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English 240: Ancient Literature Questions on Apuleius' The Golden Ass Alfred J. Drake. Hours: Cyber Cafe Tu/Th. 12-1 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com General Questions 1. Comment on the significance of desire—both in the physical and intellectual sense—as the driving force of the novel's events and the main reason for the complexity of the narrative: examine a few instances where desire clearly makes things happen and complicates the narrator's pattern of storytelling. 2. How might the story as a whole be described as a “spiritual quest”? What does Lucius' interest in magic have to do with it? How is his transformation into an ass related to the quest motif? 3. How do you understand the less serious side of Apuleius' text—the many comic, absurd, and even obscene incidents and characters its author seems to delight in serving up? How does all this silliness relate to the spiritual journey of Lucius? 4. In particular, what benefit does Apuleius derive from his device of making Lucius turn into an ass? What perspective does Lucius gain thereby? What does he lose? What does this trick of narrative have to offer us, the readers? 5. When, towards the end of the story, the goddess Isis grants Lucius his wish for transformation, why does she give him what he wants—what has he done to merit such good fortune? 6. How does the Mystery Cult of Isis and Osiris, as you find it in this book, compare to the doctrines of Christianity? What does Isis offer her worshipers? What does she not offer them? What does the narrator seem to think of Christianity, a religion of which Apuleius himself had some knowledge? 7. How does the world Apuleius represents compare to the tragic universe of the Greek playwrights we have studied? How does a typical character in Apuleius differ from the hero in our playwrights' work? Questions on Each Book of The Golden Ass Book 1 8. On his way to Thessaly , Lucius meets Aristomenes, an Aeginetan wholesaler, and invites him to tell his story about meeting a friend, Socrates, and a witch named Meroë. How does Lucius' reception of the story prepare readers for whatever adventures Lucius himself is about to undergo? 9. What happens to Aristomenes and his friend Socrates? What does the story suggest about the inherent risks of interacting with the supernatural realm—that is, can you draw any lesson from what Aristomenes relates to Lucius? Explain. Book 2 10. Reaching Hypata in Thessaly , Lucius finds Milo , to whom his friend Demeas has given him a letter of introduction. In the marketplace, Lucius' old nurse Byrrhaena warns him about Milo 's wife Pamphilë, a sorceress. What reason does Lucius give for failing to heed the nurse's warning, and what subsequently transpires in this book? 11. This book contains other references to magic and the gods—consider the handling of Lucius' seduction of the maid Fotis and his unsuccessful mention about the soothsayer Diophanes. What do such references suggest about the attitude we should adopt towards the supernatural and divine realm? Book 3 12. At Byrrhaena's feast, Lucius and the guests hear Thelyphron's story. What happened to Thelyphron, and what significant connections between the ridiculous and the serious in Apuleius' text as a whole does this story reveal? What view of human suffering and striving are we being encouraged to take? Book 4 13. Lucius winds up the main exhibit in the current Festival of Laughter. How does that happen—and how is Apuleius' technique here typical of his plot-construction method throughout The Golden Ass? 14. Does the outcome of this year's Festival distinguish Lucius from Thelyphron, who had been the target at a previous festival? Explain. Also, what penalty does he extract from Fotis for her role in the whole affair? Book 5 15. Why and how does Lucius metamorphose into a jackass—what gets him into trouble? Why does Fotis at first hesitate to aid him in his plan? 16. Lucius' transformation is on one level a dreadful thing, but at another level, what value is there in such a change from human to animal, and why is it appropriate that Lucius be turned into an ass and not some other animal? Book 6 17. Lucius describes what he saw and heard in the bandits' cave. How does the story of the third unlucky thief, Thrasyleon, help Apuleius explore the theme of metamorphosis? What warning does Thrasyleon's mischance deliver about pretending to be something other than what one is, and how does that lesson relate to Lucius' case? 18. How does the narrator seem to look upon the thieves' character and profession? Does he praise them or condemn them, or neither? Explain. 19. What does Lucius begin to notice about the effects wrought by his transformation? How is he different? How is he similar to the man Lucius? 