From Epic to Novel: Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Vergil's Aeneid

Author(s): S. J. Harrison
Source: Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici , 1997, No. 39, Memoria, arte
allusiva, intertestualità (Memory, Allusion, Intertextuality) (1997), pp. 53-73
Published by: Fabrizio Serra Editore

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 SJ. Harrison

From Epie to Novel:

Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid*

1. Introduction

It is not surprisine, and not a new assertion, that Apuleius in his

Métamorphoses shows consistent and detâiled knöwledge and
exploitation of the text of Vergil, and especially of the Aeneid}.
A learned writer in a a learrted âge, he would naturally be anx-
ious to show his knowledge of what was by then the chief classic
text of Roman éducation . And there seems little doubt that he
had a Roman éducation; he was born in thè middle 120's AD at
Madaufos, now in Algeria3, a Roman colonia founded in the
Flaviàn period and Latin in lânguage and culture (it was the place

* Versions of this paper hâve been delivered not only at the Oxford colloquiimi
but also at the Universities of Cambridge, London, Bonn, Cape Town and the
Witwatersrand, and to the Petronian Society (Munich Section). I am most grate-
ful to my hosts (Prof. M.D. Reeve, Prof. GJ.O'Daly, Prof. Dr. O. Zwierlein, Dr.
D. Wardle, Prof. J.N.D. Scourfield, and Prof. Dr. N. Holzberg) for their kind in-
vitations, and to the audience on each occasion for useful discussion.
1. For the influence of the Aeneid on the Métamorphoses cf. C.A. Forbes,
Chante and Dido, «Class. Journ.» 37, 1943-4, 39-40, P.G. Walsh, The Roman
Novel, Cambridge 1970, 53-59, A. La Penna, Una novelL· di Apuleio e VHiupersis
virgiliana, «Maia» 37, 1985, 145-60, C. Lazzarini, // modello virgiliano nel lessico
delle Metamorfosi di Apuleio, «St. Class. Or.» 35, 1985, 131-60, E. Finkelpearl,
Psyche, Aeneas and an Ass: Apuleius Met. 6.10-6.21, «Trans. Proc. Am. Phil.
Ass.» 120, 1990, 333-347, S.A. Frangoulidis, VergiVs Tale of the Trojan Horse in
Apuleius' Róbber-Tale of Thrasyleon, «Par. Pass.» 46, 1991, 95-111. Particularly
relevant hère is an article which appeared while this paper was awaiting publica-
tion, Nancy Shumate, "Darkness Visible": Apuleius Reäds Virgil, «Groningen
Colloquia on the Novel » 7, 1996, 103-116, which offers much of interest on Ver-
gilian imitation in Métamorphoses 8-10, and should be read in conjunetion with
section 3 of this paper.
2. For the Aeneid in Roman éducation see S.F.Bonner, Education in Ancicnt
Rome, London 1977, 213-4.
3. Apuleius was younger than his wife Pudentilla, who was about forty in 158-
9 A.D. (Apologià 89), and probably about the same âge as his former fellow-stu-
dent Strabo Aemilianus (Fforida 16, 31), who was probably about 32 at the time
of his consulship in 156 A.D. (PIR S 674).

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 54 SJ. Harrison

at which St Augustine lat

tion, he tells us, he move
ings of Carthage, the pro
where he acquired GreeK,
Platonic philosophy5. He
some of the centres of G
Mediterranean; we recali
(Apologià 72) when he go
which Ted to the law-suit i
in thè Apologià. But his car
year 158/96, seems from
firmly based in Carthage,
and a Latin-speaking pub
days' sailing from Rome,
of Greek and Greek texts
writers of Rome.
My concern hère will b
Aeneid in his novel the M
does not allude to Vergil
number of examples7, or
and Georgics, which are c
expressions; I hope to sho
4 in his account of the Un
relationship between the t
and the most interesting fr
morphoses clearly bears so
in generai, and to the Aen
sidered against thè backg
where the novel can simil
only naturai that the only
narrative from antiquity
of course there are also m

4. Augustine Confessions 2, 5.
cf. S. Gsell and C.A. Joly, Khan
22, and S. Gsell, Inscriptions lat
5. For Apuleius' studies cf. Flo
6. For the date of the speech,
mus, cf. R. Syme, Proconsuls d'A
1959, 310-19 (= R. Syme, Roma
7. For Vergilian echoes in thè
Notes on Apuleius, «Class. Quar
8. For the Greek noveFs relati
Romances, Berkeley 1967, 45-54
110-11, M. Fusillo, // romanzo

