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Book 2
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 the next day and wonders if he will be charged with the killing of those three robbers. There’s a knock on the door, and suddenly Lucius is escorted down to the forum by guards. There, an elderly prosecutor is speaking. The prosecutor is part of a night watch group, and he tells the story of the previous night when he saw a young man with a sword and three corpses at his feet. The young man ran off, but the prosecutor watched him and seized him (Lucius) the next day. The prosecutor asks the crowd to vote Lucius guilty.
As with Aristomenes and the death of Socrates, Lucius also finds himself in danger of being accused of a crime that he is not guilty of. On the surface, it does seem that Lucius may have killed some men for no good reason. This whole scene raises questions about the value of a justice system that is based on external appearances, and it does not offer any easy answers about alternative justice systems.
Themes
Lucius begins a rebuttal speech. He says that it was self-defense. He embellishes the story, saying that he overheard the robbers planning to kill him. He tells of an epic battle with the robbers and then ends by crying and pleading for mercy. Lucius thinks the crowd is moved but is surprised to hear them laughing.
The truth would, in theory, be enough to exonerate Lucius, but instead he decides to tell an exaggerated story. This decision suggests that justice is based not just on facts but on the power to tell a compelling and convincing story.
Themes
Two mourning women come forward and plead that Lucius must pay the price for the youths he killed. An old magistrate rises and says that clearly Lucius must pay the price, but there is one thing left to resolve: who helped Lucius? The magistrate doesn’t believe Lucius could have killed three strong young men on his own. They plan to torture Lucius until he confesses who his accomplices were.
The people of the town counter Lucius’s story by telling their own emotionally charged stories. Part of the reason why Lucius isn’t believed is because he’s an outsider who is outnumbered, showing how justice is often shaped by communities and how people outside the community are at a disadvantage.
Themes
An old woman comes forward and asks for the bodies of the young men to be revealed, in order to show how terrible Lucius’s crime was. The crowd agrees. Lucius pulls back the blanket covering the bodies and finds that instead of bodies, there are three leather bags, cut in the exact places where Lucius remembers cutting the bandits. The whole crowd laughs.
As with many episodes in The Golden Ass, Lucius’s trial contains a major twist that changes what came before it and raises questions about what is and isn’t real. Perhaps in this case the fraudulent nature of Lucius’s trial could be read as a commentary on how real trials also sometimes contain an element of farce.
Themes
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Milo takes Lucius back. Lucius feels humiliated and upset. The magistrates explain to Lucius that the whole trial was just part of the town’s ritual to honor the god Laughter. Because Lucius composed a story for Laughter, the god will now protect him, and the city will honor him. Lucius pretends that he is cheered up.
Lucius finds out his suffering was all part of an orchestrated ritual to please a local god. While this passage could be read as supporting the idea that even seemingly unfair suffering often has a mysterious purpose, it could also be interpreted more pessimistically as supporting the idea that sometimes humans suffer despite having done nothing to deserve it.
Themes
A servant comes from Byrrhena to remind Lucius that he promised to attend her dinner party that evening, since it’s still the feast of the god Laughter. Lucius uses the excuse that he has already promised to eat with Milo. After eating with Milo, Lucius is met in his room by Photis and finds that she looks like a different girl and has wrinkles. She admits that she is the one who has tricked Lucius.
Again, though Byrrhena seems to be a more generous host than Milo, Lucius feels uneasy about her excessive hospitality and returns to Milo, even though Lucius clearly does not like Milo. This suggests how too much generosity can be unwelcome or even a trap.
Themes
Photis tells Lucius she’s keeping secrets about her mistress, Milo’s wife, Pamphile. The mistress has been trying to seduce a young man in his 20s. As part of a scheme, the mistress asked Photis to steal some of the young man’s hair from off the ground at the barber. But the young man caught her and forcefully took his hair back. Photis instead found goat hair to take back to her mistress.
Many characters in The Golden Ass concoct elaborate schemes to fool their spouses. Arguably, the book’s fixation on deceptive women reflects sexist attitudes from the time when the book was written, although it could also be argued that the active role of female characters in driving the plot is noteworthy.
Themes
Photis explains that Pamphile began a ritual with the goat hair. Using the power of necromancy, she unintentionally created three living goatskin bags, which became the attackers that Lucius killed. Lucius is amused by this story and says he forgives Photis. They get naked and have wild sex before falling asleep.
Lucius’s earlier fixation on Pamphile’s hair helped establish the crucial role that hair plays as part of a person’s identity. For this reason, it makes sense that a sample of a person’s hair would be needed in order to perform witchcraft on them.
Themes
After several nights of sleeping together, Photis tells Lucius that her mistress (Pamphile) is going to transform into a bird in order to swoop down on the one she admires. Lucius watches. First Pamphile takes off her clothes, then she rubs an ointment in her palms, then she transforms into a bird and flies off. Lucius pleads with Photis to get some of that ointment. Photis doesn’t want to get it and is afraid Lucius will fly away from her. Lucius promises to be faithful, and finally Photis agrees to get some.
Lucius is seemingly never satisfied with what he already has. Despite having sex with Photis as he desired, he finds himself yearning for even more. The story makes it clear that Lucius’s interest in Pamphile and her witchy rituals is not merely curiosity but also greed and an inability to be satisfied with what he already has.
Themes
Photis gets some ointment for Lucius. He rubs it on himself, but instead of turning into a bird, he turns into a donkey. Photis panics but tells Lucius there’s a simple cure: he just has to eat some roses. She doesn’t currently have any roses, but she’ll rush out at dawn to get some.
Lucius’s transformation into a donkey shows how greed and curiosity can have unexpected consequences. Donkeys are famously not very intelligent creatures, and Lucius’s transformation into a donkey could be seen as a physical manifestation of his own ignorance.
Themes
Lucius is so angry that he considers killing Photis, but he doesn’t because he still needs her help to get back his human body. Still in the form of a donkey, he goes off to the stable. There, he sees roses at a shrine to the goddess of horses, Epona, and tries to eat some, but as he goes for them, he is caught by a stable boy. The boy hits Lucius and only stops when he hears a shout that there’s a robber. Suddenly, armed bandits storm Milo’s house.
Lucius’s sudden urge to kill Photis shows how quick he (and other characters in the book) are to change their minds. Such rash actions can have both comic and tragic consequences, although in this case, Lucius doesn’t act on them. The robbery of Milo represents a cruel twist of Fortune, setting Lucius off on an improbably long journey as a donkey.
Themes
The bandits empty out Milo’s house. They steal so much that they need donkeys to carry the items, and so they take Lucius with them. They load Lucius down and hit him. As they go by one village, Lucius sees roses, but he realizes he can’t eat them, or else his human body will be crushed by all the things the bandits have made him carry.
Like Odysseus in The Odyssey, Lucius seems to see the end of his journey at an early point, but in reality, he has quite a long way to go. This cruelty of seeing what he wants without being able to take it is something that Lucius endures multiple times throughout his journey.
Themes
