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The Story of Cupid and Psyche

as related by Apuleius.

he Story of Cupid and Psyche as related by Apuleius”

DITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY

LOUIS C. PURSER, Lirt.p.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN

ΟΞ LONDON: GEORGE BELL ἃ SONS: 1910

DALAT

MY

1qto

DUBI.IN

PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS,

BY PONSONBY AND GIBBS,

PREFACE

As far as I know, there is no separate English edition of the Cupid and Psyche of Apuleius; and accordingly the present endeavour to produce one must have all the defects of a first essay in a difficult field, super- added to the many failings which can justly be laid to the charge of my own deficiencies. Besides, the strange and unclassical nature of the language precluded my having the continuous assistance of my colleagues, as it would have been too great a strain on friendship to ask for their constant help in editing such an out-of-the-way book. On these grounds this edition begs for the utmost indulgence which any reader can find it in his conscience to extend to an attempt to break ground in a domain far away from the beaten track. However, it is a pleasure to express gratitude for a considerable amount of assis- tance which has been most generously given me: and I have to thank very sincerely my friends,

Mr. Henry S. Macran, Fellow of Trinity College, for 920919

iv PREFACE

reading the proofs of the Introduction and offering many valuable suggestions; and Mr. J. T. Gibbs, Manager of the University Press, whose accurate knowledge of English idiom has saved me from very

many errors of expression.

TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, January, 1910.

_IntrRoDuCTION :—

Excursus II.

Excursvus III.

Inpex,

Cuapter I. Cuapter II. CHAPTER 11.

Cuapter LY.

Curimp anp Psycoe—Text anp ΝΌΤΕΒ, .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

On tHE Lire anp Writings or APULEIUS, .

Tue Story or Cupm anp Psycur, . On THE StyLE AND LaneuacE or APULEIUS,

Tur Manuscripts AND ΕἸΡΙΤΊΟΝΒ,

Excursus [. Muvesran Tatgs,. ALLEGoRICAL EXPLANATIONS OF THE T'ALE,

Tue Poems or Mreneacer on Love AND THE

Sout,

PAGE

1x xlili lxx

οἱ

. 1-128

125 128

182

135

CORRIGENDA.

Page xcix 10 lines from end. For 6. 18 read 5. 18

Page 9, line 1 ff., first column. The ms. reading infirmi, as I now see, cannot be defended. We should read infimi. Compare a similar error of the copyist of F in Met. 1. 8 (p. 8. 11 ed. Helm), where injirmare is given for what was certainly infimare (as the preceding swblimare shows).

Page 15, line 5. For Ludii read Ludium: and similarly in note.

Page 21, line 15 (first col.). After semper add, ‘(which he takes from the Oxford codex) ’

Page 24, line 6 (first col.). For ‘ multitude of musicians’ read ‘ company singing in harmony ἢ

Page 29, line 27 (first col.). For oculis read oculos

Page 54. Add to crit. notes ‘I prouectae Bursian: porrectae Fo’

Page 84, last line (first col.). For consultit read consultis

Page 84, line 16 (second col.). For deorwm read dearum

SOME WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE NOTES UNDER THE NAMES OF THE AUTHORS ONLY

Broker (H.), Studia Apuleiana. Berlin, 1879. Bryte (Fr.), Quaestiones Appuleianae. Leipzig, 1888.

Garscua (FR.), Quaestionum Apuleianarum capita tria(Dissertationes Philologae Vindobonenses vi, pp. 141-190). Vienna, 1898.

Kretsonmann (H.), De Latinitate L. Apulei Madaurensis. Kéonigs- berg, 1865.

Koziou (H), Der Stil des L. Apuleius. Vienna, 1872. Lexy (M.), De Syntaxi Apuleiana. Regensburg, 1908.

Litsonann (Cur.), Kritische Beitrige zu Apuleius’ Metamorphosen. Kiel, 1872.

Neve-Wacener, Formenlehre der lateinischen Sprache von Friedrich Neue. Dritte sehr vermehrte Auflage von C. Wagener. Berlin and Leipzig, 1892-1902.

Priecnorta (I.), Curae Apuleianae. Warsaw, 1882. Rénscu (H.), Itala und Vulgata. Marburg, 1875.

SoHALLER (W.), De fabula Apuleiana quae est de Psycha et Cupidine. Leipzig, 1901.

Wermann (C), Apulei de Psyche et Cupidine fabula adnota- tionibus criticis instructa (Index lectionum quae in Universitate

Friburgensi per menses aestivos anni mpocoxc1 habebuntur), Freiburg, 1891.

O latest-born and loveliest vision far Of all Olympus’ faded hierarchy ! Fairer than Pheebe’s sapphire-regioned star, Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky ; Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none, Nor altar heaped with flowers ; Nor Virgin-choir to make delicious moan Upon the midnight hours. Keats, Ode to Psyche.