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 Apuleius* Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 55
Mikhail Bakhtin points out in his treatment of epic and novel9.
But let us consider the similarities.
The Métamorphoses is a work in eleven books, only one short
of Vereil's dozen, which contains an inserted taie of two books
and a descent to the Underworld, and which concerns the adven-
tures of a hero who battles through travel and adversity to an
eventual safe haven; it is surely meant to be compared with the
Aeneid as well as the Odyssey. The parallel émerges most clearly
in Psyche's descent to the Underworld, where, as scholars hâve
noted and as we shall see later on, Apuleius uses Vereilian quota-
tion and allusion as an important effect10. But the larger struc-
tural analogies between the Aeneid and the Métamorphoses are
the most important First of ali, both works in some sensé de-
scribe the hero's quest for something which may be viewed am-
biguously either as a return or as a new departure. Aeneas seeks
Italy, a new and unknown quantity, which turns out to be the
ancestral homeland of the Trojans to which they are in effect re-
turning11. Lucius, after his metamorphosis into an ass, seeks a re-
turn to human form, which when it occurs turns out to be not a
return to his old life but rather thè prelude to a wholly new exis-
tence as an Isiac initiate; we should also note that for his en-
counter with Isis he returns to Corinth, the place of his birth, a
return in another sensé12. And the obiect or means of the quest is
apt to prove elusive: readers of the tnird book of the Aeneid are
familiär with thè false Starts which the Trojans make in trving to
found their new city on various wrong sites, especially those in
Thrace (3, 16ff) and Crete (3, 135ff), and something of the same
effect is achieved by Lucius* repeated failures, especially in the
third book of the Métamorphoses (no coïncidence ?), to find and
consume rosés, the antidote which will turn him back into hu-
man shape (3, 25; 3, 27; 3, 29; 4, 2; 7, 15; 10, 29). Lucius is either
prevented by the intervention of events from eatine rosés, just as
Juno's storm prevents Aeneas from sailing to Italy and diverts
him to Carthage, or he identifies the wrong plant as thè rose, just
as the Trojans wrongly identifv Crete as the place where they are
to settle. Thus the same kind of suspense is generated in both
narratives by the motif of missing or misidentifying an opportu-
nity to complete the quest.

9. M. Bakhtin, The Dtalogtc Imagination, Austin 1981, 3-40.

10. Cf. Finkelpearl (op. cit. n. 1).
11. Through their ancestor Dardanus, who came from Italy: cf. Aeneid 3, 163-
8, V. Buchheit, Vergil über die Sendung Roms, Heidelberg 1963» 151-63.
12. Lucius' Corinthian origin is casually revealed in typical Apuleian manner at
Met. 2, 12, and perhaps implied earlier at Met. 1, 22.

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 56 SJ. Harrison

These very generai resem

cifie echoes. This treatme
hâve chosen three signifi
and hospitality, including
Underwprld, and a final g
tations which support my
of Vergilian imitation. In
we must always consider
which Apuleius' text allu
pose: is the text alludin
grandeur, to show its wri
comic version qf an elevate
use convenient literary mat
tional narrative ? AU thè
Apuleius as reader and imi
that more than one of the
Hère we are clearly dealin
which reflects on the aut
what we can guess about t
context of his own litera
genre (novel).

2. Entertainment and Hos

I begin with the thème of

of course a classic epic con
can see Apuleius adapting
own purposes. Consider t
invited by Milo, a rieh m
poor hospitality (Met. 1,

ergo brevitatem gurgustiol

cens en ecce illud cubiculum
ter deverseris in nostro, n
feceris et tibi specimen g
parvulo Thesei illius cogno
qui non est aspernatus H

The mention of Hecale at

most famous Hellenistic in
tality, that offered by the
Callimachus' Hecale; Hecal
ble hospitality in Petroni
bly one of the few instan

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 57
nius13. But the language of Milo's elaborate speech surelv recalls
that of Evander to Aetieas when the latter passes under tne hum-
ble portais of Evander's modest house on the Palatine {Aeneid 8,
362-5):

ut ventum ad sedes, 'haec' inquit 'limina victor

Alcides subiit, haec illum regia cepit.
aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque dignum
finge deo, rebusque vetli non asper egenis/

The request not to spurii such a humble lodging and the compar-
ison with a previous hero who proved his vlrtue by enduring
similar lowly hospitality are both éléments specifically taken
from Vergil.
Contrast is hère more instructive than similarity, and the ef-
fect of the imitation hère is surely one of wit and humour. The
speaker of thèse words of welcome in Apuleius is Milo, who
turns out to offer genuinely hutnble and stingy hospitality,
though rieh, rather différent from Evander in the Aeneid^ who
follows thè usuai tradition in offefing the best that he has,
though he is poor. The exaggerated politeness of Milo in wel-
cotnitig Lucius is atiiusihg and hypocritical; he is willing to ex-
pend words but not resources. This contrasts with the genuine
morâlising of Evander, whö practices what he preaches. We
should also note that Milo states that Lucius* father is actually
called Theseus, a fact which we learn hère fòr the first and only
time, in order to bring in the Vergilian comparison with a great
herö. This comparison is readily motivated in Vereil, since Her-
cules has actually enjoyed the samé hospitality as Äeneas, having
visited Evander on a previous occasion. In Apuleius more work
is needed to introduce the comparison; we guess that the détail
of the riame of Lucius* father is simply invented in order to pro-
vide the clever variation on the Vergilian original. Finally, we
should consider the possibility of double allusion; it is not im-
possible that Apuleius realised that Evander's welcome of Ae-
neas was clearly a version of Hecale's entértainment of Theseus
in Callihiachus, and therefof e included in his imitation of Vergil
a further allusion to VergiPs own model. In any case, there is
clearly some witty reworking of Vergil going on, aiid at the same
time a marking of Apuleius' text as less ponderous and more hu-
morous than its epic counterpart.

