Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Part 2
Myth and Religion
Mythic Allusions
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Audience is familiar with Greaco-Roman myths
Socrates called “my Ganymede” by Meroe (1.12) –
Note: reversal of gender roles
Venus’ allusion to the “Judgment of Paris” (4.30)
Allusion to the myth of Demeter and Persephone
(6.2)
References to the Underworld (1.15, 6.16-20)
Pandora’s Box (6.21)
Psyche as Pandora 6.21
Meroe as Medea 1.10
Psyche as Herakles
Psyche is given 4 labors by Venus
 1. Sorting the mountain of seeds (6.10)
 2. Gathering the golden fleece (6.11)
 3. Bringing water from the source of the
Styx, Cocytus etc. (6.13)
 4. Journey to the underworld to borrow
make-up from Proserpina (6.16-20)
 Readers were familiar with these myths
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Religion in the Roman Empire
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Romans frequently incorporated foreign deities and cults into
religious life
highly eclectic religious context: they picked and chose and
adapted what suited them best
205 BCE imported Magna Mater Idaea, a.k.a. Cybele ( from Asia
Minor)
186 BCE Bacchus (Greek Dionysos)
37 CE – 41 CE – Isis and Osiris/Serapis established at Rome
(Egypt)
Increase of number of “Mystery Cults” (i.e. Eleusinian
Mysteries; Dionysus; Orphic Cult; Isis; Christianity)
Cannot speak of “Greek” or “Roman” or “Egyptian” but only of
“Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World”
Contemporary ‘Roman’ view on the nature of Religious life in Rome
(Minucius Felix, Octavius 6.8)
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“So it is that throughout all empires, provinces, and cities, we see that
each people has its national rites of worship and adores its own local
sets of gods. The Eleusinians…worship Ceres; the Phrygians…, the
Great Mother; The Epidaurians,…Asculapeius; the Chaldaeans,…Bel; the
Syrians,…Astarte; the Taurians,…Diana; the Gauls,…Mercury; and the
Romans, all divinities. Thus their power and authority has occupied the
circuit of the whole world; thus it has advanced the bounds of empire
beyond the path of the sun and the frontier of the Ocean itself. When
they fight in the field, they show bravery inspired by religion. At home
they fortify their city with sacred rites, with the Vestal Virgins, and
many priestly dignities and titles. When they were besieged….and all
the city except for the Capitol taken, they still worshipped the gods,
although other peoples, when their gods were angry, would have
neglected them. When, in turn, they capture a city, they venerate the
conquered gods, although still full of fury from the struggle.
Everywhere they seek the gods of strangers and make them their own.
They even build altars to unknown deities and spirits of the dead! Thus,
while they adopt the rituals of all nations, they have also deservedly
won dominion of all nations.”
Religious Eclecticism in
The Golden Ass
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Egyptian elements
Greek elements
Roman elements
Celtic elements
See a blending of many different myths, forming a single
narrative.
Reflecting the Ancient Mediterranean world as a ‘global
culture’
The Religions of Lucius
(Apuleius, Golden Ass 3.15.
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Photis: “ I’m scared she said, ‘and frankly
terrified to disclose what this house conceals
and to lay bare my mistress’ secrets. But I know
I can rely on your character and training: you
are a man of noble birth and lofty intellect and
have been initiated in several cults
Celtic Deities in Thessaly
(Apuleius, Golden Ass 3.27. P.G. Walsh, 1994)
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Celtic Deity Epona 3.27
Epona = “The Great Mare”, Celtic goddess of horses,
donkeys, and mules. Associated with fertility
False Piety
1.The Priests of Atargatis (a Syrian
Mother),
 2.The Baker’s Wife – a Christian
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The Priests of Atargatis
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 9.8)
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“Having stayed in this place for a few days, fattened by
public charity and stuffed with the ample proceeds of
their prophesying these most chaste priests devised a
new way of making money. They composed one allpurpose oracle and used it to bamboozle the crowds of
people who came to consult them abut all sort of things.
This was how it went: the yoked oxen drive the furrow
now, so that one day luxuriant crops shall grow”
The Christian Wife of the Miller
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 9.14)
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“Not a single vice was wanting in this abominable
woman’s make-up; her heart was like a slimy cesspit in
which every kind of moral turpitude had collected. She
was hard-hearted, perverse, man-mad, drunken, and
stubborn to the last degree. Tight-fisted in the squalid
pursuit of gain, lavish in spending on debauchery, she
had no use for loyalty and was a sworn enemy to
chastity. Worse still, she had rejected and spurned the
heavenly gods, and in place of true religion she had
falsely and blasphemously set up a deity of her own
whom she proclaimed as the One and Only God; and
having bamboozled the world in general and her
husband in particular by meaningless rituals of her own
invention, she was able to give herself over to a daylong course of drinking and prostitution.”