“uoT}eULfdxe OATIRIU} Ὁ SOTO “Ἢ ZTE Ὃ (2191) semuos arydvubouosy “UOOSTA *oaNdsqo ST OSIOAOI OYJ, ‘sntorndy 10 oanqord Aouvy Ὁ sv sty} pavSor AJUO WO OM 5.11} OM ‘9-F9z “τ “(2881) aydvhouoyy ayasymoy Y[MoUIeg 0518 θοῷ *Z% τ 911 Sdvysed pus : F ‘jody ‘do souvavodde [vuosszod stq 10,7

“SNIZTNdV ONILNASSYd3aSY JBZLVINYOLNOO SIY¥Vd V

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS

Res pertricosa est, Cotile, bellus homo. MartTIAL.

Tnoucs Apuleius was an important man in his day, and exercised a considerable influence on the literary style of subsequent writers,’ very little is known about his life, except the circumstances surrounding his trial for magic and a few facts we can gather from his own writings. The references to him in later writers are mainly confined to his supposed

1 Christodorus (circ. 500 a.p.) mentions (Anth. Pal. 2. 803-5) a bronze statue of Apuleius as having been in the Zeuxippus at Byzantium, in these terms—

καὶ voepys ἄφθεγκτα Aatividos ὄργια Μούσης ἄζετο παπταίνων ᾿Απυλήιος, ὅντινα μύστην

Αὐσονὶς ἀρρήτου σοφίης ἐθρέψατο Σείρην (1.6. Muse)—

the reference being probably to the reputation for magic which had attached itself to Apuleius. It has been remarked that of the eighty statues mentioned by Christodorus, only four are of Romans, viz. Pompey, Caesar, Vergil, and Apuleius: also“that on the contorniates the only Latin writers whose portraits appear are Terence, Accius, Horace, Sallust, and Apuleius. See Schwabe in Pauly-Wissowa ii, 255, 256. For the imitators of Apuleius cp. Weyman, Sitzungsb. der bayerischen Akad., 1898, pp. 321ff. b

x INTRODUCTION

power of working miracles’ and to his doctrine about intermediate spirits (demons). The whole chrono- logy of his life is uncertain in its exacé details; but a masterly article by Erwin Rohde’ has located within fairly narrow limits the few events of his life with which we are acquainted.*

i.

Apuleius’ was born at Madaura, a Roman colony in the province of Africa, about 80 miles east of Cirta. To judge from its remains, it was probably among the first five towns of the province, Lambaesis, Thamugadi, and Thibursicum being perhaps greater. It was about 20 miles south of Thagaste, where St. Augustine was born; and it was to Madaura that the latter apparently went to continue his education

1 He is often mentioned as a worker of miracles in connexion with Apollonius of Tyana: cp. St. Jerome on Psalm Ixxxi (Migne vil, p. 1066) non est grande facere signa: nam fecere signa in Aegypto magt contra Moysen, fecit et Apollonius, fectt et Appuleius. Infiniti signa fecerunt. Concedo tibi, Porphyri, magicis artibus signa fecerunt ut diuitias acciperent a diuitibus mulierculis quas induwerant—plainly alluding to Apuleius: cp. Lactantius Inst. 5.3: St. Augustine Epp. 3. 102. 32: 186. 1: 188. 18, 19 (Migne ii, 888, 514, 533, 534).

* 5. Aug., Civ. Dei 8. 12.

8. Rheinisches Museum, 1885, pp. 66-118 = Kl. Schriften ii, p. 43ff.

* Rohde’s conclusions generally are adopted by Schwabe in Pauly-Wissowa ii, 246-258, by Martin Schanz in his Geschichte der rim. Litteratur (Miiller’s Handbuch viii, 8), §§ 558, 554, and by M. Paul Valette, L’ Apologie d’Apulée (1908), p. 3 ff. M. Valette, however, thinks that Apuleius did not compose his Metamorphoses until after his return to Africa.

° No sufficient evidence can be adduced for the prenomen Lucius which is sometimes given him. It is probably due to his identi- fication with the hero of the Met.: cp, Teuffel-Schwabe, § 366. 1.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS xi

when his native town could not supply any further facilities, and from it he afterwards proceeded to Carth- age to acquire the higher branches of learning.’ So one was able at Madaura to get what we should call a good secondary education. Apuleius was the son of an important citizen of that town, who had held the office of duumvir, which was the highest post which the municipality had to offer, and who must have been fairly wealthy, if (as is stated) he left Apuleius and his other son two million sesterces, something like £20,000.2, He was born about 124 or 125 a.p. This is nowhere stated explicitly, but can be inferred with a considerable degree of probability by certain combinations.’ Probably he received his early educa-

1 Confess. 2. 8 mihi reducto a Madauris, in qua uicina urbe tam coeperam litteraturae atque oratoriae percipiendae gratia peregrinari, longinquioris apud Carthaginem peregrinationis sumptus pracparabantur animositate magis quam opibus patris, municipis Thagastensis admodum tenuts.

