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Book 1
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
Lucius wakes up and goes out to explore the central district of Thessaly, thinking about witchcraft and how everyday objects might be illusions after the stories Aristomenes told him the previous day. He wanders around until he finally reaches a place that sells food. There, an old man spots him and calls out Lucius’s name.
As is often the case, Lucius’s immediate goal is to find food. As is also often true, he gets disrupted right when he is on the verge of actually eating the food. In this section, Lucius is preoccupied by the stories of magic that Aristomenes told him the other day, showing how stories can be powerful and linger in a person’s memory.
Themes
The old man has his arm around an old woman wearing lots of jewelry. The old man says the woman is Lucius’s mother, but Lucius doesn’t recognize her. The woman clarifies that she’s not actually his mother but that she was a relative of his mother’s and was raised with her. Her name is Byrrhena. She says she used to care for Lucius with her own hands and then offers him hospitality.
The interaction Lucius has with Byrrhena is strange and perhaps deepens the dreamlike feel that the story already had. The fact that Byrrhena feels like a mother to Lucius but he barely remembers her suggests from the very beginning that their relationship is unequal.
Themes
Lucius addresses Byrrhena as his mother but doesn’t accept her hospitality, saying that he doesn’t want to offend Milo by leaving. Nevertheless, Lucius and Byrrhena walk to Byrrhena’s house, which is splendid and has big pillars with goddess statues on them. Byrrhena tells Lucius to make himself at home. Then she warns him about Pamphile, a dangerous witch who is married to Milo and who becomes obsessed with every good-looking young man she sees.
The witch Pamphile was foreshadowed by the story earlier about the witch Meroe. Both witches are greedy and often seek out younger lovers, traits that they share with many of the other characters who show up throughout The Golden Ass. While some characters face consequences for their choices, witches generally do not and seem to control the course of Fortune rather than being bound by it.
Themes
Despite Byrrhena’s warning, Lucius is actually excited to learn more about Pamphile’s witchcraft. He rushes back to Milo’s house. He finds it empty except for Photis, the maid, who is preparing food. Lucius finds Photis attractive and tells her that anyone who is allowed to stick his finger up her buttocks must be very happy indeed. Photis warns him to stay back because she is working the stove and could set him on fire. She says she knows how to season food and how to shake a bed.
Like many surviving ancient Roman texts, The Golden Ass contains sexually explicit sections as well as innuendo and double entendre. Just as Lucius is often motivated by physical hunger, he is also often motivated by other urges like sex. Often this is played for humor, although it can also lead to tragic situations.
Themes
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Lucius explains his theories about female beauty and how hair is important because it’s the first thing the eyes see. He likes Photis’s hair because it’s striking, but also because she’s not too “diligent” about it. He kisses the top of her head. Photis teases him by warning him to be careful—if he eats too much of her delicious dish, he might get heartburn. Photis promises to come to Lucius’s room that night.
Lucius will continue to comment on the hair of various characters throughout the story. Because hair is the first thing people see, it is an important part of identity. Photis’s comment about heartburn further strengthens the connection between physical and sexual hunger, suggesting that both are strong motivating forces.
Themes
That evening, Lucius has dinner with Milo, and Photis serves them. Milo and Lucius talk about a man they both know called Diophanes who can predict the future. Milo tells a story of meeting Diophanes getting tricked in the marketplace, but Lucius finds the story pointless and boring. Lucius rushes to get back to bed.
This scene further establishes the ways in which Lucius and Milo fail to communicate with each other. The secret relationship between Photis and Lucius, which Milo is unaware of, is one of many such relationships throughout the story.
Themes
Soon after Lucius returns to his bedroom, Photis comes in. Lucius lifts up his tunic to show his genitals, then asks for Photis to take pity on him and give aid. Photis strips, and her body reminds Lucius of Venus rising from the waves. They have sex that night, then continue to have sex several times over the next few nights.
Though Venus is just used as a metaphor here, she will later appear as a character in one of the stories-within-a-story. While Lucius often experiences bad luck over the course of the story, it is noteworthy that he does sometimes get what he desires—in this case, a secret relationship with Photis. This demonstrates how Fortune can have both positive and negative effects.
Themes
One day, Byrrhena invites Lucius over for dinner. Lucius is worried about gangs that roam around town and attack people randomly, but Lucius reassures her that he’ll hurry back early and that he’ll take his sword with him.
Gangs and robbers are a constant threat in the story, suggesting that the relatively comfortable life of men like Lucius is always in danger of being suddenly taken away.
Themes
Byrrhena’s feast is lavish, with some of the most important people in the city in attendance. Byrrhena asks Lucius how he likes the city so far. Lucius says he likes the freedom but is afraid that some black magic is lurking somewhere in the city. Some of the guests invite a man called Thelyphron to tell a story. He reclines on a couch and begins.
Byrrhena’s lavish feast contrasts with the stinginess of Milo, but Lucius still seems wary of her. This seems to suggest that while too little hospitality is rude, there can also be a problem with excessive hospitality.
Themes
In Thelyphron’s story, he is traveling from Miletus to see the Olympic games. He’s also on the lookout for ways to make money, and he happens to run into an old man standing on a rock in the middle of the forum, offering money to anyone who agrees to guard a corpse. Thelyphron is incredulous, but the man explains that corpses have to be closely protected from witches who bite the corpses’ faces as part of their sorcery.
