Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus), is a Latin prose work of Apuleius of Madaurus. It was written in the middle of the second century. The narrator-protagonist is a man called Lucius. In the course of the story, he is transformed into an ass by a mis-selection of a magic potion. In the end, he returns to human form through his initiation into the cult of Isis. Metamorphoses strings together sensational episodes with subtle connections and unifying bombastic, comically overwrought language. At the same time, it shows sharp insight into gender and the realities of men’s lives.
Petrus Pictor brought the story of Phaedra & Hippolytus, perhaps with the help of Apuleius’s Metamorphoses, to its ultimate medieval classical brilliance. … Read the post Phaedra and Hippolytus through Apuleius’s stepmother to Petrus Pictor
In his anti-Christian Metamorphoses, Apuleius may have mocked an earlier Christian story like the medieval story of the Holy House translated to Loreto. … Read the post Holy House in Loreto founded with Apuleius’s Metamorphoses
The marriage of Socrates and Meroe in Apuleius’s Metamorphoses provides rich context for Apuleius’s reading of the Phaedo and De Platone et eius Dogmate 3. … Read the post the marriage of Socrates, friendship, and life and death of the sole
From Apuleius’ tale of Cupid and Psyche, Martianus Capella in Marriage of Philology and Mercury expanded two evil sisters to seven sisters of liberal arts. … Read the post Psyche’s story: from evil sisters to liberal arts teachers
Martianus Capella’s 5th-century Latin work, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (Marriage of Philology and Mercury) has been sadly, tediously misunderstood. … Read the post Martianus Capella, updated: the marriage of Gynecology and Hercules
In Apuleius’ Metamporphose, look to Photis consoling Lucius for enlightenment about love amid horrid criminal injustice and mass incarceration of men. … Read the post Photis lovingly consoled Lucius after triple-murder trial farce
Psycho and Aphrodite is a parody of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius’s Metamorphoses and the story of the Afghan cover girl in the National Geographic. … Read the post Psycho and Aphrodite through Apuleius's Metamorphoses
In Apuleius’s Metamorphoses, adultery tales of Book 9 ridicule Platonic philosophy with the biological significance of understanding scandalous stories. … Read the post Greco-Roman adultery tales & Apuleius’s Metamorphoses
From ancient Milesian tales to the medieval written Latin fabula Asinarius to the Brothers Grimm, masculine sexuality has been historically devalued. … Read the post no Juvenal kidding: Milesian tales, Asinarius & Brothers Grimm
She, mother and spurned foster lover, instructed the post-doc to prepare posthaste a poison for the death and destruction of her foster-son. … Read the post rape & poisoning on college campus: an ass’s tale of justice