"The Golden Ass," by Apuleius

There will be two meetups (see below for FREE PDF)
1st meetup: Read Introduction and then chapter 1 through chapter 9.
2nd meetup: read chapter 10 to end of novella.

Apuleius’s The Golden Ass, in Robert Graves’s lively translation, is one of the great works of ancient Latin literature, yet it remains sadly unfamiliar to many modern readers.

It is an invaluable work of mythology and mythopoetic imagination, preserving a rich world of ancient stories, symbols, religious ideas, magical practices, and archetypal images.

The novel is a remarkable mixture of adventure, comedy, eroticism, magic, violence, and spiritual transformation.

The story follows Lucius, whose fascination with magic leads to his accidental transformation into an ass. His subsequent journey through suffering, humiliation, and encounters with the strange and often brutal dimensions of human nature eventually culminates in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis.

At the heart of the novel is the beautiful tale of Psyche and Amor (Cupid)—a myth of love, separation, trials, suffering, and eventual reunion. Psyche’s journey can be understood as an archetypal story of the soul undergoing transformation through love and adversity.

From a Jungian perspective, The Golden Ass can be approached as a symbolic journey of psychic transformation. Lucius’s metamorphosis, Psyche’s trials, descent into darkness, and eventual encounter with the divine resonate with themes of individuation, the unconscious, archetypal transformation, death and rebirth, and the integration of the psyche.

Apuleius’s mythopoetic imagination therefore offers a remarkable ancient expression of themes that would become central to Jungian depth psychology.

FREE PDF COPY:
The Golden Ass : Apuleius Lucius : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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