2 Cp. Apul. Apol. 24 init. De patria mea uero, quod eam sitam Numidiae et Gaetuliae in ipso confinio meis scriptis ostendistis, quibus memet professus sum, cum Lolliano Auito c.u. praesente publice disse- rerem, Seminumidam et Semigaetulum, non uideo quid mihi sit in ea re pudendum: and a little afterwards in qua colonia patrem habui loco principis duumuiralem, cunctis honoribus perfunctum; ep. also 6. 28 profiteor mihi ac fratri meo relictum a patre HS uictes paulo secus, idque a me longa peregrinatione et diutinis studiis et crebris liberalt- tatibus modice imminutum: nam et amicorum plerisque opem tuli et magistris plurimis gratiam retuli, quorundum etiam filias dote auxt. —

3. The trial of Apuleius for magic took place apparently in 158 a.v. The presiding magistrate was the proconsul of Africa, Claudius Maximus, who was the immediate successor (Apol. 94) of Lollianus Avitus. Now, the latter probably held the pro- consulate of Africa in 157, for he was consul in 144; and the usual interval between the tenure of the consulate and that of the proconsulate of«Asia or Africa in the time of the Antonines

b 2

-

ΧΙ INTRODUCTION

tion and learned to read, write, and cipher at Madaura;' but obtained his principal school education in grammar and rhetoric at Carthage, and afterwards wenttoAthens for what we should call University education.” We cannot be quite certain what was his age when he went to Athens; possibly he was about eighteen.* Assum- ing that he was born in 125 a.p., that would make his

was about thirteen years: see Waddington, Fastes des Provinces asiatiques (p. 12), quoted by Mommsen St. R. 115, 240.4. Probably, then, Claudius Maximus was one of the consules suffectt in 145, and was proconsul of Africa in 158; for the proconsulate was generally held for one year only (cp. Flor. 9, p. 89, Oud. two anno), though not of course for the actual calendar year from January to December. In the same year Pudentilla was about forty-two (cp. Apol. 89 inuenies nunc Pudentillae haud multo amplius quadragensimum annum aetatis ire), and considerably older than Apuleius (6. 87 maior natu). If we suppose that Apuleius was about thirty-three at the time, all the events of his previous life such as we know them can be easily located in point of time. The thirty-third year is not at all so advanced an age as to render inappropriate such an elastic term as iuuenis, which is often applied to him (c. 87; 70; 92), especially when there is always the contrast of the greater age of Pudentilla.

1This education (γραμματιστική) was given by the litterator or γραμματίστης, Who is to be distinguished from the grammarian Or γραμματικός Who taught γραμματικὴ, litteratura, what we mean by ‘ Literature.’ See Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, p. 28.

2 Flor. 18, p. 86, Oud. (from an address delivered at Carthage) et pueritia apud ues et magistri uos et secta, licet Athenis Atticis con- jirmata: 31, p. 91 Hane ego uobis mercedem, Carthaginienses, ubique gentium dependo pro disciplinis quas in pueritia sum apud uos adeptus : Flor. 20, p. 97 prima creterra (sc. Musarum) litteratoris ruditatem eximit, secunda grammatici doctrina instruit, tertia rhetoris eloquentia armat. Hactenus a plerisque potatur. Ego et alias creterras Athenis bibi : poeticae tcommentam (commotam conj. Vliet), geometriae limpi- dam, musicae dulcem, dialecticae austerulam, iam wero uniuersae philosophiae inexplebilem scilicet et nectaream. ,

3 Kunapius went to Athens when he was sixteen: Libanius, however, did not go until he was twenty-two; but his whole education was somewhat late (Rohde, p. 74)»

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS xili

University career begin in 143 a.p. No doubt he fixed his headquarters at Athens; but he appears to have made several journeys from thence, probably during the vacations. He was certainly at Samos (Flor. 15, p. 51, 81 recte recordor wiam) and at Hierapolis in Phrygia (De Mundo, c. 17). As Apuleius was a man of means, there was no need for him to specialize in order to get a profession; so from the extensive nature of his studies at Athens (see above, p- ΧΙ], note 2) and his travels we may infer that he remained more than the usual five years at the Univer- sity, probably till he was about twenty-five,’ that is till 150 a.p.; possibly he remained later. Some time towards the end of his sojourn at Athens he met young Pontianus, son of Pudentilla, who was pro- bably born about 134 a.p.,? and in 150 a.p. would have been sixteen, the age at which Eunapius went to Athens. Though considerably his junior, he lived apparently in the same rooms as Apuleius, or at any rate in close intimacy with him.’ But this ‘chumming’

‘Gregory Nazianzenus did not finish his rhetorical studies at Athens until he was thirty (Rohde, p. 74. 2); and Libanius, after studying for four years till he was twenty-five, would have remained for four years more, were it not that he was hindered by special circumstances.