13. This example is not to be found in the cautious analysis of P.G. Walsh, Pe-
tronius and Apuleius, in: Aspects of Apuleius* Golden Assy éd. B.L. Hijmans Jr.
and R. Th. van der Paardt, Groningen 1978, 17-24.

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58 SJ. Harrison

Similar to this is the m

Métamorphoses 2. Byrrha
ily friend of Lucius, reco
Street and invites him to
tion strongly recalls Hele
Odyssey14. But the manner
that of Dido (Met. 2, 2,

et ecce mulierem quampiam

dem gradientem accelera
eemmis et in tunicis, ibi in
fecto confitebatur.

Compare the Vergilian de

the hunt in Aeneid 4, 13

tandem progreditur mag

Sidoniam picto chlamydem
cui pharetra ex auro, crin
aurea purpuream subnect

The verbal and thematic p

by a large retinue, alluded
the same verb has already
similar phrase at Aeneid 1
caterva)^ and both hâve eo
casual écho: the grande da
dispense hospitahty, is a t
ary link may also raise in
ship between Byrrhaena a
Dido and Aeneas. Lucius t
as a quasi-mother, calling h
parallel might suggest an
alistic: Byrrhaena like Di
said (2, 2) how attractive
afterwards (2, 5) wams hi
tions of his host's wife P
not occur. AU this might
cius as a sexually attractive
and this may be an extra
invite him to stay at her
The ambiguity between q
self Vergilian, though not

14. Cf. SJ. Harrison, Some Od

«MD» 25, 1990, 195-7.

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and Vergil's Aeneid 59
the similarly ambivalent feelings in the Aeneid of another tragic
queen, Amata, for her potential son-in-law Turnus, well noted
by Oliver Lyne15.
When Lucius accompanies Byrrhaena to her house (the next
scene), there are further echoes of Aeneas at the court of Dido. In
the atrium of Byrrhaena's splendid mansion there stands a sculp-
ture of Diana with Actaeon staring at her, which is described at
leneth (2, 4) in the kind of extended ekphrasis of which sophistic
and novelistic authors are particularly fond16. At the end of this
description there is particular emphasis on Actaeon:

Inter médias frondes lapidis Actaeon simulacrum curioso ob-

tutu in deam versum proiectus, iam in cervum ferinus et in saxo
simul et in fonte loturam Dianam opperiens visitur.

As has been noted by a number of scholars, this is clearly an an-

ticipation of what is going to happen to Lucius17; he too, like
Actaeon, will be transformed into a beast as a conséquence of
low curiosity, the curiositas which forms such a central thème of
the Métamorphoses1*. This point is stressed by what Byrrhaena
says to him as he gazes (2.5):

Dum haec identidem rimabundus eximie delector, 'tua sunt', ait

Byrrhaena, 'cuncta, quae vides*.

Byrrhaena simply means politely to offer Lucius all the facilities

of her house, as a parallel passage later in the novel makes clear
(5, 2 tua sunt haec omnia\ but for the second-time reader the re-
mark is clearly ironie: everything that Lucius sees does indeed
'belong to him' as an analogy and foreshadowing of his future
fate.
What we hâve hère is a prophétie ekphrasis^ which foretells the
plot but is not understood as such by the hero. There is a clear

15. R.O.A.M. Lyne, Further Voices in VergiVs Aeneid, Oxford 1987, 17,
116-7.

16. For ekphrasis in the literature of the Second Sophistic and in ancient novels
cf. Shadi Bartsch, Decoding the Ancient Novel, Princeton 1989, esp. 3-39.
17. Cf. J. Tatum, Apuleius and the Golden Ass, Ithaca 1979, 38-9, JJ. Winkler,
Auctor and Actor: A Narratological Reading of Apuleius' The Golden Assy Berke-
ley 1985, 168, R.G. Peden, The Statues in Apuleius Métamorphoses 2.4, «Phoe-
nix» 39, 1985, 380-3.
18. For a convenient summary of work on curiositas in the Métamorphoses (and
an interesting explanation of its prominence) cf. J.G. De Filippo, Curiositas and
the Platonism of Apuleius' Golden Ass, «Amer. Journ. Phil.» 111, 1990,
471-92.

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 60 SJ. Harrison

parallel for this in thè Aen

Aeneas first arrives at Carth
jan War in the temple of J
terprets them as expressing
jans (1, 459-63), wnereas th
the paintings celebrate the
fying the Trojans* enemies i
greatest supporter of the
sentation of the Trojan Wa
the Trojan War which Aen
gets to Italy19. Lucius, like A
which he is so interested ac
like Aeneas, is interested i
Lucius' voyeuristic pleasur
Diana mirrors and match
stresses that he is a lower
terprets his artefact in a d
sympathy for Trojan suff er
ply in tfie pleasure of the
ekphrasis motif from Verg
between Byrrhaena and Did
in effect Dido's officiai res
and dispenses justice (1, 50
ous point of comparison -
women, and contain artefa
Analogous in narratologica
is tfie type of inserted taie
the plot of the main narrati
to as mise en abyme> though
répétition rather than an
Apuleius* Métamorphoses,
portant article21; almost e
turns out like the sculptur
relevance to thè story of L
Byrrhaena's house when sh
sion than his first visit ju
called Thelyphron describe
and nose to witches when

19. The best treatment is still Κ

1.462ffy «Amer. Journ. Phil.» 86
20. On the mise en abyme cf. L
(translatée! as The Mirror in the
21. J. Tatum, The Taies of Apule
100, 1969, 487-527.

