Classics 355
Apuleius (conclusion)
April 25, 2023

Egyptian tomb painting of Isis, ca. 1360 BCE

CREATIVE PROJECT: due tonight @11:59pm in D2L Assignments

The Golden Ass 10-11: Ass-man's final calamitous wanderings & surprise enlightenment

• Book 10: HTVT journey continues, little indication Ass-man on spiritual Odyssey "home"
  

• inset tragedy (cf. Euripides's Hippolytus, Seneca's Phaedra) of the stepmother's crucifixion, followed by comedy of "Gourmet Ass" (soldier's sale of Ass-man to slave caterers, "these brothers adopted me as a third roommate, and there was no other period when Fortune treated me so kindly", 10.13)
  
  
• final random episode(s): Ass-man > new master/magistrate sponsoring Roman spectacle in Corinth (shopping for beasts & gladiators in Thessaly)
  
  R: temple of Isis at Pompeii
  
  
• romantic encounter with "asinine Pasiphaë" (10.19) > drastic transformation of lost Greek Milesian tale, Lucius or The Ass (summary: Ass-man transformed, returns to Pasiphaë and is rejected)
  
  
• "marriage" in Corinthian spectacle: story of woman condemned ad bestias (jealousy, false accusations, poison, quadruple murder, 10.23-8)
  
  
• Spring spectacle of entertainment, aesthetics + violence (pantomime of Judgment of Paris, mountain setting, almost nude Venus, chorus of Cupids, etc., 10.29-34)
  
  Golden Ass 10.34 (pantomine ends, release of saffron scent & change of staging)
  The next moment, however, a soldier was striding straight across the arena, to fetch the woman from the city jail, as the audience was yelling for her . . . Already what looked like an elaborate wedding couch was being made up for us. The frame had a gleaming, transparent Indian tortoise shell inlay, the mattress was swollen from the mound of down inside, and flowers spangled the silken coverlet.
  
  
• Ass-man escapes becoming a spectacle (cf. Seneca), flees to seaside near Corinth (silent night, full-moon, deep sleep) > site of mystical conversion, epiphany of goddess
  
  L: Isis (right) & Queen Nefertari, Theban tomb, 13th century BCE; R: black & white marble Isis, 2nd century CE (Naples)
  
  
• Book 11: Ass-man awakens & humbles himself in prayer to "Queen of heaven"; baptizes himself ("Ducking my head under the waves seven times . . . I beseeched with a teary countenance the goddess who is puissant beyond all others, 11.1)
  
  
• redemption of Ass-man (divine mercy): aretology of Isis ("excellence-narrative"), Isis as Cybele/Ceres/Minerva/Diana/Venus/Proserpina (11.2)
  
  Golden Ass 11.5 (merciful Isis appears in a dream & speaks to Ass-man)
  I am mother of the universe, queen of all the elements, the original offspring of eternity, loftiest of the gods, queen of the shades, foremost of the heavenly beings, single form of gods and goddesses alike. I control by my will the dazzling summits of the sky, the wholesome breezes of the sea, the despairing silences of the dead below. The whole world worships my power under an abundance of names, a variety of rituals, and an array of names . . . But the Ethiopians, whose sky is lit by the raw rays of the Sun at his daily birth, and the Africans, and the Egyptians with their powerful, immemorial knowledge worship me in ceremonies inherently mine and call my by my true name, Queen Isis.
  
  
• Lucius's initiation into mysteries of savior goddess Isis: ancient “mysteries” = secret rites of initiation, promise of personal salvation, rituals of rebirth, happy life & afterlife (e.g. Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter, Orphism, Mitras) vs. Greek & Roman state religion
  
  
• Ass-man promised afterlife in Elysian Fields by Isis in dream (11.6); inclusive cult (sacred procession of initiates, “men and women of all ranks and ages”, 11.10); cult of Isis includes dualistic doctrine (soul/body), moral prescriptions, sacred symbols; initiation ritual a rebirth ("I approached the boundary of death and placed my foot on Proserpina's threshold. I made my way through the every level of the universe and back", 11.23); cf. Psyche
  
  The Golden Ass 11.23 (Isis's mysteries not revealed; admonishment against curiosity)
  Perhaps, eager reader, you have a certain pressing curiosity about what was said and done at this point. I would tell you if telling were permitted; you could learn of it if you were allowed to hear. But your ears and my tongue would incur equal blame, the latter for its impious loquacity, the former for its foolhardy prying.
  