* Pontianus was grown up (adultus) and living at Rome before Apuleius came to Oea in 155; and he married before Apuleius, whose marriage appears to have taken place towards the end of 156 or beginning of 157. It is reasonable to suppose that adultus does not apply to any one younger than nineteen. If this is so, he _ was born when Pudentilla was about eighteen.

ὅ Cp. Apol. 72, nam fuerat mihi non ita pridem [ante multos annos | Athenis per quosdam communes amicos conciliatus, et arto postea contubernio intime iunctus: cp. 6. 58. That Apuleius was consider- ably the senior of Pontianus and his brother may be inferred from

ae δ INTRODUCTION

probably did not last very long: for it cannot have been much later than his twenty-fifth year that Apuleius went to Rome. He would appear to have run through his money, whether in quite the laudable way in which he states himself (see note 2 on p. xi) or otherwise it is impossible to say. One is inclined to suppose that shortly previous to his departure from Greece he fell under the influence of the priests of Isis, and (for a time at least) was ‘‘converted,” as is the experience of so many young men who are ardent and enthusiastic for ideals.’

the assistance he gave them in their studies (6, 73 init.), and from the fact that Pontianus spoke of him as parentem suum, dominum, magistrum.

1Tt is difficult to avoid thinking that Book xi of the Meta- morphoses is autobiographical at least in certain broad outlines. It is not easy to imagine that anyone who had not felt the emotions of a ‘ revival’ could have written the impassioned address to the goddess which is found in xi 25. But such emotions wear out in most cases, though they may leave behind a remembrance of themselves which is both easy and grateful to recall. If we give reins to our fantasy, we may be tempted to imagine that Apuleius, after many years of leisured affluence, began to feel the pinch of straitened means, and the necessity of working to gain a liveli- hood: ep. 1.6. adhibendis sacrificiis tenuis patrimonio; and a year or so later he appears to be in poverty, Met. xi 27 Madaurensem sed admodum pauperem: 28 uiriculas patrimoniit peregrinationis ad- triuerant impensae et erogationes urbicae pristinis illis prouineti- alibus antistabant plurimum. This kind of change of circumstances renders many young men, previously careless, somewhat sus- ceptible to religious impressions, which gradually lose their force when Fortune again returns to smile on them, and they begin to become successful in their professions. Sueh may possibly (we can of course say no more) have been the experience of Apuleius. But we are ready to acknowledge as quite possible that the imagination of Apuleius may have been able to observe in others and thus realize the emotions which attend conversion, even without his having in any way surrendered to these emotions.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS XV

If we assume that the eleventh book is in a con- siderable measure autobiographical, we may take it that Apuleius reached Rome on December 12 (ec. 26), and, as our reasonings have led us to conjecture, about the year 150. While according to his own account he was diligent in his religious duties to Isis and Osiris, and was advanced to positions of some importance in their service, he at the same time prospered in his work (by the favour of Heaven, he piously tells us) in the Roman law-courts, where he acted as a pleader. No very clear details are given of the special kind of work to which he devoted himself ;' but he appears to have been tolerably successful. It was during this period that he perfected himself in Latin as it was spoken in Rome, by patient labour, and without the teaching of any master;? and it was during this

1 Cp. xi 28 quae res (his religious assiduity) summum peregrinationt meae tribuebut solacitum nec minus etiam uictum uberiorem subministrabat, quidni, spiritu fauentis Huentus quaesticulo forenst nutrito per patro- cinia sermonis Romani: ep. ib. 80 quidni, liberali deum prouidentia iam stipendiis forensibus bellule fotum.

2 Met. 1. 1 mow in urbe Latia aduena studiorum, Quiritium indi- genam sermonem aerumnabili labore, nullo magistro praeceunte, aggressus excolui. The last word points to the perfecting of a study which had already begun ; and we must suppose that in his early instruc- tion, both at Madaura and at Carthage, Apuleius became acquainted to some extent with Latin; though doubtless, during his stay in Greece, the many attractions of Greek literature and culture pre- cluded any continued study of that language : so that when he went to Rome his knowledge of Roman Latin must have been most defective, at least for literary purposes. It is hard to say what language he spoke in his earliest years—just possibly it was Punic: certainly that was the language which his precious step-son, Pudens, spoke (Apol. 98), though Apuleius notices that as a mark of commonness and vulgarity. More probably, however, it was a provincial form of Latin, which, as being the language of the administration, was

xvl INTRODUCTION

same time that he published the Metamorphoses. One point seems decisive as a proof that the book was written for Romans—the reference to the metae Murtiae in vi. 8; and, if we grant this, the proba- bility is that it was written in Rome.* My belief

