Apuleius' The Golden Ass

Apuleius was a North African Roman citizen of the second century A.D.; he was a pagan. He firmly believed that his worship of the goddess Isis was valid pursuit of the One True Faith. In his classic picaresque adventure, The Golden Tale of the Ass (aka The Golden Ass), Apuleius contrived to present a comic odyssey with a moral purpose designed to convince readers of Isis' value as a goddess deserving of devotion.

All odysseys lead to home eventually. In The Golden Ass, Apuleius designs a spiritual odyssey for his hero, the man-turned-ass Lucius; all of Lucius' beastly travails lead, eventually, to the homecoming of its hero into "the mindful love of the Goddess" (248): "O Lucius, what a happy and blessed man are you, whom the august deity has selected for such direct honours . . . the day that you have so constantly desired is come" (248). An analysis of The Golden Ass must begin with an acceptance of the sincerity and legitimacy of Apuleius' pagan beliefs. These are integral to his worldview and literary orientation.

The Golden Ass was not intended solely for an audience of like-thinking Isis worshippers. It was read and clearly understood by the society of cosmopolitan and small-city citizens who populated the Roman Empire. This is not a parochial work of art. As such, the literary orientation of The Golden Ass relies heavily on the Greek mythic traditions which were accepted in the Roman Empire of Apuleius' day. Those myths, of course, had been spread thro

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" (138). Even the almighty Jove, who decrees reconciliation in the end, has other things on his mind than moral justice: "So, [Cupid], if there is any young girl on earth at the moment showing a particular aptitude in charms, you ought to make her mine in recompense for my present services" (141). One of the problems of being a pagan in the Roman Empire was that there was, indeed, a lot of competition for worship. Having made his point about the official gods, Apuleius must consider the very real fact that there were others out there who thought just as he did about the Graeco-Roman deities but had their own alternative supreme beings to offer. Isis-worship was not a foregone conclusion. Isis, it should be remembered, springs from the traditions of the ancient Egyptians, traditions more alive and immediate for Africans such as Apuleius than for those living on the north side of the Mediterranean. There was a third major pre-Christian tradition in the Western world as well, one springing from Asia Minor: the Earth Goddess tradition of the long-defunct Mesopotamian civilizations. It was a tradition that reached its zenith with the religion codified by Zoroaster in the latter days of the Persian Empire. Apuleius summarizes

Category: Literature - A