Apuleius' Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, our only complete Latin novel, tells the story of Lucius, a young man turned into a donkey by magic because of his unfettered curiosity. After many adventures he is finally saved by the goddess Isis, whose follower he becomes. The famous first book of the novel introduces the protagonist's character, his interest in magic and his gullibility, but also important themes of the novel such as metamorphosis from man into beast. Lucius listens to stories about magic and witchcraft told to him on his journey to ancient Thessaly and narrates them to the reader. A substantial part of the first book accordingly concentrates on the self-contained tale about a certain Socrates and his unhappy experiences with murderous Thessalian witches. Apuleius himself had been put on trial for allegedly using erotic magic to make his future wife fall in love with him, a theme which also appears in Metamorphoses 1. Throughout the novel, Apuleius portrays Lucius as an unreliable first person narrator and thus implicates the reader of the novel in the same character fault that drives its protagonist: curiosity. This edition of Book I presents the Latin text with a modern translation, substantial introduction and accompanying commentary. The author Apuleius is discussed in the literary environment of the second century AD together with key themes of the first book and the novel as a whole. Special attention is given to ancient magic, the roles of philosophy and the goddess Isis in the novel as well as the extensive reception of the first book in literature up to modern times. The commentary illustrates Apuleius' text as a densely constructed literary work and explains literary allusions as well as philosophical, historical and religious contexts.

Apuleius' Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, our only complete Latin novel, tells the story of Lucius, a young man turned into a donkey by magic because of his unfettered curiosity. After many adventures he is finally saved by the goddess Isis, whose follower he becomes. The famous first book of the novel introduces the protagonist's character, his interest in magic and his gullibility, but also important themes of the novel such as metamorphosis from man into beast. Lucius listens to stories about magic and witchcraft told to him on his journey to ancient Thessaly and narrates them to the reader. A substantial part of the first book accordingly concentrates on the self-contained tale about a certain Socrates and his unhappy experiences with murderous Thessalian witches. Apuleius himself had been put on trial for allegedly using erotic magic to make his future wife fall in love with him, a theme which also appears in Metamorphoses 1. Throughout the novel, Apuleius portrays Lucius as an unreliable first person narrator and thus implicates the reader of the novel in the same character fault that drives its protagonist: curiosity. This edition of Book I presents the Latin text with a modern translation, substantial introduction and accompanying commentary. The author Apuleius is discussed in the literary environment of the second century AD together with key themes of the first book and the novel as a whole. Special attention is given to ancient magic, the roles of philosophy and the goddess Isis in the novel as well as the extensive reception of the first book in literature up to modern times. The commentary illustrates Apuleius' text as a densely constructed literary work and explains literary allusions as well as philosophical, historical and religious contexts.

Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche has been popular since it was first written in the second century CE as part of his Latin novel Metamorphoses. Often treated as a standalone text, Cupid and Psyche has given rise to treatments in the last 400 years as diverse as plays, masques, operas, poems, paintings and novels, with a range of diverse approaches to the text. Apuleius' story of the love between the mortal princess Psyche (or "Soul") and the god of Love has fascinated recipients as varied as Romantic poets, psychoanalysts, children's books authors, neo-Platonist philosophers and Disney film producers. These readers themselves produced their own responses to and versions of the story. This volume is the first broad consideration of the reception of C&P in Europe since 1600 and an adventurous interdisciplinary undertaking. It is the first study to focus primarily on material in English, though it also ranges widely across literary genres in Italian, French and German, encompassing poetry, drama and opera as well as prose fiction and art history, studied by an international team of established and young scholars. Detailed studies of single works and of whole genres make this book relevant for students of Classics, English, Art History, opera and modern film.

Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche has been popular since it was first written in the second century CE as part of his Latin novel Metamorphoses. Often treated as a standalone text, Cupid and Psyche has given rise to treatments in the last 400 years as diverse as plays, masques, operas, poems, paintings and novels, with a range of diverse approaches to the text. Apuleius' story of the love between the mortal princess Psyche (or "Soul") and the god of Love has fascinated recipients as varied as Romantic poets, psychoanalysts, children's books authors, neo-Platonist philosophers and Disney film producers. These readers themselves produced their own responses to and versions of the story. This volume is the first broad consideration of the reception of C&P in Europe since 1600 and an adventurous interdisciplinary undertaking. It is the first study to focus primarily on material in English, though it also ranges widely across literary genres in Italian, French and German, encompassing poetry, drama and opera as well as prose fiction and art history, studied by an international team of established and young scholars. Detailed studies of single works and of whole genres make this book relevant for students of Classics, English, Art History, opera and modern film.

Regine May discusses the use of drama as an intertext in the work of the 2nd century Latin author Apuleius, who wrote the only complete extant Latin novel, the Metamorphoses, in which a young man is turned into a donkey by magic. Apuleius uses drama, especially comedy, as a basic underlying texture, and invites his readers to use their knowledge of contemporary drama in interpreting the fate of his protagonist and the often comic or tragic situations in which he finds himself. May employs a close study of the Latin text and detailed comparison with the corpus of dramatic texts from antiquity, as well as discussion of stock features of ancient drama, especially of comedy, in order to explain some features of the novel which have so far baffled Apuleian scholarship, including the enigmatic ending. All Latin and Greek has been translated into English.