adopted by the upper classes. But no doubt such Latin as Apuleius spoke in his young days was not by any means the language of Rome itself. Greek appears to have been widely used in ordinary life: all the letters of Pudentilla quoted in the Apologia are in Greek. From this it is easy to see that Apuleius can have had only a provincial knowledge of Latin, and needed much study and experience at Rome before he could have acquired such a mastery of Roman idiom as would justify him in publishing in Rome a work in that language. We may take the statement of the preface to the Metamorphoses as autobiographical ; for though that preface speaks wholly in the person of Lucius of Corinth, the hero of the whole novel, still Apuleius plainly represents Lucius as a young man like himself, who had lately left the University of Athens (ep. Met. 1. 24), and was now writing his experiences in a foreign (ewotict 1. 1) language (Latin), and for the Roman public. In this request for indulgence in point of style, the author and hero of a novel written in the first person must become identified. Nearly all the other circumstances of the hero of the story (e.g. his relation- ship with Plutarch, and various adventures) may be regarded as pure invention. E. Norden, however (Die antike Kunstprosa, Ὁ. 595. 1), holds that this request in the preface for indulgence was a stock procedure, that many similar examples are found—even Tacitus (Agricola 8) speaks of his Histories as written incondita ac rudt uoce (on which Gudeman gives many parallels)—and that all that most writers mean by such requests is to draw attention to the obvious mastery which they have over the language they use. But the reference is rather to the efforts Apuleius made to acquire the specially Roman idiom (Quiritium indigenam sermonem). Writing at Rome for Romans, he may naturally have been afraid of making a solecism now and then, especially when he wrote with such dash and vigour; and may accordingly have sincerely enough asked for pardon for any such occasional slips.

1 Richard Hesky (Zur Abfassungszeit der Met. des Apuleius, Wiener Studien, xxvi (1904), pp. 71-80) thinks that the novel

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS XVli

is that during his residence in Rome he published the work anonymously,’ as the experiences of Lucius of Corinth, closely following the treatise which is published among the works of Lucian, called Λούκιος ἢ Ὄνος, but amplifying it by the introduction of all kinds of stories (some perhaps invented by Apuleius, but mostly tales current in Greece) of robbers, witches,

was written for Romans, but not written in Rome. (It is true that sacrosanctam istam ciuitatem in 11. 26 does not necessarily mean ‘ this of yours’; for the word iste in Apuleius when used as a mere demonstrative generally means ‘this’ and not ‘that’: see Kretschmann, p. 90f., and my note on 6. 22: ep., too, Flor. 1. 8.) He fixes the date within the reign of M. Aurelius, and indeed the period of his sole rule (after 169, the date of the death of Verus)— for Apuleius always says Caesar, not Caesares (8. 29: 7. 6,7: 9.42). M. Valette (L’ Apologie d’ Ap. 25.1) justly says that Apuleius, following a Greek model, may have used what he found there. In 3. 29 the parallel passage in the ”Ovos (c. 16) has Καῖσαρ. The reason why Hesky fixes the date in the reign of M. Aurelius is that in 1. 6 Lucius says to his friend Socrates, liberis tuis tutores iuridici prouinci- alis decreto dati, and these iwridici were instituted by M. Aurelius (Hist. Aug. c. 11). But they were really only re-instituted by that Emperor: they had been to all intents and purposes established by Hadrian, not only in Italy (Hist. Aug. 6. 22: Appian Bell. Civ. 1.88), but also in the provinces (see Schiller, Kaiserzeit, pp.617, 618) ; and one of their functions appears to have been the appointing of guardians (Ulpian, Vat. Frag. 205, 282, 241). We are not informed that the officials appointed by Hadrian in Italy were called iwridict, but they probably were so called; for from the time of their re- institution such was certainly their name, and it is natural that from the first they should have had a name to distinguish them, a new species of judges or ‘justices,’ from the ordinary iudices. (On these iuridici see Mommsen St. R. 112, 1088-9.) The ‘ Caesar ’ of whom mention is made in the Met. is Antoninus Pius.

1 The view that the work was published anonymously has long been held, and is based on the fact that the Florentine manuscript does not attribute the work to Apuleius, though it specifies Apuleius as the author of the Apologia and the Florida.

XVili INTRODUCTION

country life, love, jealousy, passion, and generally the whole range of subjects which human nature finds amusing and exciting.’

This work is most wondrously realistic, written with a vigour and exuberance that are decidedly inspiriting, and by an author who had a very great general command of luxuriant language, and a really remarkable power of accurate and vivid observation of details; but the general setting and tenor of the novel are pure romance.

