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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Golden Ass, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Power of Stories
Faithfulness and Loyalty
Identity, Transformation, and Curiosity
Consequences of Greed
Summary
Analysis
The narrator says that he is going to tell a witty and wonderful story. He introduces himself as someone with Greek ancestors who grew up speaking and reading Greek but who learned Latin while living in a Roman city. He announces that the story he’s about to tell is based on a Greek original and asks for forgiveness if he tells the story wrong, since he is still an amateur at speaking Latin.
The beginning of the book foregrounds the role that storytelling will play by introducing the narrator character, who is himself fond of stories and eager to tell them well. Notably, his name isn’t revealed until later in the book. The narrator’s origin in Greece (which was then part of the Roman Empire) could reflect how the book’s author, Apuleius, was interested in Greek literature and philosophy. While the author doesn’t specify the time period for The Golden Ass, it was written in the 2nd century C.E. (when the Roman Empire was at its largest point) and set not too long before the time it was written.
Themes
The narrator says that he is going to Thessaly, a region of Greece, on business. The narrator’s family is from Thessaly, and so is the famous writer and philosopher Plutarch. As the narrator rides, his white horse gets tired, so the narrator gets off and walks beside the horse. He runs into two wayfarers who seem to be having a friendly argument. The narrator asks them to share what they’re talking about. The one wayfarer claims that his companion’s story is total nonsense. They argue more, and eventually the other wayfarer agrees to tell his story for the narrator.
The reference to Plutarch once again reflects how the author, Apuleius, is interested in Greek writers and how they influenced The Golden Ass. Like the narrator of the story, the two wayfarers also are not named when they are first introduced. Because identity in The Golden Ass is often hidden—or even capable of being transformed—the same characters are often referred to by a variety of different names.
Themes
Beginning his story, the one wayfarer says that he travels all around Greece selling honey, cheese, and other goods for taverns. He hears a tip that in Hypata, a major town in Thessaly, a very fine cheese is being sold at a good price, so he travels there. But when he gets there, the cheese has already been bought up.
The story that the wayfarer tells is the first of many stories-within-a-story that appear in The Golden Ass (sometimes referred to as “inset tales”). The stories-within-a-story all serve different purposes and they give The Golden Ass a unique episodic structure that went on to be a major influence on other episodic works that followed it, such as The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer and Don Quixote by Cervantes.
Themes
While still in Hypata, the wayfarer happens to run into an old friend of his named Socrates. Socrates looks skinny and sickly. The wayfarer, whose name is revealed as Aristomenes, says that back home, Socrates’s wife and children have already mourned him as if he were dead, and he adds that seeing Socrates is like seeing a ghost. Socrates seems embarrassed and says that he’s been a victim of Fortune. Aristomenes takes Socrates to a bath to get him cleaned up, and then he gives him food and drink.
The name Socrates furthers the theme of Greek philosophy (though, here, it doesn’t refer to the famous Socrates, just another man who happens to have the same name). The fact that Socrates was presumed dead but Aristomenes found him alive makes Aristomenes regard him like a ghost—this foreshadows the role that magic and the supernatural will play not just in this story but also in the book at large.
Themes
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Socrates explains the cause of his troubles. He was on a business trip to Macedonia and wanted to see some gladiator games along the way, but suddenly he was robbed by bandits. Afterwards, he was taken in by an old innkeeper named Meroe. She treated him well and fed him for free, but then she “steer[ed]” him to sleep with her. Socrates was afraid of becoming trapped, so he gave the innkeeper everything the bandits left him with—including his clothes—and left. That’s how he ended up in his current condition.
The layers of story go even deeper as Socrates begins his tale: Socrates is telling a story to Aristomenes, who is telling a story to the narrator, who is telling a story to the audience. Though Socrates blames Meroe for luring him into sex, it's possible that he is simply trying to cover up the role that his own curiosity and unfaithfulness played in the story.
Themes
Aristomenes scolds Socrates for cheating on his family with Meroe. Socrates fearfully asks him to be quiet, saying that the old innkeeper is a witch. He tells stories about what she has done with her powers. For example, she turned one of her unfaithful lovers into a beaver, since beavers escape predators by biting off their own testicles. She also turned a competitor innkeeper into a frog. Finally, one of her other lovers was a married man with a pregnant wife, so Meroe sewed the woman’s womb shut and forced her to be pregnant forever—the fetus was still growing after eight years.
