The Golden Ass, better known as The Metamorphosesnote is a picaresque adventure novel written by Apuleius, and holds the honor of being the only Latin novel which survived in its entirety to this very day.
The protagonist, Lucius, is a man pushed into various adventures by his own "curiositas". After being invited to a friend's house, he discovers that his wife is a witch and gains a desire to see magic for himself and even try it. However, his attempts to use magic to turn into a bird take a turn for the worse when he's transformed into a donkey instead: what follows is a long and grotesque series of misadventures as he passes from master to master, witnessing many events, encountering diverse characters and hearing many tales, all as he tries to find a way to become human again.
The result is a long, enjoyable tale whose events can be read in both literal and metaphorical sense. Apuleius' style is innovative, baroque, and at time sexually explicit, and can be seen as a predecessor of other later artists such as Boccaccio, Voltaire, Cervantes and others.
This work contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Near the end, Lucius ends up working for two brothers, a confectioner and a cook, and secretly eats their food. Once the two brothers (who were accusing each other) finds this out, they're outraged... but then find the whole thing so hilarious they forgive Lucius.
- And Show It to You: In the first side story, the witch Meroe and her assistant cut up her former lover Socrates' chest, rip out his heart and put a sponge in the chest. Seemingly subverted the following morning when Socrates looks fine... but as soon as he bends over to drink from a spring, the sponge falls from his chest and he suddenly dies.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Near the end of book 2, Lucius and his friend run into some unidentified "brutes" in the dark and kill them with their swords. After risking to be condemned for murder, it turns out that the "brutes" were actually wineskins, accidentally moved by dark magic.
- Bears Are Bad News: Averted for Lucius, when he's under the custody of a rather cruel herder: a massive she-bear appears and proceeds to maul the bastard, while Lucius manages to get away to safety.
- Bestiality Is Depraved:
- At one point, Lucius briefly considers courting some female donkeys, but ultimately refuses (he still has his mind, unaffected by his body's current state).
- In book 7, the cruel boy who handles Lucius keeps telling people that Lucius tend to knock down girls and cute boys in order to try to mate with them, For the Lulz. Lucius is not amused by this slander.
- In book 10, a noblewoman becomes enamored with Lucius and pays his keeper handsomely to let her have sex with the donkey, which is described in detail. Lucius himself is surprised by this turn of events.
- Later in book 10, a rather villainous and murderous adulterous wife is sentenced to be mounted by Lucius in the arena, as a means of humiliating her before she's set upon by wild beasts. Though even Lucius is disgusted by her deeds (and fearful of the possibility of being eaten by said beasts himself) and actually makes a run for it before he can be forced to carry out the deed.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Invoked by the priests of Syria: during their sojourn in a village's inn they invite a handsome and well endowed boy to the banquet, and right after the first course they proceed to undress him and gang on him for oral sex, much to Lucius' disgust. Consider that in Graeco-Roman society, a large penis was considered vulgar.
- Lucius, being as well-endowed as a donkey is, fears he'll hurt the noblewoman who pays to sleep with him. She actually copes with it so capably that he briefly worries he'll fail to satisfy her.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: The sheer amount of abuse and disgrace Lucius goes through as a donkey is staggering, though sometimes it's played for comedy.
- Bungled Suicide: Played for comedy, after the witches from the first tale spare Aristomenes so that he may bury Socrates, he hangs himself in fear, but the rope he choose is so rotten that it breaks under his weight, making him fall flat on his ass.
- Butt-Monkey: Lucius, good boy Lucius. He's transformed into a donkey, captured by brigands, passes from owner to owner, is often and frequently beaten and flogged, and even bitten by dogs and other donkeys, and also slandered. By the penultimate book he gets better.
- Camp Gay: The wandering priests of the goddess Syria (Cybele) are first introduced by their high-pitched, girly voices and enthusiasm at the thought of having a male slave for company. They also refer to each other and themselves with feminine pronouns and perform in conspicuous make-up and falded dresses for their rites.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Happens to the above mentioned acolytes of Syria when Lucius' disgusted braying attract some villagers who were looking for a stolen donkey, causing them to call other to mock the priests who, publicy humiliated, have to leave in a hurry.
- Character Development: At the start of the story Lucius is the average Roman, though he shows sign of being something of a jerkass. He grows into a much better person in the end after joining the cult of Isis and Osiris.
- Comedic Spanking: The baker has his wife's lover flogged on the buttocks before setting him free. And that was after he spent the night having sex with him, as playfully lampshaded by the narration.