20. The bandits capture a young woman betrothed to a man named Tlepolemus, and bring her to their hideaway. Why does she tell her story to the old woman who keeps house for the bandits? How does her story set up the story that the old woman tells? Books 7-9 (Cupid and Psyche) 21. What is the occasion of the recounting of this tale? At what other parts of The Golden Ass does Apuleius show an interest in metanarrative—i.e. in using his episodes to comment on the powers and risks of storytelling? 22. The Cupid and Psyche story may seem to be merely an entertaining bit of fancy storytelling, but how might it be connected to Lucius' journey and eventual spiritual enlightenment? How is what happens to Psyche, that is, related to what happens to Lucius? Book 10 23. How does Tlepolemus, Charitë's lover, manage to trick the bandits who are holding her hostage—what accounts for his success? What role does Lucius play in her rescue? Book 11 24. How does this book frustrate both Lucius' hopes for progress and the romance tale of Tlepolemus and Charitë? Why is Apuleius able to handle his characters so gruffly without compromising the integrity of his book as a whole? Book 12 25. After the death of Tlepolemus and Charitë, the bailiff sells Lucius to the head eunuch priest of a Syrian mystery cult, and a series of misadventures follow. What offenses against the gods do the priests commit, and how does Lucius manage to twart their designs? Book 13 26. At more than one point in The Golden Ass, as on page 203, Lucius compares himself to the heroes of Greek mythology, and Apuleius' entire book is sprinkled with Greek myth tales. What use are such comparisons and references in a work so full of entertaining yarns? 27. What lesson, if any, emerges from the combination of the tale told to the Baker's Christian wife by her confidante about Aretë, her husband Barbarus, her lover Philesietaerus, and the slave Myrmex, together with the adulterous behavior of the Baker's wife with Philesietaerus? What role does Lucius play in the wife's downfall? Book 14 28. Lucius is sold to a market-gardener whose kind treatment of a prosperous farmer lands the man a front-row seat as witness to a domestic tragedy. How do the events following this tragedy show Lucius' ability as an ass to “make an ass” of humans? Where else in the novel does this happen, briefly? Book 15 29. The centurion from the previous chapter leaves Lucius with a municipal councillor whose second wife wishes to commit incest with her stepson, tries to poison him when he refuses, and ends up exiled for almost killing her own son when he drinks the poison intended for the stepson. Prominent in this book are the institution of law and the practice of medicine. How do they fare at the hands of Apuleius? Is their depiction here typical of the rest of the book? Explain. Book 16 30. The centurion now sells Lucius to two kitchen slaves of the visiting Corinthian nobleman Thyasus, who ends up fond of Lucius for his antics and intelligence. Lucius is induced to engage in sexual acts with a noblewoman, and Thyasus borrows a condemned woman to put on a public peep-show. This is as good a place as any to explain how Apuleius handles female characters in The Golden Ass—how do his female characters compare in morals and conduct to his male characters? Book 17 31. Before the main event, spectators are treated to a retelling of the tale of Juno, Minerva, Venus, and Paris ' fateful choice of Venus as winner of a beauty contest. What is the point of our hearing this old story in this book, given the events swirling around it? 32. What leads Lucius to his successful escape? What does he do afterwards, and what is revealed to him and us about the nature of the goddess who will save him? Why do you suppose Isis has decided to rescue Lucius—has he done something right? Explain. Book 18 33. Lucius is transformed and saved at last, going through the proper steps of his religious conversion to the Cult of Isis. What do we learn about the nature of Fortune, and, by implication, about humans' attempts to commandeer their own destiny? 34. What must Lucius do to earn his security—what things must he do, what tendencies restrain, what ceremonies undergo, what visions obtain? What, therefore, is Apuleius' novel telling us about how we may establish an appropriate relationship to the divine? Book 19 35. Lucius is told by Isis to head for Rome even though he wants to go home to Madaura. What two further initiations must he undergo, and why? How does this final book bring us back round to practical matters about the connection between religion and ordinary affairs? Edition: The Golden Ass. Trans. Robert Graves . New York : Farrar, 1951. Repr. 1988.
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