Aristomenes questions the truthfulness of Socrates’s account, particularly how he tries to shift the blame for his actions to Meroe. This is an early example of how stories are influenced by the people telling them. The actions of the witch Meroe seem to clearly take the story into the realm of fantasy, but at this point it isn’t clear whether Meroe actually has magical powers or whether this is all a rumor. Beavers do not actually bite off their own testicles, but this legend was widely believed for a long time.
Themes
Socrates continues his story about Meroe, explaining that the townspeople decided to stone her for her crimes, but she used her spells to overcome them, using spells to trap everyone in their houses until they agreed to let her go. Aristomenes is amazed by the story and suggests that he and Socrates make haste to get as far away as possible. But then Socrates falls into a deep sleep, and though Aristomenes tries to stay awake, he too falls asleep.
Aristomenes’s reaction to Socrates’s story mirrors the incredulous reaction that Aristomenes’s traveling partner has to Aristomenes’s stories. Many of the stories-within-a-story relate back to the main story and either mirror or invert the events that happen in the frame story around them.
Themes
Aristomenes wakes up suddenly and is thrown out of bed. His cot ends up on top of him, trapping him on his back like a turtle. Two old women are in the room, one with a sword. The one woman points at Socrates and tells her companion, Panthia, that Socrates has spread nasty lies about her. Then she points to Aristomenes and says that he has been helping Socrates plan an escape. The first woman is revealed to be Meroe.
The line between fantasy and reality continues to blur as Aristomenes is trapped in a situation that seems to be real but also has a dreamlike quality to it. While faithfulness is a complicated concept in The Golden Ass, one recurring theme is that unfaithfulness can sometimes lead to disaster, and in this case, Socrates’s decision to be unfaithful to his family seems to have disastrous consequences.
Themes
Aristomenes is frightened as the women discuss what to do with him. They decide to let him live so that he can bury Socrates’ body. Then Meroe slits Socrates’s throat and catches all the blood in a vial. She reaches into his wound and pulls out his heart. Panthia puts a sponge into the wound. The two old women urinate on Aristomenes, then remove the cot. They leave.
This section is one of the first in The Golden Ass to delve into “vulgar” topics like violence, gore, and bodily fluids. As in Shakespeare or Chaucer, the bawdy material often contrasts with the story’s structurally complex or otherwise “highbrow” aspects.
Themes
Left alone, Aristomenes wonders what will happen if anyone finds him next to Socrates’s corpse. He tries to sneak out, but he runs into a locked door and has to talk with the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper doesn’t want to let Aristomenes out so late at night because of all the bandits on the roads. Aristomenes points out that he’s naked, so there’s nothing for the bandits to take. The doorkeeper asks if Aristomenes is on the run from a crime—perhaps he slit the throat of the man he traveled in with. Aristomenes gives up and goes back to the bedroom.
By associating with Socrates, Aristomenes is now himself in danger of being accused of a crime. The story raises the question of whether Aristomenes is simply a victim of bad luck or whether, as a friend to Socrates, he bears some share of the blame for what Socrates has done.
Themes
Aristomenes contemplates suicide so that he can avoid being crucified for the murder of Socrates. He tries to hang himself from a ceiling beam, but the beam breaks and he falls on top of Socrates. The noise attracts the doorkeeper who comes in and asks why Aristomenes is still sleeping if he was in such a hurry to leave earlier. The noise is so loud that Socrates wakes up. He complains about how his sleep has been interrupted and how he really needs his sleep because he feels dead on his feet.
Some of the humor in The Golden Ass is dark and deals with morbid topics like murder and suicide. Here, Aristomenes’s despair is played as a joke, and the surprising awakening of Socrates (who should be dead after having his throat slit) adds a startling twist to the scene.
Themes
The doorkeeper leaves, and Aristomenes and Socrates return to the road. Aristomenes looks at the place where he saw the sword go into Socrates’ neck, but there’s no wound. Aristomenes wonders if it was all a dream because he ate and drank too much the previous night.