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 61

corpse. Like the other prominent witch-tale told to Lucius, that

of Aristomenes in Book 1, this story clearly anticipâtes Lucius'
own forthcoming entanglement with witchcraft, thoueh with a
comic twist22: Lucius will become an ass through enchantment,
just as Thelyphron has lost by thè same means thè dignity of a
complete set of features, but will enlarge his nose and ears rather
than losing them.
This taie which foreshadows Lucius* future, told in a context
of hospitality offered to him, shows at least formai parallels with
the taie of Hercijles and Caçus told by Evander to Aeneas
{Aeneid 8, 185-275). As scholars hâve argued, the victory of Her-
cules over Cacus as narrated by Evander clearly anticipâtes the
victory of Aeneas himself over Turnus23; both Aeneas and Her-
cules, a comparison drawn severi times elsewhere in the
Aeneid1*, are virtuous foreign heroes who coipe to Italy and de-
feat not-so-virtuous local opponents to regain something of
which the latter hâve unjustly deprived them. Evander's taie
matches Thelyphron's story both in this anticipatory narrative
function and in the context of its telling; it is told during a scene
of post-prandial hospitality to a principal guest. Both stories are
aetiological, though in very différent ways; Thelyphron eives a
comic and melodramatic explanation of why he h^s suffered a
shameful mutilation, while Evander explains in a dignified and
heroic tone the origin of a rejigious ceremony. This différence of
tone reflects the generic différence between the two texts, the
epic élévation of the Aeneid hère contrasting with the low-life
sensationalism of the comic novel, whose material hère is very
likely to be drawn from the colourful tradition of the Milesian
Taies25. The Vergilian illusion hère is supported by the écho of
Evander's entertainment of Aeneas in Milo's entertainment of
Lucius noted at the beginning of this section; Apuleius clearly
distributes his imitation of a well-knqwn epic épisode, dividing
it between the hospitality-scene of Milo in Book 1 and that of
Byrrhaena in Book 2. Having played the rôle pf Dido, Byrrhaena
now plays another Vergilian host; though she does not like

22. For the narrative function of thèse two taies cf. Tatum (op. cit. n. 21),
493-502.

23. G.K. Galinsky, The Herakles Thème, Oxford 1972, 141-6.

24. Galinsky (op.cit.), 131-8.
25. On this link cf. most recently C. Moreschini, Le Metamorfosi di Apuleio, U
«fabula Maestà» e il romanzo, «MD» 25, 1990, 114-27. The Thelyphron story fits
the Milesian model in being short, sensationalist (bodies and witches), and invol-
ving a witty twist (Thelyphron does not réalise until the end that he has lost his
nose and ears).

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 62 5./. Hanrison

Evander tell a tale herself, it

ity that thè anticipatory
from Vergil not only thè t
tle and important narrativ
and thè anticipatory insert

3. Dido and High Erotte P

As we have already seen

Apuleius in contexts of h
greater effect in thè role
(7) and later texts, as an ex
ticular interest in Dido is p
time Aeneid 4 seems to ha
poem - Tristia 2, 535-6),
would appeal especially to a
Carthage, thè city Dido tr
where thè passionate Dido
be mentioned here: this is

(i) Psyche as Dido

At Métamorphoses 5, 21 t
middle of Aeneid 4, is in
about a relationship with
course, thè son of Venus i
terms in which Psyche is d
lel with verbal links:

At Psyche relieta sola, nisi

est, aestu pelagi simile mae
consilio et obstinato anim
movens adhuc incerta consi
dis trahi tur affectibus.

In his récent commentary,

Ovid is an important sourc
allels describine thè passio
ines27. But as for many O
here is VergiPs Dido, at le
though commentators hav

26. Cf. esp. Marilynn Desmond

Medieval Aeneid, Minneapolis 19
27. E.J. Kenney, Apuleius: Cupi

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 63
{relieta sola) recalls Dido's nightmare of abandonment at Aeneid
4, 466-7 semperque relinqui / sola sibi, her affliction by thè Fu-
ries echoes thè iamous simile in which Dido is compared to thè
tragic Orestes, similarly beset {Aeneid 4, 473 ultricesque sedent in
limine Dirae\ and thè image which likens her wavering émo-
tions to thè sea is clearly taken from Aeneid 4, 532 magnoque
irarum fluctuât aestu. Tnis set of echoes has two clear functions
in its literary context. First, thè character of Psyche is elevated at
least to some degree through a genuine epic comparison, and sec-
ond, thè text shows its own learning by thè clever re-working of
a well-known literary épisode.

(ii) Chante as Dido

This second instance has been remarked by others28, but there

are a few further points to make. Another version of Dido is
found in thè character of Charité, thè young woman who serves
as thè primary audience for thè tale of Cupid and Psyche, and
then ends her life in a tragic épisode narrated in Book 8 of thè
Métamorphoses: her husband Tlepolemus is murdered by his
jealous rivai Thrasyllus, and Charité, havine this revealed to her
in a vision, blinds Thrasyllus and then kills herself . The Vergilian
colour of this passage was noted long ago by Hildebrand: 'totum
locum ex Vergila Aeneidos libro quarto 196ff egregie imitatus
est Apuleius'2 . Hère once again Apuleius uses Dido to présent a
heroine in a high state of irrationality - take for instance thè pas-
sage when Rumour reveals to Charité that her husband is dead
(8, 6):

necdum satis scelere transacto fama dilabitur et cursus primos

ad domum Tlepolemi detorquet et aures infelicis nuptae percu-
tit. quae quidem simul percepii tale nuntium, quale non audiet
aliud, amens et vaecordia concita cursuque bacchata furibundo
per plateas populosas et arva rurestria fertur.

