the golden ass

"Written towards the end of the second century AD, The Golden Ass tells the story of the many adventures of a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to be transformed into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the Goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and initiates Lucius into her cult. It has long been disputed whether Apuleius meant this last-minute conversion seriously or as a final comic surprise and the challenge of interpretation continues to keep readers fascinated. Apuleius' enchanting story has inspired generations of writers such as Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Keats with its dazzling combination of allegory, satire, bawdiness and sheer exuberance, and The Golden Ass remains the most continuously and accessibly amusing book to have survived from Classical antiquity."

tw: rape, torture, animal cruelty, sexual content, slavery

this is the first classic i've ever read, and it has single handedly convinced me that i do not want to read another. 

the only facet of this book that i can praise is the time period in which it was written, and that component in itself has absolutely nothing to do with the plot or writing. it is one of the very first fantasy novels to exist in the world as far as we know and it maintains significance as a relic of the roman empire. i had to write an extensive paper on the golden ass for class, and although it was torturous, i can understand why the book's existence holds importance from a historical standpoint, but nothing else. 

my main gripe with this novel is that it is extremely misogynistic. i don't care that this is a product of its time period, it doesn't excuse the demonization of women. there are multiple encounters that lucius, the main character, is told a story involving magic that has the man as the victim and the woman as the big bad, to the point where it became very repetitive. with that being said, there is also an almost obnoxious amount of men whom were painted as victims. in the beginning of the book, lucius places his transformation on the woman he claimed to love despite him being the one to pressure her in the first place. men are not forced to take any accountability for their actions. therefore, apuleius intentionally sought to associate womanhood with evil through their association with magic. eventually near the end of the book, lucius is transformed back into a human by the goddess, isis. in addition to the misogyny, apuleius may also be implying that the evils of magic are more likely to occur amongst lower class women. bad magic is reserved for female peasantry.

reading old content that has such normalized misogyny felt more like a punishment than anything. it's frustrating. everything i've learned about the roman empire has been relatively upsetting. 

on another note, there is also a very disturbing beastiality scene that made me physically cringe with discomfort, considering the story would have remained the exact same without it. comical or not, it was weird and did nothing for the plot. makes me think that apuelius must have been on something when he wrote this book. 

personally, i would only read this book if it was mandatory for a school project, and nothing else. 

"Written towards the end of the second century AD, The Golden Ass tells the story of the many adventures of a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to be transformed into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the Goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and initiates Lucius into her cult. It has long been disputed whether Apuleius meant this last-minute conversion seriously or as a final comic surprise and the challenge of interpretation continues to keep readers fascinated. Apuleius' enchanting story has inspired generations of writers such as Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Keats with its dazzling combination of allegory, satire, bawdiness and sheer exuberance, and The Golden Ass remains the most continuously and accessibly amusing book to have survived from Classical antiquity."

tw: rape, torture, animal cruelty, sexual content, slavery