Return to an Old Book

RETURN TO AN OLD BOOK CARLETON STANLEY RECENTLY a happy chance led me to take down an old book which , I had ~ot opened for many years, Th~ Golden Ass, by Apuleius. As always"happens, enough of it had been forgotten to make the story' fresh and interesting. ' Little is known of Apuleius himself; but that hardly matters, irt comparison with the world he depicts-the Mediterranean world of the second century A.D. We know that he was born in Africa, at Madaura which was supposed to be half Numidian and half Gaetulian. Some put his birth at about 125 to 130 A.D. Whether he married a rich widow early or late, hehad money "to travel and went to Greece. Later he learned the Latin tongue and it was in Latin he wrote. He probably knew the writings of Lucian pretty well and possibly models known to Lucian which are no longer extant. In a dim and less certain way, perhaps ~t second or third hand, , he knew some of the works of Plato. His Latin is a jumble of early and late vocabulary: perhaps he picked it up mainly from half-educated peopI'e. The Medjterranean world he describes has no clear geographical frontiers or features, and no ve,ry certain government. Allusions are made by way of jest, to Roman laws on 'adultery and runaway slaves. The allusion to the policing of markets and the control of prices is a caricature of Athenian rather than Roman practice. The most solemn oath one can take is to swear by the Emperor, who is universally regarded as a divinity. It'is a world infested with' brigand's; it is superstitious; given over to quackeries and magic, and we hear nothing of Christianity. A man wanders th~ough it at his peril and is certain to have many ~dventures. Here and there, women are possessed of great wealth which they 'use unscrupulously and chiefly for their' own pleasure. The hero of the story is supposed to be a Greek who wanders into Thessaly because of its reputation for magic. 'The echoes which resound there are of Corinth, Aegina, and of Sparta, rather than of Athens. One of the charaQters introduced is called Socrates, but he is far removed from the Socrates known to us. Everywhere there are public baths and this sounds more like Roman Africa than Greece at any period. Indeed Apu'leius ,--himself may, have travelled chiefly in Africa. The ,hero soon encounters Milo, a skinflint who entertains him in a niggardly way; and we p~esently hear of magic-working women. The rich woman who has designs on him 15 forestaHed by a servant girl, who not only makes love to him but divulges many magic secrets to him. Magic and brigands violently cross the.course of true love, and, instead of being turned in'to a bird, with his lover~ he is transformed into'an ass-ill used by one master after another, thou"gh he retains throughout some of his human faculties, and has the advantage, in 409 1- 410 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTE'RLY his asinine shape, of seeing and hearing many things that would otherwise ' have been unknown to him. Midway, the story more or less stops, while an old crone, to soothe and comfort a distressed maiden, tells the story of Eros and Psyche. , The story is that Psyche is the younge~t daughter of the king and queen ((in a certain city." The two older daughters are beautiful as princesses should be, and marry kings in adjoining states. ,But the youngest is of a beauty so ethereal that men glance at her with awe and re'verence, none offering ,to marry her. Her fame spreads and visitors come from f~r and wide across the ,seas, and accord her the worship they had previously given Venus. This offends the powerful goddess, who determines to disgrac~ and destroy her mortal rival. She calls her son, Cupid or Eros, to her aid and orders him to mate Psyche with a loathsome reptile. Eros, however, falls in love with Psyche and conspires with Apollo, whose temple strangely, for this time, is in...