The Golden Ass
Having done
a streak of East Asian novels I am now back in the west with Apuleius’ ”The
Golden Ass”.
This book
is however not any closer to modernity than the previous novels, quite the
contrary. “The Golden Ass” is an 1800 year old novel and the only complete
Roman era novel in existence. Or maybe only novel in Latin. In any case ancient
stuff, preceding all the other novels so far read in this project.
“The Golden
Ass” or “Metamorphoses”, as it is also known as, is the story of a fellow
called Lucius whose curiosity gets him in trouble when he insists on witnessing
a witch in action. He is himself transformed to an ass and as such wander from
one disaster to the next, barely staying alive. He is also encountering tales
of many different kinds which are recounted at length in the book. Near the end
Lucius, the ass, has a religious experience. A Goddess helps him return to
human shape and in return he becomes a monk.
By far the
major part of the book consists of alternating stories with the progress of
Lucius’ horrific experiences. Although those are certainly adventurous enough
they are mostly a vehicle for the stories. As such this is a picaresque style
of writing that I know I will be encountering a lot when I get to the
renaissance books and beyond.
Personally
that sort of writing has always annoyed me because the episodic stories
distract me from the main theme and therefore often feels like unnecessary
filler. A bit like episodes on X-files not relating to the main theme. In this
case though there are a lot of meat on the stories and comparatively little
meat on Lucius’ own and it is quite clear that they are the real agenda of the
novel.
The stories
cover a lot of ground. Some are related to magic and witchcraft, some to
horrible crimes, but most of them relate in one way or another to relations
between men and women. While there are horrible men most of the villains are
women who either out of weakness, jealousy, greed or just meanness are causing
the death and/or downfall of men around them. These stories have plenty of
fairly explicit sex (though not as much as I was led to believe) and gruesome
violence (a lot more than I expected) and certainly enough drama to warrant
their inclusion. The most famous story, that of Psyche and Cupid, is almost a
novel on its now and seem more like traditional mythology of gods and heroes
and their doings and it feels oddly misplaced amid stories of whoring wives and
murdering witches.
Whether
there is a morality or even a point to the stories I have not been able to
figure out. The main function seem to simply entertain and that is okay with
me. If I should draw some sort of conclusion it would be that women should be
mistrusted and that greed and viciousness is everywhere.
A thing
that strikes me reading a novel so far removed in time is how the concept of
many things are just different. I have noted similar things reading the Asian
novels, but time clearly causes similar problems. A particular element is that
of religious beliefs. This story is written sometime between 150 and 180
placing it in the Roman Empire long before Christianity became the dominant
religion. The religious environment is super confused. There are elements of
Roman religion, lots of Greek, Oriental elements and finally Egyptian. It is
like a religious free for all, pick your God and belief. The only thing that is
certain is the belief in religion. The cacophony of believes never for a second
makes anybody doubt that there is a mystic world with gods and rules of all
sorts. Instead it seems like a grasping for the right interpretation, even flirting
with the idea that all these gods are different manifestations of a supreme
being, maybe a precursor to monotheistic thinking. For me it is difficult
enough to cope with Christian thinking. Pre-Christian thinking is even harder
to grasp. It is a window into a different world where mysticism is very real
and revelations through dream, divine intervention and providence are perfectly
plausible and acceptable.
Another odd
concept is the cheapness of life. Especially the distinction between free men
and slaves. That a person can be the possession of another person is bad
enough, but that such a person is barely considered human is difficult to
grasp. The same with the degree of violence described, especially when you
consider the medical aid a victim of violence could expect. Gruesome.
I have to
commend on the translation of the version I read. By using modern words and
formulations “The Golden Ass” does not feel as archaic as it is. Yes, it is
still a product of its time, but it is absolutely readable and certainly
entertaining. If for nothing else you learn a lot about how life was in Roman
times and that is always interesting. A good companion to “The Golden Ass”
would be to visit Pompeii. Look at the painting on the walls there and think of
this book. Very real indeed.