The role of Fama in reporting a disastrous development of

course mirrors Aeneid 4 where Dido hears by thè same means of
Aeneas' impending departure (4, 298-9) and reaets in precisely
thè same way (4, 300-1):

eadem impia Fama furenti

detulit armari classem cursumque parari.

28. Esp. Forbes (op. cit. η. 1), Walsh (op. cit. n. 1), 53-4.
29. G.F. Hildebrand, L Apuleii Opera Omnia /, Leipzig 1842, 660.

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 64 S.]. Harrison
saevit inops animi totamqu
bacchatur.

Note how Apuleius expand

city to thè country as wel
vice of locatirig Bacehic râvi
rai lahdscape of thè countr
alludes to the other Bacehi
the Aeneid - that of Amat
woods ahd riiountains familiär as a Bacchio location from Eu-
ripides* Bacchae (7, 305-91). The suicide of Charité is also very
much on the Unes of that of Dido, and their dying Speeches are
very similar, as has been noted30. But perhaps the most central
structural parallel between the stories is unnoticed by any com-
mentator. The story of Charité is a taie of revenge taken by a
woman ön the murderef of her beloved husbaftd, follöwed by
her suicide to rejoin the latter in death. This is pfecisely the case
of Dido, who takes appropriate reverige on her brother Pyg-
malion for the murder of her husband Sychaeus (Aeneid 1, 343-
364), and commits suicide, after which she is reunited with her
husband iri the Underworld, as we see in Aeneid 6 (473-4). In
both casfes the revetige is calculatedly appropriate to thè individ-
uai: Pygmalion, who killed Sychaeus for money (Aeneid 1, 348-
9), has nis eold taken away from him in Dido's snips (Aeneid 1,
362-4), while Thrâsylltis, who killed Tlepolemus to replace him
in Charite's affections, is depfived of the eyesight thröugh which
he was attracted to Charité (8, 13), using thè common idèa that
sexual desire is expressed through the eyes31. Though we are not
shown Charité and Tlepolemus reunited in death, this is cer-
tainly the point of suicide for Charité, as her last words confirm
(8, 13): iam tempus est ut isto gladio deorsum ad meurn Tlepole-
mum viam quaeram. Of course, Dido's suicide is at a much later
stage, and overtly for a différent reason, one might even say the
opposite reason: non servata fides aneri promissa Sychaeoy she
says at 4, 552, accusing herself of infidelity, though the fact that
the name of Sychaeus and not that of Aeneas is the last on her
lips mieht suçgest that she is thinking of the prospect of rejoin-
ing Sychaeus in the Underworld. But the end resuit is the same as
for Charité; both wives are reunited with their husbands in death

30. Forbes (op. cit. n. 1).

31. For this idea see the material collectée! by J.C. Bramble, Persius and the
Programmata: Satire, Cambridge 1973, 77 n. 3. The more psychologically-min-
ded might suggest that Thrasyllus* blinding (like that of Oedipus) is a symbolic
castration. In either case, the pünishment is appropriate to thè offence, or rather
to the sexual passion which caused it.

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 65
after attempts on their widowed status by a lover (Aeneas is suc-
cessful in wooing his widow, while Thrasyllus is not).

(iti) Dido and the Wicked Stepmother

The third version of Dido in the Métamorphoses occurs in Book

10. There Lucius relates thè tale of a stepmother disastrously
falling in love with her stepson. There is a self-conscious address
to the reader at the beginning of the épisode (10, 2):

iam ergo, lector optime, scito te tragoediam, non fabulam legere

et a socco ad coturnum ascendere.

This interestingly characterises the Métamorphoses in generai as

analogous to comedy32, but primarily marks a switch to the
tragic mode in this particular taie. The most obvious tragic
source is thè story of Phaedra and Hippolytus, and indeed
Apuleius' story has been used to reconstruct the lost Phaedra of
Sophocles by Otto Zwierlein, since it differs in some crucial dé-
tails from its most obvious and extant source, the Hippolytus of
Euripides33. But another source hère is the tragic épisode of
Dido within the Aeneid. In givine the Symptoms of the guilty
love which overcome the stepmother, Apuleius once again uses
the Vergilian account of Dido to describe an extreme passion
(10, 2):

sed mulier illa, cjuamdiu primis démentis Cupido parvulus nu-

triebatur, imbecillis adhuc eius viribus facile ruborem tenuem
deprimens silentio resistebat. at ubi completis igne vaesano totis
praecordiis immodice bacchatus Amor exaestuabat, saevienti
deo iam succubuit, et languore simulato vulnus animi mentitur
in corporis valetudine, iam cetera salutis vultusque detrimenta et
aegris et amantibus examussim convenire nemo qui nesciat: pal-
lor deformis, marcentes oculi, lassa genua, auies turbida et sus-
piritus cruciatus tarditate vehementior. creaeres et illam fluctu-
are tantum vaporibus febrium, nisi quod et flebat. heu medico-
rum ignarae mentes, quid venae pulsus, quid coloris intemper-
antia, quid fatigatus anhelitus et utrimquesecus iactatae crebriter
laterum mutuae vicissitudines?