The Cruelty of Fate
Fate is prominent and constant theme
throughout novel:
 At first the experiences of Lucius and everyone
else appears to be determined by fate
 Examples: 1. Good things happen to bad people,
2. Bad things happen to good people, 3.
Sometimes people get what they deserve
 But human error consists in not recognizing the
divine purpose of fate – and once Lucius is
enlightened it is clear that there is a divine
purpose behind fate: fate is not blind
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Fortune cannot be changed
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 9.2)
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“But it’s a dead certainty that nothing can
go right for any human being if Fortune
sets her face against him, and no decision,
however prudent, no counter-measure,
however cunning, can upset change what
divine Providence has decreed and
ordained.”
Good Things Happen to Bad People
The Roman Official and his Freedman
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 10.23)
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“My keeper more than happy to allow her
to enjoy me as often as she wanted,
partly because he was making a very good
thing out of it, and partly because here
was a way of providing his master with a
fresh spectacle. He therefore lost no time
in letting him into the secret of our erotic
performances. The master rewarded his
freedman liberally and decided to make a
public exhibition of me.”
Bad Things Happen to Good People
The Market Gardner/The Baker’s Daughter/The Three Good Sons
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 9.42; 9.31; 9.35)
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The gardener 9.42
The miller’s daughter 9.31
The three good sons 9.35-38
The Moral of the Story? Morality!
Isis: The True Faith and Salvation
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Books 1-10: displays, in increasingly violent
terms, the utter depravity of the human animal
Humanity is mired in a quagmire of greed, lust,
faithlessness, and violence
Book 11: Resolves the moral dilemma – Isis is
the answer to human misery and morality
caused by blind Fate
Lucius realizes this through a series of figurative
and literal epiphanies/realizations at 10.33;
11.1; 11.15
(these passages are important!)
The Cult of Isis
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Egyptian deity who encompasses all other Egyptian
goddesses
Is worshipped together with her husband/brother Osiris
Identified with Demeter by Greeks since at least 430
BCE
Cult of Isis popular in Rome after 41 CE - 6th century CE
Cult Figurine of Isis/Fortuna
1st Century CE
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/isis_fortuna.jpg
Isis with Horus
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/gods/explore/images/stisis.jpg
Isis Ritual – Temple of Isis
Pompeii
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/isispriest_candelabra.jpg
Story of Isis and Osiris
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Born to Cronus and Rhea
Consummate their relationship while still in the womb
Osiris becomes first king of Egypt
Associated with the following teachings: 1.Against cannibalism,
2.Laws, 3.Agriculture, 4.Religious ritual, 5.Marriage, 6.Technical
skills
Osiris killed by Typhoeus, who abducts his body
Isis wanders the earth to find him
Comes to Byblus – befriends the king’s daughters – brought home
to nurse their infant brother – places him in fire at night to make
him immortal – discovered by the queen – demands the body of
Osiris
Returns to Egypt with the coffin – Typhoeus dismembers the corpse
and scatters the bits – Isis sets out to retrieve them – recovers all
but the penis – made a wooden penis as a substitute
Osiris returns from the dead to prepare Horus for battle with
Typhoeus – Horus delivers Typhoeus to Isis in chains – Isis releases
him
Herodotus On Isis – ca. 430 BCE
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“The Egyptians meet in solemn assembly not once a year only, but
on a number of occasions, the most important and best being the
festival of Artemis at Bubastis: second in importance is the assembly
at Busiris – a city in the middle if the Delta, containing a vast temple
dedicated to Isis, the Egyptian equivalent of Demeter, in whose
honor the meeting is held.” (2.59. A. De Selincourt, 1954)
“The Egyptians say that Apollo and Artemis are the children of Isis
and Dionysus, and Leto saved them and brought them up.: (2.156.
A. De Selincourt, 1954)
“All Egyptians use bulls and bull-calves for sacrifice, if they have
passed the test for cleanliness; but they are forbidden to sacrifice
heifers, on the ground that they are sacred to Isis. The statues of
Isis show a female figure with cow’s horns, like the Greek
representations of Io, and of all animals heifers are universally held
by the Egyptians in the greatest reverence. This is the reason why
no Egyptian, man or woman, will kiss a Greek, or use a Greek knife,
spit, or cauldron, or even eat the flesh of a bull known to be clean,
if it has been cut with a Greek knife.” (2.41. A. De Selincourt, 1954)
Isis and Io – Alternate Versions
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“She [Io] entered Scythia and the Cimmerian Land,
wandering over a large area and swimming through
much of the sea both in Europe and in Asia, until she
finally came to Egypt, where she regained her original
form and gave birth beside the Nile to Epaphus. Hera
asked the Curetes to spirit him off, and they did. When
Zeus learned of it, he killed the Curetes and Io began
searching for Epaphus. She wandered through all of
Syria (for it was revealed to her that the wife of king
Byblus was nursing her son) and after she found him she
returned to Egypt and married Telegonus, who was at
that time king of Egypt. She erected a statue of Demeter
whom the Egyptians call Isis; they also call Io Isis.”