Right away, the premise of guarding a corpse recalls the living corpse of Socrates from the story that Aristomenes told Lucius on the road. While the stories-within-a-story often have connections to other stories throughout the book, they are often most connected to the stories immediately preceding or following them.
Themes
The man explains that witches are tricky about getting past guards and that if, after a night of guarding, the corpse is missing part of its body, the guard will have to make up the difference by having a portion of his own face cut off. Thelyphron agrees to be the watchman and asks about the price, which turns out to be a high one.
The cutting off of the face relates to the issue of identity, since the face is a major part of a person’s outward appearance. This passage seems to suggest that the witches are so powerful they can even steal a person’s identity—after they’re already dead.
Themes
The old man leads Thelyphron to the house of a weeping widow who needs someone to guard her husband’s corpse. Thelyphron promises to be such a good guard that she’ll need to tip him extra. They discuss the conditions of their agreement. Thelyphron asks for her enslaved workers to fetch him the supplies he’ll need: a big lantern with lots of oil, plus wine and food. The woman scolds him for asking for so much food from a house that’s still in mourning, but a maid does go to get a lamp.
On the one hand, The Golden Ass explores traditional ideas of marriage and relationships by portraying faithfulness as an important concern and frequently depicting many unfaithful characters in a negative light. At the same time, the fact that so many characters have relationships with people outside of their marriages also raises questions about how stable traditional marriages are. This case of a widow trying to remain faithful to her husband’s corpse is an extreme and perhaps comic example of the theme.
Themes
Thelyphron’s guard duty is easy at the beginning. A weasel comes in, and he shoos it away. But soon after the weasel leaves, Thelyphron is overcome with an urge to sleep. When he wakes up, he panics and rushes to check on the corpse, but it still seems to be entirely intact. Eventually, the widow comes in, still weeping, and does her own inspection. She thanks him and pays him.
Characters who suddenly fall asleep occur throughout the stories of The Golden Ass. Often it is a sign of the involvement of witchcraft, but it could also be seen as another variation on the theme of characters succumbing to a kind of “hunger”—in this case for sleep.
Themes
Thelyphron gets the sudden urge to refuse the money and says the widow should simply consider him a servant and call upon him whenever he’s needed. But the whole household considers that a bad omen and suddenly attacks him and throws him out. It is only after Thelyphron gets kicked out that he realizes why what he said was inconsiderate.
Thelyphron’s rejection of the money might seem like a polite gesture, but given that the woman’s husband recently died, it could also be read as a greedy one (i.e., that Thelyphron is trying to take the widow’s husband’s place as a new husband). Thelyphron’s confusion seems to suggest that he was not aware of this until after it was too late.
Themes
The corpse is taken out for a funeral procession. One of the mourners goes forward and announces that the dead man was murdered by his wife (the widow) in order to steal his inheritance for her and her other lover. He calls for vengeance against her. The woman protests and weeps. The accusing man says there is an accomplished seer in the crowd and that he can provide judgement.
This new twist reframes many of the earlier events in the story. Now, instead of appearing faithful to her deceased husband, the widow seems deceptive. While Thelyphron was earlier accused of trying to obtain the widow’s inheritance, it was actually the widow herself who was scheming.
Themes
The seer places herbs on the dead man’s body and prays to the sun. Suddenly, the dead man gets up and asks why he’s back in the world of the living. The seer asks the dead man to tell how he died. The man says he was murdered by his adulterous wife, the widow.
Like Socrates, the widow’s husband also rises from the dead, albeit temporarily. Metaphorically, this shows how dead people can impact the present, even after they’re gone.
Themes
The dead man explains that while Thelyphron was guarding his body, a witch cast a spell of drowsiness on Thelyphron. Then the witch summoned the dead man, but the dead man and Thelyphron had the same name, so it was Thelyphron the guard who got summoned instead. The witch proceeded to cut off Thelyphron’s ears and nose, then replace them with wax to hide what was missing. Thelyphron is horrified when the seer says this. He reaches up to check his own nose, and it falls off.
The confusion of the two men both named Thelyphron shows how identity is not always an easily defined concept. The fact that Thelyphron the guard loses part of his face only further reinforces the idea that identity is not permanent or stable and can be changed.
Themes
The crowd laughs at Thelyphron. He leaves and journeys for a long time, letting his hair grow long to hide where his ears used to be. He ends his story.
The crowd’s lack of sympathy for Thelyphron shows how misfortune doesn’t always generate sympathy and sometimes even inspires scorn.
Themes
Still at the party, Byrrhena invites Lucius to come to a festival the next day for the god Laughter. Lucius agrees to come. A servant lets him know it’s getting late, so Lucius heads back toward Milo’s. As he’s going back, the wind blows out a lamp, and he’s left in darkness. He feels three robbers attacking him, but he kills them all with his sword. The noise awakens Photis, who comes out to let Lucius in.
Bandits and robbers were foreshadowed earlier in the story, and this is the section where that foreshadowing pays off. The fact that Lucius does not see the attackers gives the scene a dreamlike quality, and it raises suspense over the question of who (or what) Lucius is attacking at the end of Book 2.
Themes
