Lucian longs to experience real magic. When he discovers it, an unfortunate misstep turns him into the title character. In the shape of an ass, Lucian suffers through a series of misadventures.
I wonder when Apuleius was writing The Golden Ass, if he ever imagined this particular novel would be the only one written in Latin to have made it through his time to ours in its entirety.
Perhaps that’s an unfair question, because how could a writer imagine something like that?
But if he could have somehow foreseen it, I think that he would have written something different than this rambling, depressing, occasionally obscene adventure. Or maybe not. Maybe it summoned up his society nicely.
Hypothetical ramblings aside, it didn’t make for an enjoyable reading experience.
A very large consideration for readers of The Golden Ass is the quality of the translation and how that may affect your enjoyment of the book. A friend and I read this book in tandem and this particular problem became clear quite quickly.
My edition, borrowed from the library, is a reprint of a translation by William Adlington in “Oxenford, September 1566,” and comes complete with the spelling and idiosyncrasies of his era.
“You perhappes (sic) that are of an obstinate minde (sic) and grosse (sic) eares (sic), mocke (sic) and contemme (sic) those things which are reported for truth, know you not that it is accounted untrue by the depraved opinion of men, which either is rarely seene (sic), seldome (sic) heard, or passeth the capacitie (sic) of mans reason, which if it be more narrowly scanned, you shall not onely (sic) finde (sic) it evident and plaine (sic), but also very easy to be brought to passe.” pgs 14-15, ebook
I found many passages “passeth the capacitie of” my reason because the nearly five hundred years between Adlington’s translation and this made so much of it nearly unintelligible.
My friend read a modern translation by Penguin Publishing and reported a more positive reading experience. If given a choice between the two, please do pick the more modern version.
“Verily shee (sic) is a Magitian (sic), which hath power to rule the heavens, to bringe (sic) downe (sic) the sky, to beare (sic) up the earth, to turne (sic) the waters into hills and the hills into running waters, to lift up the terrestrial spirits into the aire (sic), and to pull the gods out of the heavens, to extinguish the planets, and to lighten the deepe (sic) darknesse (sic) of hell.” pg 19, ebook
Translation problems aside, I found the bulk of the story to be repetitive and, on the main, depressing. Things get worse and worse for our hero.
Yes, there is some measure of relief when we reach the end of our story and explore the mysteries of a cult whose rituals have been forgotten to history. But between the beatings and, as I mentioned, various obscene interludes, the end couldn’t come fast enough. Poor Lucian, “poore” William Adlington, and poor me!
The version I read of The Golden Ass, I recommend only for English majors, classicists or religious scholars. The appeal for modern readers just isn’t there.
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