32. A judgement also found in the Renaissance in connection with the prologue
of the novel: see conveniently SJ. Harrison, The Speaking Book: The Prologue to
Apuleius* Métamorphoses* «Class. Quart.» n.s. 40, 1990, 509.
33. O. Zwierlein, Senecas Phaedra und ihre Vorbilder, Mainz 1987, 55-68. On
Apuleius' use of the Phaedra story cf. also G. Fiorencis and G.F. Gianotti, Fedra
e Ippolito in provincia, «MD» 25, 1990, 83-114.

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 66 SJ. Hanrison

The key allusion hère is th

quid ... to the famous Ver
quid vota furentem, /
Apuleius characteristical
with a triple quid in a t
places any literate ancient
Dido, and once this is note
point the same way. The s
(igne, vulnus) is drawn fr
the beginning of Aeneid 4 (
igni. Note too the verb ba
to compare Charité to Did
turbida ; this last recalls n
Dido at Aeneid 4, 5 nec pla
by an ironie twist the adje
sleep actually cornes from
same book, racked by g
(Aeneid 4, 351-3):

me patris Anchisae, quoti

nox operit terras, quotien
admonet in somnis et tur

The transfer of the adjectiv

of a Dido-figure looks like
particular epithet is relative
scious one. One further fe
tone is a technical interest
(venae pulsus at least is a te
cultural conditions under
and that its author was a s
terests. Apuleius was a c
wrote a work on medicai
was closely associated wit
phistic activity35.
In looking at thèse imitat

34. In the form pulsus venarum

term slightly less technical), it is
ext. 1, Celsus 3, 19, 1, Quintilian
rida 19 (there with venarum no
35. Fr. 14 of Apuleius in J. Bea
phiques et fragments, Paris 1973,
work of médical botany by Apu
ànalia). For medicine and sophi
and the Roman Empire, Oxford

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 67
several features emerge. First and most obviously, this was a
striking and mémorable épisode of a school classic which was
likely to be laid under contribution whenever high iemale erotic
passion appeared. Second, its grand tone allows Apuleius to lend
grandeur and literary élévation to particular parts of his narra-
tive, whether sympathetically, as in the stones of Psyche and
Charité, or darkly, as in thè story of the wicked stepmother.
Third, and most interestingly, we see that although Apuleius re-
uses the same passages on occasion, he is able to produce subtle
variation through contaminatio with other Vergilian passages,
and that he adapts Vergilian material to the différent ethos of his
own âge and his own literary genre.

4. The Descent to the Underworld

This is perhaps the most fully discussed set of resemblances be-

tween tne Métamorphoses and the Aeneid, dealt with most re-
cently in an article oy Ellen Finkelpearl36. In the taie of Cupid
and Psyche, Psyche is set a number of tasks by Venus, now her
mistress, which she must fulfil (6, lOff); thèse are conceived as
some kind of test, though precisely to what end is not immedi-
ately apparent. The last and most hazardous of thèse is a visit to
the Underworld, to borrow a little of Proserpina's beauty to
lend to Venus (6, 16). This is clearlv an amusing version of the fi-
nal labour of Hercules in descending to Hades, just as another
labour of Psvche's is a version of the quest for the Golden
Fleece37, but ît also becomes clear that we are dealing with a re-
run of Aeneid 6. Psyche is clearly playinç the rôle of Aeneas,
who descends to the Underworld after seeing a vision of his fa-
ther Anchises, and in order to receive vital instructions about the
future; Psyche does so after beine ordered by Venus, Aeneas'
mother, and for a trivial purpose (does the goddess of love really
need the beauty of another?). For success in his quest, Aeneas
needs the mystical talisman of the Golden Branch, which he is to
offer to Proserpina when he reaches the entrance to Elysium; for
Psyche this aspect is clearly inverted, since she is not giving
something to Proserpina but hoping to receive something from
her; we shall return to this important différence in a moment.
Psyche does not know tne way to the Underworld, and is
given no euidance. She eoes to thè top of a high tower, meaning
to throw herself off and follow one of the routes to Hades rec-

36. (op. cit. n. 1).

