FIRST EDITION, 9 lithograph plates, lithograph endpapers, publishers printed boards, prserved in priginal slipcase, folio, London, The Folio Society, 1960
Robert Graves translation is the first modern translation of this work.
The plot of the Golden Ass follows the protagonist, a fictional Lucius, who undergoes a transformation into an ass and has adventures on his way to an initiation into a mystery cult of the goddess Isis. The hero’s encounters with witchcraft provides not only some of the most richly comical passages in the novel, but also accounts for the disastrous transformation of the handsome young nobleman. Apuleius introduces a witch – Pamphile – who is old, vengeful and consumed by her desires. It is through Pamphile that we gain the fullest insight into the workings of Classical witchcraft. Witchcraft works, but not for the good of either the practitioners or of wider humanity. It would seem to rebound with terrible, if often humorous, consequences for all concerned. Lucius spies on Pamphile as she undresses, takes out a little box of ointment and smearing it all over herself, mutters a long charm to her lamp and, shaking herself, transforms into an owl. Lucius, wanting this power so he could glide over rooftops, seduces Pamphiles slave and asks her to help him turn into an owl. Unfortunately she mixes up the two little boxes in the witch’s cabinet and gives Lucius an ointment that transforms him, not into an owl, but into a jackass. Misfortune follows misfortune, as Lucius – as an ass- is carried off in a bandit raid. The rest of the tale is devoted to Lucius’ various degradations as a beast of burden. Apuleius’ novel is a devotional work, chronicling the fall and subsequent redemption of Lucius. Once transformed into the ass, he has become the lowest of the low. However, while he had played around with the ‘wrong sort’ of magic, Lucius had not sought to use it for evil purposes, and this enables him to win back the sympathies of the gods.
Active during the Proconsulship of Claudius Maximus between 155-80CE, Lucius Apuleius, a philosopher, poet, rhetorician and priest of Isis, was himself accused of witchcraft.
After marrying the wealthy widow Aemilla Pudentilla, Apuleius was taken to court by her two adult sons, driven by distress over their lost inheritance. The sons asserted Apuleius must have bewitched Pudentilla into loving him in order to gain her fortune. The author and philosopher stood trial for what was effectively fraud, accomplished by the means of witchcraft.
Apuleius was a skilled debater who had made the mysteries of religion and magic his life long study. While defending himself, he mocked the sons and their claims while justifying his own practices in magic. He was successful and was acquitted on all charges.
“Witchcraft charges were, Apuleius contended, used as an insidious handle with which to ensnare the accused. There was no way of stilling accusations of that nature once they had been made, or of giving a right answer to the prosecutor.”
…Thus, the rules of the witch prosecution – that were to become so depressingly familiar to thousands of victims over the next 1,500 years – were stripped bare in a North African courtroom.’ – John Callow
The Golden Ass, despite its recourse to jokes and sexual humour, is an avowedly religeous text. The beauty and piety of the work are often overlooked in favour of the knock-about comedy. St Augustine of Hippo hated Apulius’ religious pluralism and conception of Socratic philosophy, but he acknowledged him as a source of knowledge on demonology. Augustine laid the foundation for demonological witch theory in a few short passages in ‘The City of God’ written specifically to confute Apuleius. Augstine’s thoughts on demons informed the core theorists behind the European witch trials, such as Jean Bodin, Martin Del Rio and the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum.
An avid classicist, The Golden Ass inspired Albrecht Durer’s engravings of witches, in turn influencing the image of the witch in Northern Europe.
[Embracing the Darkness A Cultural History of Witchcraft, Callow, 2018]
