SAGAE THESSALAE (Apuleius, Metamorphoses II.21-30)
The only complete Roman novel to have survived, the Metamorphoses ("Transformations") - also known to the Romans and to us today as the Asinus Aureus ("The Golden Ass") - was written by Lucius
Apuleius in the mid 2 nd century AD.
It tells the story of Lucius, whose fascination with sex and magic results in his transformation into an ass. After suffering many trials and humiliations he is ultimately transformed back into human shape by the kindness of the goddess Isis. Blending adventure, romance, magic and religion into a fastpaced novel, the Golden Ass is one of the most influential novels in Western literature. The term
"golden" implies neither the metal itself nor its colour, but rather its associated qualities; thus a more apt and witty title may be “The Amazing Ass”.
Witches were common in the ancient Greek and Roman world, and those inhabiting the part of northern Greece known as Thessaly were infamous for being able to "draw down the moon" and for eating the flesh of dead bodies.
In this episode, Lucius is travelling through Thessaly. At a party, he is asked what he thinks of
Thessaly. He replies that he is impressed but worried by stories he has heard about the local witches, who cut pieces of flesh from corpses. One of the guests laughingly points to a man in the corner of the room, saying that he has suffered this fate while still alive. The man, called Thelyphron, reluctantly agrees to tell his story.

Latin text sagae Thessalae. iuvenis ego Mileto profectus ad spectaculum Olympicum, cum haec etiam loca provincae clarae visitare cuperem, peragrata tota Thessalia Larissam perveni. ac dum urbem pererrans tenuato viatico paupertati meae fomenta quaero, medio in foro senem conspicio. insistebat lapidem magnaque voce praedicabat, si quis mortuum custodire vellet, magnum praemium accepturum esse. et cuidam praetereunti ‘quid hoc’ inquam
‘audio? hic mortui solent aufugere?’
‘tace,’ respondit ille. ‘nam puer et satis peregrinus es, meritoque nescis in
Thessalia te esse, ubi sagae ora mortuorum semper demorsicant, quae sunt illis artis magicae supplementa.’ contra ego ‘quali custodela’ inquam ‘opus est?’

‘iam primum’ respondit ille ‘ totam noctem eximie vigilandum est apertis et inconivis oculis semper in cadaver intentis, nec acies usquam devertenda est, cum illae pessimae sagae latenter arrepant, forma in quodvis animal conversa. nam et aves et canes et mures, immo vero etiam muscas, induunt.’
The man ends with a warning that if someone fails to deliver the body intact in the morning, he is forced to replace missing pieces of flesh with pieces sliced from his own face. his cognitis animum meum commasculo et statim accedens senem
‘clamare’ inquam ‘iam desine. adest custos paratus.’ vix finieram et statim me perducit ad domum quandam, ubi demonstrat matronam flebilem fuscis vestimentis conectam. illa surrexit et ad cubiculum me induxit. ibi corpus splendentibus linteis coopertum manu revelavit. ubi singula anxie demonstravit, exiit.

Thelyphron begins his vigil. sic desolatus ad cadaveris solacium, perfrictis oculis et paratis ad vigiliam, dum animum meum permulcebam cantationibus, usque ad mediam noctem pervigilabam. tum autem mihi formido cumulatior cum repente intropens mustela contra me constitit oculosque in me fixit. tanta fiducia in tantulo animal mihi turbavit animum. denique sic illi ‘abi’ inquam
‘scelesta bestia, antequam meam vim celeriter experiaris! abi!’ mustela terga vertit et e cubiculo protinus exit. sine mora somnus tam profundus me repente demergit, ut ne deus quidem Delphicus ipse facile discernere posset ex duobus nobis iacentibus, quis esset magis mortuus. tandem prima luce expergitus et magno pavore perterritus cadaver accurro, et admoto lumine revelatoque eius vultu, omnia diligenter inspicio: nihil deest. ecce uxor misera flens introrumpit: cadavere inspecto reddit sine mora praemium.

