The Metamorphosis of an Ass

Abstract

the LuciuS of APuLeiuS’ The Golden Ass is not delighted at his transformation into an ass, but the many juicy stories he overhears during his stay in animal form provide a silver lining—stories which, once he has returned to human form, he incorporates into a book about his experience. The resulting narrative offers countless opportunities for interpretation. In it, realistic depictions of animal suffering caused by humans jostle with the most light-hearted X-rated romps; the contents of a ribald “Milesian tale” stud the confessions of a priest; a complicated allegory about love is questioned by its framing narrative. The novel’s central questions demand serious thought: why would a devotee of Isis include raunchy tales in his autobiography? Is the author/ass simply the last victim of all the religious scams he sees? Does the battered donkey stand as testimony to the suffering of ancient slaves? How does the Cupid and Psyche story reflect on Lucius’ curiosity? This complexity—and the fact that The Golden Ass makes for a fabulous read—renders the experience of reading the work pretty much inenarrabile. Enter Peter Singer, the Princeton utilitarian and bio-ethicist, who has recently published a curtailed version of the novel with a translation by classicist Ellen Finkelpearl. It’s unusual for bio-ethicists to publish editions of classical texts, but the motivation here was personal. In an essay published in the online Classics journal Antigone, Singer tells of his astonishment upon encountering this work.1 Here, from the 2nd