- Contrived Coincidence: The very night the acolytes of Syria are having fun in front of a disgusted Lucius, the people of that very village are looking for a missing donkey which has been stolen. Hearing the braying cause the villagers to barge in to investigate, interrupting the orgy and forcing them to leave the town in a hurry.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: When the baker wife's lover is exposed note to the baker and his wife, the man takes it in stride, reassures him that he has no intention to harm him, but points out that he and his wife should share everything from their coniugal life. He then proceeds to take the boy to the bedroom for a night of sex (after locking the wife out), and then the following morning he proceeds to have him whipped on the bare buttocks while calling him out for his adulterous ways. The youth, glad to be alive if humiliated, is then allowed to leave.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Lucius describes how the acolytes of the cult of Syria wear conspicuous make up and feminine dresses before going outside to perform their rites and almsgiving. It isn't specifies if this extends to their everyday life.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- Socrates in Aristomenes' tale is cut up by some witches and has his heart gouged out and switched for a sponge. He only falls dead the following day, as he bends over to drink for a stream, the sponge falling out of his chest.
- The lover in The Fuller's Wife story is intoxicated by sulphur vapours and left to agonize by the vengeful husband.
- One of the servants in the group escaping Thrasillus is tricked into walking in a serpent's nests and is seen being chewed on by a monstrous dragon.
- The murderous adulterous wife in book ten is sentenced to death by having Lucius, an ass, mount her in front of an arena full of people, after which she'll be devoured upon by wild animals.
- Depraved Homosexual: The priests of Syria are loud and garish swindlers who take advantage of guillable people and are described as shameless queens who take advantage of both their manservant and a random villager for their pleasure. Given society at the time, it's mostly a fact that they were adult men acting in a passive role which was considered disgraceful and degrading by Romans.
- Deus ex Machina: In book eleven, when Lucius is resting at a beach, the goddess Isis suddenly appears and tells him to go to her procession to become human again. He follows her advice, gets the chance to eat a rose to break the spell and, in gratitude, converts himself to Isis' cult.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Tlepolemus and Charite's long and convoluted love story finally reaches an end...but after a few weeks they end up dying in the schemes of the villainous Thrasillus (who was never mentioned before).
- Disproportionate Retribution: The baker humiliates his adulterous wife by having sex with her lover and having him spanked. Yes, harsh, but ultimately with no lasting consequences for that period. The wife answers by hiring a witch to summon a ghost, which proceeds to gruesomely kill the baker. Ouch.
- Double Entendre: Lucius dialogue with the lovely Photis is filled with sexual double entendres. Unsurprisingly they end up having sex later and becoming lovers, until he's accidentally transformed into an ass.
- Droste Image: The story-within-a-story of Cupid And Psyche can be seen as a more idealistic and romantic reflection of the main storyline. Both Lucius and Psyche lose their present happiness through an act of misguided curiosity (Lucius by trying the magical salve, Psyche by bringing light into the bedchamber to see her mysterious bridegroom), are forced to undergo various sufferings and humiliations, and finally emerge victorious and gain a better life through divine assistance.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: The baker's wife paramour is described by Lucius as a rather attractive youth, still in age for being an eromenos. And in fact, the baker is content to bed him rather than kill him or worse.
- Due to the Dead: The second story has Telyphiron, the narrator, protecting a recently-deceased man's corpse from corpse-eating witches. He seemingly succeeds, only to realize too late that the witches gnawed on his nose and ears and substituted them with wax.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After enduring a lot of humiliation, beatings and witnessing all sorts of people, good or note bad, Lucius is finally turned back into a man and finds a purpose in life as a member of Isis' cult.
- Ephebophile: Given the time it was set in, Lucius sometimes notices how a few adolescents are rather attractive, including the baker's wife's paramour and the two youths leading the pre-execution procession in book ten, a boy and a girl, the latter wearing a revealing tunic.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- For all his faults and shortcomings, Lucius is deeply disgusted by the crimes of the adulterous wife in book 10 and flees rather than having to touch her. He's also moved to bray in disgust when the acolytes of Syria proceed to make sex with their host right there in the dinner room (though he wasn't too fond of them before either, that was his breaking point).
- Said priests are also deeply disappointed and offended when their leader reveals that the new slave is a donkey, implying that, corrupted and depraved as they are, they don't dabble in bestiality. Their leader was also offended when Lucius' seller told him to check Lucius' docility by sticking his face between his legs, and yelled at him.
- Fanservice: Lucius descriptions of Photis and the noblewoman in book 10. That being said...
