CHAPTER 9 PART II Scarcely had the old woman finished her tale, when the baker's wife thus resumed her discourse. Oh, how blessed is that woman who enjoys the liberty of associating with so firm a friend!  To this, the old woman replied, I will even now cause that lover of yours to be with you promptly at the appointed time well persuaded and resolute. And having likewise promised that she should return in the evening, she departed from the bedchamber. But that chaste wife immediately prepared a princely banquet. She defecates by percolation the precious wine, tempers the new-made potage with seasoning, and furnishes the table with abundance of food. In short, the coming of the adulterer is expected like the advent or manifestation of some god. For, opportunally, the husband sucked abroad at the house of a neighboring fuller. Midday, therefore, approaching, I, being at length, freed from my harness and permitted to refresh myself in quiet, I did not by Hercules so much rejoice in my liberation from labor, as that, my eyes being uncovered, I should now be able to behold without restraint all the arts of the wicked woman. The son, indeed, having now descended under the ocean, had illuminated the inferior parts of the earth, when, behold, the rash adulterer came, closely following the iniquitous old woman. He himself, being very young, and still conspicuous by the polished smoothness of his chin, still being himself the delight of adulterers. The woman, having received him with many kisses, desired him to recline himself for the supper she had prepared. But no sooner had the young man touched with the extremity of his lips the cup which was drunk out of previous to eating, and just begun to taste the food, than the husband came, returning much sooner than they expected. Then the egregious wife, having earnestly prayed for dire curses upon him, and wishing that he might break his legs, hid the adulterer trembling with pale fear under the wooden bin, which then happened to lie near her, in which a confused heap of corn was usually purified. And by her innate craft, dissembling a deed so wicked, and assuming an intrepid countenance, she inquired of her husband, why he came home so prematurely, relinquishing the supper of his most intimate companion. But he, with a mind perfectly afflicted and continually sighing, said, Not being able to bear the detestable and extreme wickedness of an abandoned woman, I took myself to flight, good, God's what a wife, how faithful and how temperate, and yet she defiled herself with a most filthy crime. I swear by this holy series, that I can even now scarcely believe the testimony of my eyes concerning such a woman. The most audacious wife of the baker, being incited by these words of her husband, and desiring to know the affair, did not cease to import her name to narrate the whole transaction from the beginning. Nor did she desist till her husband complied with her wish.  The wife of my associate, the fuller, who seemed to be a woman of undefiled chastity, and who, being always renowned for her modesty, chastely ruled the house of her husband, was inflamed with a secret love for a certain adulterer. And as she continually indulged infertive embraces with that young man, she was in the act of being connected with him at the very moment of time in which we, having bathed, went to supper. Being therefore disturbed by our sudden presence, she hid him in a wicker coop, which, being plaited from willow twigs into an erect heath, and smoked with the white fume of sulfur, was used for the purpose of whitening the cloth that was placed round it. And he, being now safely concealed, as it seemed to her, she fearlessly participated with us of the table. In the meantime, the young man, being oppressed and obscured by the odor of the sulfur, became faint through the interception of his breath. And that living mineral caused him to sneeze frequently, as it is natural for it to do. But as soon as the husband who said opposite to his wife heard the sound of sneezing behind his back, because he thought it proceeded from his wife, he wished her well in the usual words, and this he did when he again heard the sneezing, and also when it was frequently repeated. Till being moved by the excessive repetition of it, he had length suspected what the thing was. Immediately, therefore, pushing away the table at which she sat, and removing the coop, he drew forth a man, who was with great pain restoring his frequent emissions of breath.   And he, being rendered more mild, not by my persuasion, but by the necessity of the thing itself, brought him, who was now but half alive, into the next street. Then I secretly admonished, and at length prevailed on his wife, to withdraw herself for a short time from the shock, and to take herself to a certain woman with whom she was familiar, till the enraged mind of her husband should be appeased, who I did not doubt was so exasperated and so agitated with fury, that he would certainly perpetrate something more deadly, both on himself and his wife. And thus, being wearied with the supper of my associate, I returned to my own house. While the baker narrated these particulars, that shameless and audacious woman had, long before the tale was finished, expressed by execrations how much she detested the wife of the fuller, calling her perfidious, unchaste, and lastly the great disgrace of all his ex, who, laying aside her own modesty and trampling on the league of the marriage bed, had defiled with meretricious infamy the house of her husband, and now had procured for herself the name of a prostitute, having lost the dignity of a married woman. She