  
• typical (anthropological) patterns of religious conversion: rejection of world's unstable values, "false" desires & pleasures; new insights, joy & knowledge (images of light, freedom, clarity, unity, stability); cf. religious aspirations in Greco-Roman world in 2nd century CE
  
  
• Ass-man’s reverse-metamorphosis, rebirth as Lucius
  
  Golden Ass 11.13-14
  Immediately, the offensive form of a brute beast fell from me. First the scruffy hair sloughed off. Then my thick hide dwindled, my fat belly sank in; at the end of my legs hooves grew into digits. My hands were feet no more but reached out to perform their upright roles. My extended neck was now cut short, my face and head rounded out, and my enormous ears resumed their original paltry proportions. My boulder-like teeth again became minute human ones. And that most effective vehicle for my torment, my tail, was nowhere in evidence. [Lat. cauda = "tail", "penis"] . . . As soon as the ass had disappeared, you see, robbing me of its covering—however revolting—I had to squeeze my thighs together and stretch my hands overtop, safeguarding myself as decently as a naked man can: with the hands he was born with serving as a veil.
  
  Isis-Fortuna, House of Philocalus, Pompeii, 1st century CE
  
  
• Lucius under protection of Isis-Fortuna: light, purity, truth vs. randomness of fortune; abandons sensuality & idle curiosity, world of superficiality/appearances for promise of blessed (after-)life; cf. Psyche's journey toward higher love & immortality = "freedom"
  
  Golden Ass 11.15 (Isis’s priest to Lucius on his personal liberation/transformation)
  Neither your distinguished family nor your lofty rank, nor even the learning in which you excel, profited you in the slightest; no, the exuberance of your tender years tripped you up. You toppled among pleasures fit only for slaves and gained the sad reward for your unpropitious curiosity. Blind Fortune mangled you with the most painful trials. but she managed nevertheless, through a spite that could not make out what must come of its own maneuvers, to bring you to this holy bliss. . . Now you are under the protection of another kind of Fortune, one who can see, one who with splendor illuminates even the other gods . . . But Lucius, to fortify yourself, to be safer still, enlist in this holy army, to which you were called up a short while ago, and swear allegiance. Devote yourself obediently to our sect and take on the voluntary yoke of service. For when you become the goddess's slave, you will know a greater enjoyment of your freedom.
  
  
  Dedicatory inscription at Temple of Isis, Pompeii, 62 CE
  
  
• Lucius embraces new world order & system of meaning—or Apuleius's cynical satire?
  
  Golden Ass 11.25 (Lucius speaks to Isis before departing for Rome)
  Oh, sanctified, eternal savioress of the human race, always bountiful to mortals, always cherishing us; you who lavish the sweet compassion of a mother on our wretched tribulations: there is no day, no time of rest, not even an evanescent moment that is not the object of your busy favors. You shield mankind on land and sea, and stretch forth your hand, which can tease out the impossibly tangled threads of fate, calm the tempests of Fortune, and check harmful courses of the constellations. The gods above worship you, honor is yours from the gods below. You turn the globe, light the sun, regulate the universe, trample Tartarus's realm of death. Under your control the heavenly bodies move, the seasons return, the divinities rejoice, the earth, sea, and sky perform their slavish duties.
  
  
• merger of narrator & author in reported vision of priest: "this man had heard that someone from Madauros was being sent to him, someone quite poor but requiring immediate initiation at the priest's hands. For by the god's providence, this initiate would win fame in his profession, and the priest would gain no small profit" (11.27); cf. Apuleius as advocate in Rome, priest in Carthage
  
  Fresco of Isis mystery (?), Herculaneum, 1st century CE
  
  
• Lucius's initial reluctance to commit ("a reverent dread held me back, for from careful inquiries I knew it was hard to keep this religion: the abstinent purity required was quite a climb, 11.19)
  
  
• reborn to friends & family (“returned from the underworld”, 11.18): white horse returned (11.20), returns to "ancestral hearth" (11.26) before heading to Rome
  
  
• Lucius the initiate metamorphosizes into blessed mystic = celibate, shaven-headed priest of Isis & consort Osiris in Rome, supports himself as lawyer; completes Odyssey, new focus on service in cult
  
  L: Osiris (seated), with Anubis & Horus, Tomb of Pharaoh Horemheb, 14th century BCE; R: Priest at Sarcophagus of Osiris Fresco, Temple of Isis, Pompeii
  
  
• Lucius's future: "I went joyfully about the duties of this venerable priesthood . . . I did not cloak or conceal my baldness, wherever I went and whomever I met" (11.30)
  
  Roman grafitto ("Alexamenos worships his god"), ca. 200 CE
  
  
• novel an advertisment for worship of Isis in face of competing mystery religions, e.g. the Syrian goddess (Atargatis), Christianity (baker's wife, Book 9)?
  
  
• The Golden Ass as HTVT journey to personal recovery, HTVT survivor-text > meaning & purpose out of suffering; embracing something "bigger than ourselves"