(Apollodorus, Bibl. 2.1.3-4. M. Simpson, 1976)
Isis and Iphis
(Ovid, Met. 9.666-700)
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Once, there lived at Phaestus, not far from the town of Gnossus, a man Ligdus, not
well known; in fact obscure, of humble parentage, whose income was no greater
than his birth; but he was held trustworthy and his life had been quite blameless.
When the time drew near his wife should give birth to a child, he warned her and
instructed her, with words we quote:--“There are two things which I would ask of
Heaven: that you may be delivered with small pain, and that your child may surely be
a boy. Girls are such trouble, fair strength is denied to them.--Therefore (may
Heaven refuse the thought) if chance should cause your child to be a girl, (gods
pardon me for having said the word!) we must agree to have her put to death.” And
all the time he spoke such dreaded words, their faces were completely bathed in
tears; not only hers but also his while he forced on her that unnatural command. Ah,
Telethusa ceaselessly implored her husband to give way to fortune's cast; but Ligdus
held his resolution fixed. And now the expected time of birth was near, when in the
middle of the night she seemed to see the goddess Isis, standing by her bed, in
company of serious spirit forms; Isis had crescent horns upon her forehead, and a
bright garland made of golden grain encircled her fair brow. It was a crown of regal
beauty: and beside her stood the dog Anubis, and Bubastis, there the sacred,
dappled Apis, and the God of silence with pressed finger on his lips; the sacred
rattles were there, and Osiris, known the constant object of his worshippers' desire,
and there the Egyptian serpent whose quick sting gives long-enduring sleep. She
seemed to see them all, and even to hear the goddess say to her, “O Telethusa, one
of my remembered worshippers, forget your grief; your husband's orders need not
be obeyed; and when Lucina has delivered you, save and bring up your child, if
either boy or girl. I am the goddess who brings help to all who call upon me; and you
shall never complain of me--that you adored a thankless deity.” So she advised by
vision the sad mother, and left her.
(
Isis the embodiment
of many deities
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Embodies the features/concerns of many other deities
Ceres - - agriculture
Juno - marriage
Minerva - wisdom and crafts
Venus - physical love
Diana - childbirth
Magna Mater - the Earth
Fortuna - destiny, fortune
See Lucius prayer to Isis Book 11.
Charactericstics of the cult of Isis
shared with Christianity
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Both share redemption and rebirth into a state of grace
The promise of life after death if the tenets of the faith are kept
An insistence of strict morality
People are divided into believers and unbelievers – not on the basis
of class distinctions
Iconic imagery influenced Christian imagery (i.e. Mary and Jesus
mirrored Isis and Horus; Mary’s blue dress, crescent moon, and title
Stella Maris – Star of the Sea – borrowed from the Roman cult of
Isis)
Rebirth and Redemption
(Apuleius, Golden Ass.
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See passages: 11.21
11.23; 11.25
Life After Death
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 11.6; 11.21)
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“But this you must remember well and keep forever
stored up in your inmost heart: the remaining course of
your life right up until your last breath is now solemnly
promised to me ……And you will live happily, you will live
gloriously under my protection; and when you have
completed your lifespan and descend to the shades,
there also in that subterranean hemisphere I, whom you
now behold, shall be there, shining amidst the darkness
of Acheron and reigning in the secret depths of Styx,
and you shall dwell in the Elysian Fields and constantly
worship me and be favoured by me.
“For the keys of hell and the guarantee of salvation were
in the hands of the goddess, and the initiation ceremony
itself took the form of a kind of voluntary death and
salvation through divine grace.”
Strict Morality for the Cult Initiates
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 11.19)
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“….I had made thorough inquiries and
knew that compliance with the
requirements of her worship was not easy,
that the practice of chastity and
abstinence was very hard, and that a life
that was subject to so many chischances
had to be surrounded with a rampart of
careful precaution.”
Path to salvation is faith
not birth and status
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, 11.15)
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“ Many and various are the sufferings you have endured, and fierce
the tempests and storm-winds of Fortune by which you have been
tossed; but at last, Lucius, you have come to the harbour of
Tranquility and the altar of Pity. Neither your birth, nor yet your
rank, nor even your pre-eminent learning were of the slightest help
to you, but in the unsteadiness of your green youth you lowered
yourself to servile pleasures and reaped a bitter reward for your illstarred curiosity. But in spite of all, Fortune in her blindness, all the
while that she was tormenting and cruelly imperilling you, has by
the very exercise of her unforseeing malignity brought you to this
state of holy felicity. Now let her go, let her vent her mad rage
elsewhere and find some other subject for her cruelty; against those
whose lives our sovereign goddess has claimed for her service
mischance cannot prevail.
Iconography of Ptolemaic Isis and Horus/Medieval
Mary and Jesus
isis.quickseek.com/
Isis With Horus/Mary and Jesus
(Karanis - 20 BCE/Fayum - 5th Century CE)
isis.quickseek.com/