The Golden Asse

Apuleius, also called, Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c.124-c.170 AD) was a Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was a Numidian who lived under the Roman Empire, and was from Madauros (now M'Daourouch, Algeria). He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life is when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions (and fortune) of a wealthy widow. He declaimed, and then distributed, a witty tour de force in his own defence before the proconsul and a court of magistrates which is known as the Apologia. Apuleius's most famous work is the bawdy picaresque novel the Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass, which is the only Latin novel to have survived in its entirety, and arguably the oldest surviving piece of literature considered to be a novel. The immensely sophisticated narrative relates the ludicrous tale of Lucius who experiments with magic and is accidentally transformed into a donkey. He must then go through a series of adventures before being returned to human form by the goddess Isis. Both irreverent and imaginative, the story is a rare instance of a fairy tale preserved in an ancient literary text. This English translation by William Adlington was first published in 1566, and is reprinted from the edition of 1639. The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation of that edition have been retained.