The Metamorphoses as Apuleius’ Platonic Myth
By Brando Legott, Florida State University
Apuleius’ interest in Platonic myth in the Metamorphoses is a well-established topos in
scholarship. This presentation will interpret Apuleius’ Metamorphoses as engaging with Plato’s
didactic and philosophical exercise of inserting muthoi into his dialogues and working within a
similar framework, albeit on a larger scale. Tilg (2014) has reconciled the work’s comic and
philosophical elements, applying the designation of a ‘philosophical novel,’ Ulrich (2020) and
Orienting the Ass: Queer Objects in Apuleius' Metamorphoses
By Francesca Martelli, University of California, Los Angeles
Scholars have long noted the prevalence of elements of quotidian realism in Apuleius' novel (Bradley. 2000; Millar. 1981; Callebat. 1968): the perspective of the donkey, the lowliest beast of burden, opens up a window onto a world of slaves, gardeners, barbers and cooks whose lives are seldom seen in such detail. Yet the space that the novel gives to these figures of quotidian Roman experience is not limited to human subjects -- but extends to the everyday objects against which these lowlifes might be seen to measure their object-status.
Impetus Indignationis Meae: Apuleian Attitudes Towards Didactic and Moral Storytelling, Metamorphoses 10.29-10
By Christopher Parkinson, University of Melbourne
The focus of this paper is to explore the meaning of the pantomime of the judgment of Paris at the end of Book X of The Metamorphoses (Met.10.29-34) and to connect this to a systematic reading of the narrative as a whole. I will argue that the location of and authorial commentary within this scene position it as a thematic climax of the first ten books, and, consequently, render this a vital section for understanding Apuleius’ authorial values.
Cave Pamphilen: Reading the Witch in Apuleius’ Postcolonial Context
By JuliAnne Rach, University of California, Los Angeles
This paper presents a postcolonial reading of the figure of the witch Pamphile in Book 3 of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses through an examination of the ways in which Pamphile both adheres to and breaks the Roman literary stereotype of the witch. Recent work on postcolonial theory in Apuleius exemplifies the fruitfulness of applying these theoretical frameworks to Apuelieus’ writings (Lee, Finkelpearl, Graverini, eds. 2014).
Scapegoating in Apuleius' Metamorphoses: The Story of Thelyphron
By Marsha McCoy, Southern Methodist University
The story of Thelyphron in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (2.21-30), told as an imbedded tale within the larger narrative, has been variously analyzed as, e.g., a combination of three separate earlier tales (Perry. 1929), a story unified by the elaborate wordplay of the narrative (Murgatroyd. 2004), a tale foreshadowing the transformation of the narrator, Lucius, into as ass at Metamorphoses 3.24 (Sandy. 1973; Murgatroyd. 2001), and one of twelve tales in the Metamorphoses featuring a “spoiled marriage” (Lateiner. 2000).