- Fan Disservice: Lucius is much less pleased by the catamite orgy he's forced to witness. Not to mention the squicky description of his love-making session with the above-mentioned noblewoman while he's still a donkey.
- Fatal Flaw: In Lucius' case, his curiosity, which leads him to be transformed into a donkey.
- First-Person Perspective: The entire story, save for the side stories narrated here and there, is told from Lucius's point of view.
- Forced Transformation:
- In the first book, Socrates mentions that the witch Meroe turns her former lovers into animals. Unfortunately, Socrates himself gets something worse instead...
- Lucius himself is accidentally transformed into a donkey by messing with a witch's stuff, which kickstarts the whole plot. He can return to normal by eating a rose... but sadly events conspire to keep him from eating said flower too soon.
- Foreshadowing: The very first story Lucius hears on his way to Hypata mentions witches and how they can turn people into animals. Later on, because of his own dabbling with a witch's stuff he's transformed into a donkey.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The final book departs from the picaresque style of the novel and becomes a serious, mystical description of the cult of Isis and what Lucius should do to formally join them and spread the word.
- Framing Device: The first two stories were narrated to Lucius by people he met, and tie in with his curiosity regarding witchcraft. The story of Cupid and Psyche is narrated by an old crone to Damsel in Distress Charite by a kind old woman to distract her from her captivity. The last two stories are heard by Lucius during his period of captivity as a donkey.
- Ghost Story: A few parts of the novel dabble in the supernatural and even in the horror, like Telyphiron's tale, or the encountered with the old man in the woods, or a witch summoning a ghost to murder a man.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Mostly on the bad side of the trope, with several unfaithful wives cheating on their husbands and clearly not meant to be sympathized with.
- Guile Hero: Not Lucius, but Tlepolemus disguises himself as a notorious brigand to infiltrate the gang who has kidnapped his love interest Charite, and ends up killing the brigands and rescuing his girlfriend.
- The Hero's Journey: According to some critics, the novel can be seen as Lucius' growth from a frivolous, vain young man to a virtuous follower of Isis and a better person.
- Hot Witch: Milo's wife Phyleme arouses Lucius' interest in witchcraft, prepares potions and powders and can turn herself into a bird. It's because of her powders that Lucius' turned into a donkey, starting the whole story.
- Hope Spot: Lucius and Charite are seemingly on the run from the brigands' hideout... but unfortunately they are captured and brought back in the lair. They manage to escape for good later, and it seems that Lucius' finally getting some slack... but unfortunately the handler's given to is a truly vicious piece of work.
- Humiliation Conga:
- Lucius's transformation into a donkey is a long series of humiliations, mostly involving people with sticks and flogs.
- The paramour of the baker's wife has his hand trampled by a Lucius, spends the night delighting the baker he was cuckolding and is finally humiliated and whipped on the butt before being allowed to flee.
- Hypocrite: The Baker's wife speaks very harshly of the adulterous wife of the Fuller despite being adulterous herself. Also, some critic consider ironic the fact that, after spending nearly a book of the novel speaking against the "decadent, oriental cults" common in Rome at the time, Apuleios has his protagonist joining one of said cults, portrayed in a positive and nearly spotless light.
- Jerkass:
- Lucius' handler in book 7 loves being a gratuitous dick to Lucius for no reason, starving the poor donkey, tormenting him with sticks and telling people that he often tries to pounce on women and boys and rape them.
- The Smith's wife from the Bathtub tale not only cheats on her husband, but she also shamelessly tricks him into cleaning a massive tub alone while she and her lover actually have sex behind his back and has him carry the tub to the lover's house.
- In a similar way, the Baker's wife, who cheats on her husband with an adolescent pretty boy, fakes indignance at the thought of a wife being unfaithful and when she's discovered and humiliated has her husband assassinated via sorcery.
- Karma Houdini:
- Thrasillus is never heard from again after causing the death of Tlepolemus and Charite, acting as a Diabolus ex Machina.
- The Baker's wife get away with murdering her husband through witchcraft, as Lucius is the only witness.
- Kids Are Cruel: Lucius handler is very young, but is very vicious with Lucius, mistreating him at any given chance and gleefully describing him as a lazy and stupid beast who often tries to molest women and kids.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The same handler who costantly abuses and mocks Lucius is surprised and mauled to death by a she-bear.
- Magic Hair: Early on, Phyleme needs hair to perform her magic on people, but she accidentally ends up with oxen hair taken by some wineskins: as a result, the wineskins animates and start moving, resulting in the above-mentioned accident.