Aristomenes questions if what he’s seeing is even real. Perhaps this section shows the dangers of overindulgence (since he is confused because he ate and drank too much), but it also shows how the boundary between fantasy and reality is not always clear.
Themes
Socrates and Aristomenes stop to eat. Socrates eats and drinks greedily, but just as he’s drinking water from a riverbank, the slice in his neck opens back up and his dead body almost falls into the stream before Aristomenes catches it. Aristomenes mourns his friend and feels guilty about his death. He willingly becomes an exile from his former homeland and lives in Aetolia instead.
The strange ending of the story confirms for Aristomenes that what he was seeing was not a dream—that his friend Socrates actually was dead, briefly resurrected, then dead again. The story establishes that in this world, magic is so powerful that it can even stop, or at least delay, death—assuming Aristomenes is a trustworthy storyteller.
Themes
When Aristomenes ends his story, his companion says it is silly and unbelievable. The narrator, however, says that the story doesn’t seem impossible to him. He thanks the wayfarers for entertaining him. They turn off the main road to a little farm, while the narrator heads to an inn in Hypata.
While Aristomenes remains convinced of the truth of his story, his traveling companion seems more skeptical. The narrator, however, seems to believe the story, showing an inclination to believe in magic.
Themes
At the inn, the innkeeper is an old woman. The narrator asks her about a man named Milo. The innkeeper has heard of him and points the narrator toward Milo’s lavish house. Milo has a reputation for being greedy and isn’t well-liked. The narrator goes to meet him and knocks on the door, saying he has a letter of introduction from a man named Demeas of Corinth. The letter helps the narrator get invited inside to meet Milo.
The narrator often judges other characters in the story based on the quality of the hospitality they provide, reflecting the importance of hospitality in his culture. Though Milo makes some gestures toward politeness, he also is very stingy, particularly given how much he has. It soon becomes clear that the narrator doesn’t like Milo, even as he remains a guest in his house.
Themes
Milo shows the narrator around his house. He says that the narrator is a prestigious guest and offers him a room. The narrator can tell the various ways Milo is stingy, but he accepts his hospitality. He drops off his things and then goes to the marketplace to look for food.
Milo isn’t open about his stinginess and even tries to hide it. There is even the possibility that the narrator is exaggerating about Milo’s lack of generosity. The narrator’s actions are often driven by basic urges like hunger, which is why he goes to the market for food.
Themes
In the market, the narrator finds some fish he wants to buy, then haggles with the shopkeeper to reduce the price. Then the narrator runs into Pythias, who used to be a fellow student with the narrator back in Athens. Pythias greets him and uses the narrator’s name for the first time: Lucius. Pythias is happy to see Lucius.
The character Pythias helps introduce the narrator (whose name is revealed as Lucius), as well as fleshing out some of his background. The fact that Lucius was a student in Athens suggests that he comes from a somewhat comfortable, educated background.
Themes
Pythias sees the fish Lucius has bought and asks how much he paid for everything. Lucius explains the price he got by haggling, causing Pythias to go over to the old man selling fish and scold him for selling such poor fish to Lucius at such a high price. Pythias dumps Lucius’s basket of fish, then orders for the bad fish to be stomped to a pulp. Pythias feels that this is an effective putdown for the old fish seller, but Lucius is sad to lose all his fish.
Pythias’s strange reaction to the shopkeeper selling fish shows that he is more invested in teaching the shopkeeper a lesson than he is in Lucius’s welfare. In the first of many times in the story, Lucius has something he wants right in front of him—in this case, fish—only to have it stolen away from him through a strange twist of fate.
Themes
Lucius returns to Milo’s house and is informed that Milo wants to see him. Lucius says he’d rather sleep than eat, but then a man comes and literally drags Lucius to the dining room. At dinner, Milo asks how Demeas is doing. Lucius is so tired that he doesn’t give coherent answers, so finally Milo lets him go to bed. Lucius has still had no food as he wearily returns to the bedroom.
Milo continues to be a strange and not particularly generous host, making Lucius impatient. This section satirizes how people can be outwardly polite—as both Milo and Lucius are doing—while secretly disliking each other. Lucius goes to bed hungry, as he will many more times throughout the story.
Themes