37. Cf. Kenney (op. cit. n. 27), 205.

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 68 S.J. Harrison

ommended when the sam

Frogsys: the tower then spe
This is the rôle of thè Siby
as Kenney points out in his
pressionable and communic
and amusing replacement for
The tower tells her to go t
not the entrance to the Und
he of course was in Italy an
Avernus; but it was that
Géorgie
This détail is I think an important hint that Apuleius is using
éléments from both the Vergilian descents to the Underworld,
by Aeneas in Aeneid 6 and Orpheus in Georgics 4. It is interest-
ing to reflect that Apuleius' katabasis, by combining thèse two,
is actually following Vergil's own method in thè Aeneid, where a
number of détails in Aeneas' descent are echoed by close verbal
correspondence from that of Orpheus40. Indeed, Vergil himself
seems to provide an intertextual hint at this at Aeneid 6, 131,
where the Sibyl says to Aeneas that only a few sons of gods hâve
made it back to the world above; this could look back to Or-
pheus and the Georgics> since Orpheus was of divine descent41,
and did make it back at least in VergiPs version in the Georgics.
Apuleius also shows in a brief phrase that he knows the third
place, however brief, in Vergil's poems where entrance to the
Underworld is an issue: just as Taenarum at Met. 6, 18 points us
towards Taenarias ... fauces at Georgics 4, 467, so spiraculum Di-
tis in the same passage points us towards Aeneid 7, 568 spiracula
DittSy where the Fury Allecto exits to the Underworld by yet an-
other route, the lake of Amsanctus in Samnium.
Again we see that Apuleius is using more than one Vergilian
model, perhaps imitating Vergil's own common practice of com-
bining more than one Homeric source in constructing épisodes

38. Frogs 127ff; cf. Kenney (op. cit. n. 27), 212.

39. Kenney (op. cit. n. 27), 212.
40. Cf. W.W. Briggs, Narrative and Simile from the Georgics in the Aeneid
[Mnem. Suppl. 108], Leiden 1980, 23-5.
41. In some sources (e.g. Pindar Pyth. 4, 176, Ovid Met. 10, 167) Orpheus is
said to hâve been the son of Apollo and a Muse (thè usuai version is that his fa-
ther is thè mortai Oiagrus), and Vergil seems to be using this version, since Or-
pheus is listed along with other heroes of divine parentage who made the return
from the Underworld (Aeneid 6, 119, 129-31).

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 69
in thè AeneicP1. This is particularly important for thè katabasis,
since all readers would naturally turn towards Aeneid 6 as thè
obvious model, and need to be told that another model is also in
opération43. The use of Georgics 4 is in fact crucial to Apuleius'
construction of Psyche's descent to thè Underworld, for thè
most obvious différence between Psyche's and Aeneas* descents
concems the ending, which may be connected with thè story of
Orpheus. Psyche, havine neeotiated all the obstacles and dangers
of the world of the dead and emergine into the world above, dé-
cides with fatal curiosity that she will have a surreptitious look
at thè piece of Proserpina's beauty for which she has endured
such périls (6, 20). This is an action against which she has previ-
ously been warned in very spécifie terms (6, 19), and when she
opens the box, an infernal sleep from it engulfs her and she is
only saved by the timely intervention of Cupid (6, 21). In terms
of the plot of the whole novel, this fatal curiosity of course par-
allels that of the narrator Lucius, who has been turned into an ass
for a similar fault44, but it is also important for the aspect of
Vereilian imitation. For as well as echoine the story of Pandora's
box*, it imitâtes at least partly the fatal mistake made by Or-
pheus in Georgics 4, where Orpheus, speeifieally instrueted by
Proserpina not to look at Eurydice as he brings her up to the
light, teils to obey thè command and turns round, thereby occa-
sioning Eurydice's return and the failure of his mission (4,
498ff).
We can now see the point of Psyche being asked to bring
something back from the Underworld, an evident contrast with
Aeneas; it was in order to encourage a comparison with Or-
pheus. This structural echo is supported by a verbal one: for Or-
pheus at the fatal moment dementia cepit amantem (4, 488),
while for Psyche at the analogous point (6, 20) mentem capitur
temeraria curiositate. This parallel between Orpheus and Psyche,
briefly noted by Kenney in his commentary , seems important

42. As authoritatively demonstrated in G.N. Knauer, Die Aeneis und Homer,

Göttingen 1964, esp. 332-45.
43. Epigraphic évidence seems to confirm that the Georgtcs were less read in
antiquity than the Aeneid or Eclogues: cf. N.M. Horsfall, Aspects of Virgilian In-
fluence in Roman Life, in Atti del convegno mondiale scientifico di studi su Virgi-
lio II, Milano 1984, 47-8.
44. The similarities between the two figures are conveniently summarised by
Kenney (op. cit. n. 27), 12-15.
45. Kenney (op. cit. η. 27), 216, which also briefly suggests Vergas Orpheus as
an influence.
46. Kenney (op. cit. n. 27), 217.

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 70 SJ. Harrison

for the whole mode of Ve

gives us is a katabasis that b
end like that of Orpheus; l
throueh naturai mortai we
brought back from the Un
in making their respective e
must be meant to be comp
understandable and moving
but Psyche opens the box f
to take some of the beauty f
This différence of tone per
essentially comic and ent
high émotion of the Orphe
seems for a moment to te
failure and (ultimately) dea
text does not permit such
thinks ail is lost and that
fault, Cupid flies in to res
from her and puts it back
successfully to Venus. In f
sion as Aeneas does, return
rather than in failure like
suspense in the way that sh
successful Orpheus rather
The larger question of th
Aeneas now needs to be fa
paring a great epic hero and
who descend heroically to
and emerge successful, thoug
help is needed to ensure th
true heroic status; the Si
heroes amonest men, sons
gods themselves, hâve acco
world (6, 129-31):

pauci, quos aequus amav

Iuppiter aut ardens evexit
dis geniti potuere.

