; the first ten books are full of troubles and slavish pleasures. But it is only when Lucius discovers religion in the last book that he receives divine pleasure and forgoes pleasures of the flesh. The novel can also be seen as an autobiography, relation to Apuleius' own religious experiences. The novel could also be seen as a complete satire, with the last book being a critical jab at religion.
History of the book In 1517, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote his own version of the story, as a terza rima poem. January 22 - Battle of Ridanieh: The Turkish forces of Selim I defeat the main Mamluk army in Egypt under Touman Bey. ...
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 – June 21, 1527) was a political philosopher, musician, poet, and romantic comedic playwright. ...
In the 20th century, T. E. Lawrence carried a small copy of the "Golden Ass" in his saddlebags all through the Arab Revolt. It was Lawrence who first introduced the book to his friend Robert Graves, who later translated the work. Thomas Edward Lawrence (August 16, 1888 – May 19, 1935), also known as Lawrence of Arabia, and (apparently, among his Arab allies) Aurens or El Aurens, became famous for his role as a British liaison officer during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918. ...
Combatants Hashemite Arabs Great Britain Ottoman Empire Commanders Faisal T.E. Lawrence Ahmed Djemal Strength 5,000 (?) 25,000 (?) This article is about the Arab Revolt of 1916. ...
Portrait of Robert Graves (circa 1974) by Rab Shiell Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English scholar, poet, and novelist. ...
In April 1999 the Canadian Opera Company produced an operatic version of the "Golden Ass", the libretto for which was written by celebrated Canadian author Robertson Davies. The Canadian Opera Company is the largest opera company in Canada and is located in Toronto, Ontario. ...
William Robertson Davies, CC, FRSC, FRSL (born August 28, 1913 at Thamesville, Ontario, and died December 2, 1995 at Orangeville, Ontario) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. ...
In 2002, Shakespeare's Globe theatre for the first time rehearsed the drama The Golden Ass or the Curious Man (starring Mark Rylance as Lucius) written by Peter Oswald after Apuleius' novel, while performing A Midsummer Night's Dream during the same season, thus showing connections, and how Shakespeare used ancient literature as a source for his comedy (Bottom accidentally being transformed into an ass). This article is about the Globe Theatre of Shakespeare, both the original and its modern reconstruction. ...
Mark Rylance (born January 18, 1960) is an internationally well-known actor and theatre director. ...
Title page of the first quarto (1600) A Midsummer Nights Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare written sometime in the mid-1590s. ...
References - Apuleius, Lucius; Adlington, William (Trans.) (1996). The Golden Ass. Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, Wordsworth Ed. Ltd.: Ware, GB. ISBN 1-85326-460-1
- Apuleius, Lucius; Lindsay, Jack (Trans.) (1962). The Golden Ass. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20036-9
- Peter Oswald; The Golden Ass or the Curious Man. Comedy in three parts after the Novel by Lucius Apuleius. Oberon Books: London, GB. 2002. ISBN 1-84002-285-X (first rehearsed with great success at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in 2002)
Peter Oswald is a well-known English playwright. ...
This article is about the Globe Theatre of Shakespeare, both the original and its modern reconstruction. ...
See also - Black Beauty - One of the first novels in English from the perspective of a horse, it also allegorically examines the nature of the working poor.
Silver Age of Latin literature Black Beauty is a novel written in 1877 by Anna Sewell about the life of a horse from his carefree days as a foal on an English farm enjoying the countryside with his mother, to his sale and his career pulling cabs and wagons in London. ...
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold is a novel by C. S. Lewis, first published in 1956. ...
The Abduction of Psyche by William-Adolphe Bouguereau Cupid and Psyche by Canova, at the Louvre Museum. ...
In reference to Roman literature, the Silver age covers the first two centuries A.D. directly after the Golden age (which was the first century B.C., and the start of the first century A.D.) Literature from the Silver age has traditionally, perhaps unfairly, been considered inferior to that...
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