The scene is laid in what are called Thessaly and Greece, ‘‘ but they are not the Greece or Thessaly of geography, any more than the maritime Bohemia of

1 The view that the work was published anonymously is approved by Schanz (§ 554), but has been doubted by Rohde (p. 90. 2) on the ground of the tell-tale Madaurensem in xi 28. The "Ovos is not indeed by Lucian—chronological difficulties and Cobet have settled that—but it is written by a man who, like Lucian, held to common- sense, and jeered at all fantastic extravagance. The most probable view would see in it a short parody on the two first books of a writer mentioned by Photius, one Lucius of Patrae, who composed a whole volume of Μεταμορφώσεις in which he took, or seemed to take, the subject quite seriously. The author of the Ὄνος appears to have made this Lucius the hero of his own story, and to have represented all his adventures as ridiculous; and, moreover, to have given to the world some indication of who that Lucius was, though unfortunately we cannot, with our present manuscripts and defective knowledge, discern his identity. The narrator, who is also the hero, says (Ὄνος ὁ. 55), ‘My name is Lucius, my brother’s is Gaius. The other two names we have in common κἀγὼ μὲν ἱστοριῶν καὶ ἄλλων εἰμὶ συγγραφεὺς, ὃ δὲ ποιητὴς ἐλεγείων ἐστὶ, καὶ μάντις ἀγαθὸς" πατρὶς δὲ ἡμῖν ἸΠάτραι τῆς “Axaias.’ The efforts of Rohde to discover who this author is are ingenious but futile. He thinks (Uber Lucian’s Schrift, Λούκιος ἢ “Ovos, Leipzig, 1869) the most likely person is Λεύκιος, son of Mestrius Florus (Plut. Symp. vii 4), who also appears as an interlocutor in the Plutarchean dialogue, De facie in orbe Lunae.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS XIx

9

Shakespeare,” says Mr. Glover ( Conjtict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, p. 228) most justly. Thebes, _we learn with some surprise, is on the sea (4.11 fin.).!

The tales are mostly the short tales meant for entertainment pure and simple, which we find in all languages, and which in Greece were associated with Miletus (see Excursus I). A number of these Apuleius has strung together’ on the slender thread either of their being the actual experiences of the hero turned into an ass, or of his having heard them during his period of transformation.’ The tone of the eleventh book changes wholly, from the phantasmagoria of the realistic comédie humaine, to the religiosity of a converti; and in that book Apuleius so awkwardly mixes himself and his hero together that not only is Lucius of Corinth our old friend Lucius of Corinth (c. 20, 26), but his native place is

1 This geography was no doubt good enough for the Romans, who had already been familiar with it from the Amphitruo of Plautus (159). Many years ago Rohde (Griech. Roman, p. 299, note 1) and Dr. Mahaffy (Greek World under Roman Sway, p. 294 ff.) protested against such scholars as Hertzberg who took the stories of the novel as evidence of the state of northern Greece in the time of the Antonines; and Dr. Mahaffy made merry over the brilliant society (2. 4, 19) of that splendid city Hypata (which can never have been of any importance after its destruction by the Aetolians), and over the sumptuous wild-beast and gladiatorial show which was intended to be given at—empty Plataea (4. 13 ff.).

2 Cp. Met. 1. 1 At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio uarias fabulas conseram auresque tuas beniuolas lepido susurro permulceam.

’ The only character who comes into two of the stories is the girl, Charite, to whom the tale of Cupid and Psyche was told when she was carried off by the robbers, and who afterwards is the protagonist in the melodramatic story of passion, constancy, and ~ vengeance at the beginning of the eighth book.

xx | INTRODUCTION

Madaura (mitti sibt Madaurensem. sed admodum pauperem, c. 27 fin.).'_ The difference of tone is almost inexpli- cable to modern readers. Perhaps Apuleius felt that if he had finished up his story in the very reprehensible way which the author of the Ὄνος had adopted, the book would have been a complete failure in a literary society which was outwardly at least re- spectable, as being regulated in conformity with the real respectability of Antoninus Pius and his desig- nated successor Marcus Aurelius; but that by adding a

1 Tt has been actually proposed by Goldbacher, an excellent and accomplished scholar, to alter Madaurensem to mane Doriensem. But this emendation cannot be entertained for a moment. Nor can we assume it to be ‘an obvious interpolation,’ due to the popular idea that what was related in the Metamorphoses all actually happened to Apuleius himself, as Monceaux holds (Apulée, p. 299). Rohde (p. 80) thinks that Apuleius desired to be known, and considers that he published the book under his own name, and that the absence of his name from the subscriptions of the books of the Met. in the principal ms. (F) is due to accident or carelessness. Burger (Hermes 28 (1888), p. 496) thinks that the work was published anonymously, as the young writer, even with all his vanity, might well have doubted the reception it would receive; but that he inserted an indication of the real authorship which would escape the casual reader, but could be used to prove that real authorship in case the work was a success. If this is so, it is at all events a less elusive and absurd indication than the wonderful cryptograms under which more recent writers are supposed to have concealed their identity. Perhaps, however, the simpler explanation may be that Apuleius, in the eagerness with which he was reproducing the circumstances of his own conversion, forgot himself for the moment, and let the book go forth without subjecting it to any such severe scrutiny as would detect the inconsistency of his own nationality with the assumed circumstances of the hero of the story. It is surely the experience of many writers, especially those that write with vigour and dash, to have sometimes made some slip at which they marvel when it is brought up in judgment against them, and their attention becomes riveted upon it.

a

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS XX1

religious conversion at the end of the varied scenes of mostly disreputable life, he, as it were, gave some sort of a moral tone to what was really a series of ‘realistic’ sketches. Probably the eleventh book is a tribute to the respectability and religious feelings of Roman society, and based on certain temporary emotions which Apuleius may have experienced himself. The last book would then have made amends for the reprehensible nature of some of the stories, and ‘‘ given a face” to the work, which in its essence and intention was nothing more than ἃ series of amusing and frivolous stories.