While I was recovering my strength in the street next to the house, the body was brought out.
Because it was the body of one of the leading citizens, it was carried in a procession around the forum according to local custom. As this was taking place, an old man suddenly appeared. He was weeping and tearing out his fine white hair. He ran up to the bier and embraced it. Amid sobs and groans he cried out:
‘per fidem vestram’ inquit ‘cives, per pietatem publicam, perempto civi subsistite et extremum facinus istius feminae nefariae scelestaeque severiter vindicate. haec enim nec ullus alius miserum iuvenem, sororis meae filium, in adulteri gratiam et ob praedam hereditariam exstinxit veneno.’ illa, lacrimis effusis quamque sanctissime poterat adiurans cunctos deos, tantum scelus abnuebat. ergo senex ille: ‘veritatis arbitrium in divinam providentiam ponamus. Zatchlas adest Aegyptius propheta notissimus, qui mihi promisit se pro magno praemio spiritum istius cadaveris paulisper ab inferis reducturum esse corpusque animaturum.

The prophet was stirred into action. He took a special herb and laid it three times on the mouth of the dead man. Then he took another and put it on his breast. Then he turned to face the east and in silence prayed to the scared disc of the rising sun. The people waited in expectation of a miracle. immitto me turbae et pone ipsum lectulum lapidem insistens omnia curiosis oculis spectabam. iam tumore pectus cadaveris extolli, iam spiritu corpus impleri. et surgit cadaver et profatur ‘cur, oro, me post Lethaea pocula iam Stygiis paludibus innatantem ad momentariae vitae officia reducitis? desine iam, precor, desine, ac me in meam quietem permitte.’ haec vox de corpore audita est, sed propheta aliquanto commotior ‘quin narras’ inquit ‘populo omnia de morte tua?’ respondet ille de lectulo et imo cum gemitu populum sic adloquitur: ‘malis novae nuptae artibus peremptus et addictus noxio poculo, torum terpentem adultero reddidi. dabo vobis documenta veritatis perlucida, et quod prorsus alius nemo cognoverit vel ominaverit indicabo.’

tunc digito me demonstrans: ‘nam cum corporis mei custos hic sagacissimus exsertam vigiliam mihi teneret, sagae quaedam exuviis meis imminentes forma mutata apparuerunt. cum industriam sedulam eius fallere non potuissent, postremo iniecta somni nebula eum in profundam quietem sepeliverunt. tum me nomine excitare coeperunt neque prius desierunt quam dum hebetes artus mei et membra frigida ad artis magicae obsequia segniter nituntur. hic autem, qui vivus erat, et tantum sopore mortuus, idem mecum nomen forte habet. ad suum nomen igitur ignarus exsurgit, et, in exanimis umbrae modum ultro gradiens, ianuam adit. quamquam fores cubiculi diligenter occlusae erant, per quoddam foramen prosectis naso prius ac mox auribus lanienam pro me passus est. tum sagae ceram in modum prosectarum formatam aurium ei applicant nasumque similem prosecto comparant. et nunc stat miser hic, praemium non industriae sed lanienae consecutus.’

his dictis perterritus temptare formam incipio. manu nasum prehendo: sequitur; aures pertracto: deruunt. ac dum turba directis digitis et nutibus me donatat, inter pedes cirumstantium frigido sudore defluens effugio. nec postea sic debilis ac sic ridiculus ad patriam redire potui, sed capillis hinc inde deiectis aurium vulnera celavi, nasi vero dedecus linteolo isto decenter obtexi.

Translation
As a young man having set out from Miletus to the Olympic Games, since I wanted to visit these places of the famous province as well, I travelled through the whole of Thessaly and reached Larissa.
And while wandering through the city, since my travelling allowance had been diminished, I’m looking for remedies for my poverty and catch sight of an old man in the middle of the forum. He was standing on a stone and proclaiming with a loud voice that if anyone wanted to guard a dead man, he would receive a big reward. I said to a certain man as he passed by, ‘Why am I hearing this? Are the dead here accustomed to run away?’ ‘Be quiet,’ the man replied, ‘for you are a boy and a mere foreigner, and naturally you do not know that you are in Thessaly, where witches always bite pieces out of the faces of the dead, which are for them extra ingredients for their magic art.’ In reply I said,
‘What sort of protection is needed?’
‘First of all’, he replied, ‘you must stay fully awake for the whole night, with your open and unsleeping eyes always directed at the corpse, nor must you ever turn away your gaze when really evil witches creep up secretly, their shape changed into any animal. For they take the form of birds and dogs and mice, and indeed even flies.’
Having found this out, I strengthen my resolve and, immediately approaching the old man, I say ‘Stop shouting now. Your guard is here ready for action.’ I had scarcely finished when at once he leads me to a certain house where he shows me a woman weeping, dressed in dark clothes. She got up and led me to a bedroom. There with her hand she uncovered the body wrapped in shining white sheets.
When anxiously she showed me its individual features, she left.