- Male Gaze: When Lucius spots the servant Photis working in the kitchen he spends some time admiring her fine ass and curves from behind. Photis notices but is interested and ends up seducing him.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Notably averted: despite being transformed into a donkey, Lucius is still conscious and still thinks as a human, for example finding repulsive the idea of hitting on female donkeys or eating grass to survive, though he eventually gets used to the latter.
- Misplaced Retribution: When Lucius' jerkass caretaker is mauled by a bear, the boy's mother blames it on Lucius and tries to beat him to death while he's blocked in his stable, unable to retort.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Photis is horrified with shock upon seeing that the "magic powder" she took from her mistress has turned Lucius into an ass.
- Necromancer: In Telyphirion's tale, a necromancer is called to question the corpse of a murdered man and learn who killed him. Later on, the baker's wife hires a witch to summon the ghost of a murdered woman to kill her husband.
- Nested Story: The main novel has several in-universe stories told to/listened by Lucius and faithfully narrated. The most famous being the story of Cupid and Psyche.
- Never My Fault: In a truly self-centered and jerkass moment, Lucius, after asking himself to be doused in Phyleme's magical powders by an apprehensive Photis, blames the servant for his predicament and even thinks of kicking her to death for this, despite the fact that it was he who insisted for trying magic.
- Offing the Offspring: The Murderous Wife of the eponymous tale ends up killing both her son and her bastard daughter, believing them to be lovers. She's condemned to be Fed to the Beast and being raped by Lucius.
- Our Dragons Are Different: In book 8, the fleeing servants are approached by a sobbing old man who begs for help, as his child is in danger. Moved, one of them follows him into the forest. After a few hours, the other servants, worried, decide to follow him and see the poor guy devoured by a monstrous, serpentine dragon, no trace of the old man in sight.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: A lemure is summoned by a witch to kill the baker. Is described as a ghastly, dirty woman with long hair, tattered clothes and an uncanny looks.
- Really Gets Around: The priests of Syria are very lustful, loudly express disappointment when they find out that Lucius isn't an actual slave boy but a donkey, use their current slave for sex and happily invite a random, good-looking boy for lovemaking.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- In the beginning of book 9, as everyone panics because they believe that Lucius is rabid, the band of Syria acolytes decides to run away, never to be seen again.
- When Lucius is about to perform the public humiliation of the murderous wife, he decides to run away rather than mate with such a despicable woman.
- Sex Slave: The slave in service of the acolytes of Syria is a musician and a factotum, and, as Lucius puts it, "everyone's lover boy". He even happily mentions how he's grateful for Lucius' help, as he's too tired for the lovemaking to perform other labour.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Averted Big time, as the novel is rather explicit, as seen when Lucius describes his love-making session with Photis in detail. The closest aversion is when the acolytes of Syria start to have their way with their guest, which is briefly described indirectly by a disgusted Lucius.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Tlepolemus and Charite's love story and idilliac conclusion come to a sudden and bitter crash when they end up dead because of the machinations of Thrasillus, Charite's admirer.
- Take That!: The band of catamite priests of Syria is a massive jab both at what Apuleios perceived as the decadent cults from the orient and a condemn to those swindlers who, under the pretense of piousness, rob gullible people of their goods and lead a life of comfort and depravity.
- Throw the Dog a Bone
- The imprisoned Charite cares for Lucius and even promises him a reward should he carry her all the way home, away from the brigands.
- In Book 9, to check if Lucius really has rabies or not, the housefolk offer him a basin of water, which he gratefully gulps down, quelling their suspects and taking a break from the recent series of misadventures.
- Once the two brothers find out that Lucius was eating their reserves, they ultimately take it in stride and have a good laugh.
- Toilet Humor: Beaten to near-death by the caretaker's vengeful mother, Lucius inadvertedly defends himself by spraying her with his own dung, forcing her to run away.
- Trans Equals Gay: The priests of Syria are described as extremely effeminate, to the point that their leader Phylebus refers to himself in feminine terms and calls the other younger priests "girls" (or even "daughters", depending on the translation). While they also crossdress for their rites, their preference in partners makes clear that they have a passive role in bed. This was pretty much the normal belief for Roman society at the time, mixed with their disdain and disrespect for "oriental" cults, seen as decadent.
- Wicked Witch: Lucius, like Apuleius himself, is from Thessaly, the "Land of the Witches", and shows an interest for sorcery. However, with the sole exception of the mysterious Phyleme, a married woman, all the witches in the stories fit this bill, being terrible, vengeful and remorseless.