But there is an argument in favour of the anony- mous publication which is far stronger than the fact that the Florentine ms. does not explicitly attribute the Metamorphoses to Apuleius, though the Apologia and the Florida are given under his name. It is that no mention whatever of this work, which contains so much about witches and magic, appears to have been made at the trial of Apuleius for magic. Rohde (op. cit. p. 89) argues that the accusers may not have known of the work, even if published under the name of Apuleius: for it was published in Rome; and, we may add, it was published by a young and unknown writer, and there is no evidence of its having had any great immediate success,’ so that it may not have

1 The earliest mention of it seems to be a censure by Septimius Severus of Clodius Albinus (who died in 197) that he inter milesias Punicas Apulei sui et ludicra litteraria consenesceret (Capitol. Clod. Alb. 12.12). Albinus himself seems to have written Milesian tales, perhaps trying to imitate Apuleius, but with indifferent success - (ib. 11. 8). No doubt, the writings of Pliny and Martial (see Valette, Ῥ. 13) were eagerly sought after in the provinces (Plin. Ep. 9. 11:

Xxil INTRODUCTION

reached Africa. Again, he says that it could not have had much weight, and for that reason may not have heen mentioned by the prosecution ; for Lucius was not a practiser, but a victim, of magic; and in any case, the book is such sheer romance that it could not have influenced any reasonable being. Recol- lecting the reputation for magic which existed to some extent at the time and which gradually developed to large proportions round the name of Apuleius, we feel © some doubt on this point; and the outcry which seems to have greeted Apuleius when he named some men suspected of magic,—declaring that ‘‘if one particle of self-interest in his marriage can be proved against him, they may say that he is a worse magician than Carmendas, or Damigeron, or Moses, or Jannes, or Apollobeches, or Dardanus, or any other magician from Dardanus or Hostanes onward”’'—would seem to prove that very little account was taken by popular opinion of the connexion in which any allusion was made to things magical. The names of magicians or of magical arts were mentioned by a man, and that was considered sufficient to stamp him as a magician. It appears to me most improbable that the accusers, if they could have brought forward the novel, would have refrained from doing so, as it most certainly

Mart. 7. 88; 8. 72); but that was only when they were famous men. The anonymous Metamorphoses, even with the compromising Madaurensem in it, probably did not attract much immediate attention ; but later, when Apuleius became a well-known literary and scientific man, long after his trial, anda less respectable Emperor arose, the book may have begun to attain its wide reputation.

1 Apol. 91 init. vide quaeso, Maxime, quem tumultum’ suscitarint, quoniam ego paucos magorum nominatim percensut.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS Xxili

would have created prejudice against Apuleius, much more than his verses about tooth-powder and such trivialities (Apol. 6: 9, &c.); and if they did so, it is quite inconceivable that Apuleius would not have refuted any charge which could have been based upon it, as it would have been a fairly easy point to dwell upon and to handle effectively. It is noticeable also that in the two passages of the _ Florida where Apuleius enumerates the variety of his writings, no mention is made of his immortal Milesia.! No doubt, when Apuleius had married and settled down, and become the fashionable lecturer and the Platonic philosopher of Africa, and an authority on scientific matters connected with fishes, trees, agriculture, medicine, astronomy, arith- metic, music, in short on everything in heaven and _ earth,? he was not very anxious to make any parade of his early work of unquestionable genius but most questionable respectability. So he left the work anonymous, as far as we have any knowledge of Apuleius from his own writings. The authorship of course gradually became known ; but whether it was ever publicly acknowledged during the lifetime of Apuleius, we have no certain means of determining.

1 Flor. 9, p. 87 Oud. and 20. 97 canit enim Empedocles carmina, Plato dialogos, Socrates hymnos, Epicharmus modos, Xenophon histo- rias, Crates (codd. Xenocrates) satiras: Apuleius uester haec omnia nouemque Musas pari studio colit. It is perverse of a distinguished scholar like Burger to suppose that historias means ‘ tales,’ or anything else except ‘histories’; and to hold that in respect of Xenophon the allusion is to the tale of Abradates and Panthea in the Cyropaedia. We know from Priscian (11. 482. 2; cp. i. 250. 18) that Apuleius wrote an epitome historiarum.