Through this, Aeneas has c

goddess and a potential can
thing of the same may be
reasoning behind the tests se
to the Underworld is the l
than the fact that Venus, a
ponent of her marriage to

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and VergiVs Aeneid 71
unborn child pain and labour and expose them both to the dan-
of death; the tests are severe ones which Psyche is meant to
Î;er ail. But hère we can use the Vergilian imitation to interpret
Apuleius. After all, the net resuit of Psyche's return to the world
above is that, partly by Cupid's intervention (again), she is ele-
vated by Jupiter to the status of a divinity and finally allowed to
marry Cupid. This allows us to look back on the tests and espe-
cially the katabasis, and see them as testing her for her eventual
divine status, matching the function of Aeneas* katabasis. Of
course, Psyche is allowed crucial help both in meeting her tests
and beine accepted for divine status; in both cases Cupid uses
undue influence. This once again stresses the différence oetween
Apuleius and Vergil. Aeneas, the true epic hero, generally passes
his tests through his own labours and will achieve divinity be-
yond thè scope of the poem; Psyche, the princess in a novelistic
épisode with a happv ending, achieves that divinity swiftly and
relatively undeservealy.

5. MiscellaneoHS Examples and Conclusion

I conclude with some more miscellaneous instances, which make

similar points about Apuleius' adaptation of epic models.

(i) From tragic nostalgia to jealousy.

When Psyche's jealous sisters visit her in her palace and envi-
ously discuss her good luck afterwards, one of them says to the
other that Psyche looks so happy because her husband is a eod
and will make her a god in tum (5, 9): ... deam quoque Uhm deus
maritus effidet. sic est hercules, sic se gerebat ferebatque. Of
course, this is ironically amusing because the sisters guess what
they cannot know, that Cupid is indeed a god and will indeed
ensure that Psyche is made one too at thè end of thè tale. But the
main impact is one of Vergilian imitation, since (despite the si-
lence of commentaries) this looks like an écho of Aeneid 3, 490
sic oculosy sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat, where Andromache
sadly reflects on how similar Ascanius is to her own dead son
Astyanax. There a tragic iemale figure is commenting on the ap-
pearance of a relative in a wistful tone; in Apuleius the evil sisters
are making snide remarks about the appearance of a relative in a
carping and envious tone. A noble and elevated passage of some
psychological depth is turned into a low-life and realistic passaee
which similarly shows psychological probability, but in a world
where relatives are a source of resentment and jealousy rather
than wistful sadness and nostalgia.

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 72 S./. Hanrison
(ii) From heroic love to blac

In Book 4 of thè Métamorph

ass Lucius and Charité excha
ditions they have just retu
highly amusing, an effect un
them tell not of victories an
of disasters and catastrophe
epic parody47; the robbers a
though they seem to take t
climactic taie is that told ab
as 'bold as a lion', who for
bearskin in order to accomp
things eo wrong, and Thrasv
fierce dogs against impossib
he keeps up thè pretence th
taie, one of his comrades w
Thrasyleon's heroism (4, 20)
nae virtutis oblitus. This is
in the Aeneid, where in the
trips an Opponent in order
Euryalus: non tarnen Euryal
The situation is similarly o
Nisus ruins his own chances
But Thrasyleon's pantomim
pathos or dignity; his self-s
ody of the self-sacrifice of

(iti) From pietas to pénétrat

A final example is taken fr

having been purchased by a g
ian Goddess, is taken back t
warmly welcomed by a slav
the well-endowed ass, the s

47. Cf. A.G. Westerbrink, Some

Aspects of Apuleius* Golden Ass, é
Groningen 1978, 67-8. Parody of h
Lopocaro, Eroi screditati dal testo:
in Apuleio Met. IV.9-21, «Maia» 4
48. As noted in the Groningen com
phoseis Book IV 1-27, ed. B.L. Hijm
also an écho hère of Sallust Cat. 5
quence non tarnen... oblitus is sur
providing a sub-Vergilian eulogy f

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 Apuleius' Métamorphoses and Vergil's Aeneid 73
rôle of sexual servicer of the pathic priests. His words to Lucius
are as follows (8, 26):

venisti tandem miserrimi laboris vicarius. sed diu vivas et domi-

nis placeas et meis defectis iam lateribus consulas.

The écho of Anchises* greeting of Aeneas as he arrives in Ely-

sium seems clear - cf. Aeneid 6, 687:

venisti tandem, tuaque expectata parenti

vicit iter durum pietas.

Surely what we hâve hère is a splendid transfer of a moving epic

moment, the reunion of father and son, to a delightfully bawdy
context, the joyous greeting of an exhausted toy-boy to a
macrophallic ass who will share his duties. That the écho is not
coincidental is confirmed by the fact that tandem is well moti-
vated in Vergil (Anchises always expected that Aeneas would
corne) but not in Apuleius (there is no suggestion that the slave
had any reason to expect Lucius* arrivai).
This last example stresses that entertainment is one of
Apuleius' prime priorities in the Métamorphoses; deployment of
Vergilian imitation is not just for the sake of learning but also for
humour, and for establishing the lower tone of the text in which
Apuleius is engaged. This supports thè basic arguments I hâve
tried to put forward - that Apuleius is capable of detailed and
subtle readings and imitations of Vergil, and of adapting such
material to fit the purpose of the rather différent work which he
was writing in the Métamorphoses.

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

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