Thus left alone to comfort the corpse, having rubbed my eyes and prepared them for guard duty, while I was soothing my spirit with songs, I stayed awake until the middle of the night. Then, however, my fear was increased when suddenly a weasel creeping in stopped in front of me and fixed its eyes onto me. Such a great self-confidence in so small an animal disturbed my resolve. Finally I spoke to it in this way: ‘Go away you wicked beast, before you quickly experience my force. Go away!’
The weasel turns its back and immediately goes out from the bedroom. Without delay, such a deep sleep suddenly overwhelms me that not even the Delphic god himself could easily decide between the two of us lying there who was the more dead.
At last, having been awoken at dawn and utterly scared with great panic, I run over to the corpse and, having brought a light near and uncovered his face, I examine everything carefully: nothing is missing.
See, his wretched wife bursts in weeping: having examined the corpse, she gives me my reward without delay.
‘For the sake of your honour’, he said, ‘citizens, for the sake of public duty, help this murdered citizen and punish severely the vilest crime committed by that wicked and criminal woman. For this woman and no other has killed with poison this wretched young man, my sister’s son, for the gratitude of her lover and because of inherited profit.’

She, with tears pouring out and as piously as she could calling all the gods to witness, denied so great a crime. Therefore that old man said, ‘Let us put the judgement of the truth to divine providence.
The Egyptian Zatchlas is present, a very well-known prophet who promised me that, for a sizeable reward, he would bring back the spirit of that corpse for a short time and would bring the body back to life.’
I push myself into the crowd and standing on a stone behind the bier itself, I began watching everything with prying eyes. Now the chest of the corpse was raised by a swelling, now the body was filled with breath. The corpse both gets up and speaks out: ‘Why, I beg, are you leading me back, after drinking from the cups of Lethe and as I now embark on the Stygian pools, for the duties of a short-lived life? Stop now, I pray, and allow me back into my rest.’ This voice was heard from the body, but the prophet rather quite moved said, ‘Why don’t you tell the people everything about your death?’
He replies from the bier and with a deep groan addresses the people thus: ‘Murdered by the evil arts of my new bride and a victim of a poisoned cup, I yielded my warm marriage-bed to her lover. I will give you very clear proof of the truth, and I will reveal to you what absolutely nobody else could find out or predict.’
Then, pointing me out with his finger, he said: ‘For when this very keen-witted guard of my body was keeping his intensive vigil for me, certain witches, hanging over my remains, appeared in changed form. When they had been unable to lead astray his unremitting diligence, finally they threw upon him a cloud of sleep and buried him in a deep rest. Then they began to wake me by name and they did not stop until my sluggish joints and cold limbs struggle slowly to obey their magic art. This man, however, who was alive and only dead asleep, by chance has the same name as me.
Therefore, at the sound of his name he unwittingly gets up and, in the manner of a lifeless ghost proceeding of its own accord, he approaches the door. Although the bedroom’s doors had been carefully locked, through a certain hole first his nose and soon his ears were cut off, and he suffered the mutilation for me. Then the witches attach to him wax shaped in the manner of his cut-off ears and provide a similar nose to the one cut off. And now this wretched fellow stands here, having earned a reward not for his diligence but for a mutilation.”
Terrified by these words, I begin to test my appearance. I grasp my nose with my hand: it comes away; I touch my ears: they fall off. And while the crowd identifies me with pointing fingers and nods,
I escape between the feet of the bystanders, dripping with cold sweat. Nor afterwards, so maimed and so ridiculous, could I return to my native land, but with my hair loose on both sides I hid the wounds of my ears, indeed for the sake of decency I covered up the disgrace of my nose with this patch.