2 See below, ὃ 5.

XXiv INTRODUCTION

We think it not wholly improbable that the author- ship may have been disclosed, and the work have commenced its great vogue, at the accession of Commodus.*

2.

For four or five years, then, Apuleius practised in the courts at Rome, and seems to have been tolerably successful. It was there probably that he came to a consciousness of his great command of language; and with his quick sympathy with every kind of intellec- tual interest, and his delight in exhibiting his powers, it was only natural that his ambition should direct itself to the career of a public rhetorician. We know from Philostratus the great enthusiasm and glory which attended these rhetoricians (ep. Rohde Der Griech Roman, p. 293), and we know it from Apuleius’ own experience also. A successful rhetorician held a most distinguished position in general society, and was féted and honoured by States and Emperors. I believe that Apuleius had some idea of adopting this profession when he returned from Rome to Africa about 155. But he did not settle down in his old home, or even in Carthage: he could not rest from travel,? and we next hear of him as on his way to

1 Apuleius wrote another novel called Hermagoras, which is mentioned by Priscian 1. 85 (Keil) Apuleius in 1 Hermagorae ‘‘uisus est et adulescens honesta forma quasi ad nuptias exornatus trahere se in penitiorem partem domus’’: cp. also 1. 111; 1. 135; 1. 279 aspera hiems erat omnia ningue canebant: 1. 528. Fulgentius 112. 10 (Helm) Apuleius in Ermagora ait: ‘ pollincto eius funere domuitionem paramus,”’

2 Apol. 73 utpote peregrinationis cupiens impedimentum matrimont aliquantisper recusaueram.

» tlm, _sa———————

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS XXV

Alexandria,’ and falling ill at Oea, a town on the coast near the modern Tripoli. ‘l'his was the native place of the young man Pontianus, with whom he had lived during the last period of his residence at the University of Athens (see above, p. xiii). Apuleius stayed at the house of certain of his friends called Appi. Pontianus, who was about twenty-one, had been studying at Rome, but had returned to Oea because his mother, Pudentilla (who was then a widow and very rich), had told him that she proposed getting married,’ and Pontianus considered it advis- able to see that his mother did not marry some one who would make away with all her money, and thus deprive him and his brother of their legiti- mate expectations. Pontianus called on Apuleius and renewed their friendship. The latter seemed to Pontianus the very person whom his mother should marry, and was urged to come and stay at their house; and there is a touch of realistic humour in the way Apuleius describes the manceuvres of Pontianus (Apol. 72) to secure that he shall pay them a long visit.

_ He went to their house, and remained there a con-

siderable time, giving some public lectures,’ helping

1 He plainly went to Oea from the west; as he would not have gone to that town at all if he had gone straight from Rome to Alexandria. It is on this ground that it seems probable that he returned to his native province from Rome before he started on the new journey to Alexandria,

* She had not any definite suitor in mind; but she had been advised by her physicians that her health would be improved if she entered again on the married state (Apol. 69).

5. Apol. 55 sed abhine ferme triennium est cum primis diebus quibus Ocam weneram publice disserens de Aesculapii maiestate. This lecture

C

XXVi INTRODUCTION

Pontianus and his young brother in their studies, and meanwhile re-establishing his own health. About a year after his arrival at Oea he gave a public lecture (Apol. 73) which was a brilliant success; so much so, that the people of Oca begged him to accept the freedom of their city, and to settle down amongst them. In the enthusiasm of his success he was definitely asked by Pontianus to accept his mother in marriage. ‘Though she was nearly ten years older than Apuleius, he had had many opportunities of testing her merits, ‘“‘the dowry of her virtues,”’ as he gracefully says (c. 73); and, though still eager for travel, he consented to the proposal. Pudentilla was equally willing, and so the marriage was arranged, and was fixed to take place as soon as Pontianus, who was engaged to a daughter of one Herennius Rufinus, was married, and his young brother Pudens had assumed the dress of manhood.

Immediately after Pontianus had married, his uncle and his wife’s relations began to urge him to try to have the engagement between Apuleius and

seems to have won great fame and was widely read. It is just possible that it may have been the same as the lecture referred to in c. 73, which was delivered a year after his arrival; but this requires us to stretch the phrase ‘ the early days of my stay in Oea’ to an abnormal extent, and will compel us to estimate the whole sojourn of Apuleius in Oea at four years, and not three. Still, however, it is possible. Then we must suppose Apuleius to have come to Oca in the winter of 154-155; to have remained in the house of Puden- tilla till the end of 155 or beginning of 156, when he delivered this great lecture and became engaged to her; to have married her probably in the latter half of 156; and to have been accused towards the end of 158. ‘Thus we shall be able to explain abhine ferme triennium.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF APULEIUS XXvii

Pudentilla broken off, for fear, as would seem, that the latter, who appears to have been deeply attached to Apuleius, would settle all her fortune on him. However, Apuleius behaved handsomely, and _per- suaded Pudentilla to make a