added that such females ought to be burnt alive. Nevertheless, through the joint admonition of her silent wound, and her own filthy conscience, in order that she might sooner liberate her adulterer from the torment of his covering, she frequently urged her husband to go to bed as soon as possible. He, however, mildly requested that the table might be placed for him, as his supper being intercepted at the house of the fuller, he had fled from thence perfectly hungry. Then the wife hastily set the table before him, going willingly, because it was designed for another person. But my bowels were perfectly lacerated when I reflected on the preceding wickedness, and the present audacity of this most abandoned woman, and I sedulously deliberated with myself whether I could by any means give assistance to my master by detecting and revealing the fraud of his wife, and by throwing off the covering, exposed to the view of everyone, him who was concealed like a tortoise under the bin. At length divine providence regarded me, thus tormented with the disgrace of my master, for the lame old man to whose care our custody was committed, led all us labouring beasts collected into one body, to the next lake, for the sake of drinking, the time now requiring that this should be done. And this circumstance administered to me a most opportune occasion of revenge, for in passing by I observed the extremities of the fingers of the adulterer, which were pertuberant, through the narrow openings of the hollow covering, and pressing these with my inflected and sharp oof, I bruised them so as to reduce them to the greatest tenuity. Till being excited by the intolerable pain, he sent forth a sorrowful clamour, and pushing away and throwing down the bin, he unfolded, to the sight of all that were present, the scenic apparatus of the lecherous woman. Nevertheless, the baker, not being greatly disturbed by the loss of his wife's modesty, thus began to soothe with a serene front and conciliated face the young man who was trembling with exsanguous paleness. You need not fear, my son, that anything of a sorrowful nature would be inflicted on you by me.  Nor indeed will I bring such an elegant and beautiful youth in danger of losing his life through the severity of the law concerning adultery. But I will divide with my wife my pleasure with you, and she shall be common both to you and me. For I have always lived with my wife in such concord that, according to the dogma of the philosophers, the same things are pleasing to both of us. But neither does equity suffer the wife to have more authority than the husband.  But as soon as the lucid chariot of the sun had made the day, the baker, having called two of his most robust servants and striking with a feral of the buttocks of the youth, who was lifted to a considerable height for the purpose, said to him, Do you who are so soft and tender and but a boy, defrauding lovers, wantonly desire women in the flower of your age, and commit adultery with such as are free, and connected by the conjugal compact, and vindicate to yourself the unseasonable name of an adulterer? Having reproached him in these and in many other words, and besides this, punished him abundantly with blows, he turned him out of doors. He, however, being the bravest of all adulterers, having obtained unhoped for safety, though his fair posterior had been burst by night, and for a long time, sorrowfully fled. Nevertheless, the baker divorced his wife, and immediately thrust her out of her own house. But she, besides her genuine wickedness being profoundly excited and exasperated by the condomelious language of her husband, though it was just, returned to her treasury of fraud, and the accustomed arts of females, and with great care searched for a certain crafty woman who was believed to be capable of effecting anything by incantations and sorcery, besought her with many prayers, and burdened her with many gifts, requesting of her one of two things, to which she would again cause her to be reconciled to her husband by appeasing him, or if that could not be accomplished, that she would send some ghost or some dire demoniacal power to take away his life by violent means. Then, that sorceress, and who was capable of effecting divine works, employed at first only the milder instruments of her wicked art, and endeavored to bend the mind of the husband that had been vehemently offended, and impelled to love. But when the event of the thing was different from what she expected, being indignant with the gods, and besides the loss of the gain which she would have obtained if she had succeeded, being also stimulated by the contempt which she had sustained from the divine powers, she now began to attack the life of the most miserable husband, and to stimulate to his destruction the ghost of a certain woman who had suffered a violent death. Perhaps, however, O scrupulous reader, you reprehending my narration will argue as follows, but whence, O foolish ass, could you know what was done by women in secret, as you say you did, when, at the same time, you were confined within the boundaries of a bakehouse? Here, therefore, how a curious man, sustaining the form of mass, knew all that was transacted with a view to the destruction of my master, the baker. Nearly about midday, a woman suddenly appeared in the bakehouse, deformed with severe sorrow, as if she was guilty of some crime, half clothed with a coarse mantle, having her feet naked and without shoes. And being thus ill-favored through bleeminess, there was in her face a paleness like that of box. Her hair likewise was half gray, torn and filthy through the interspersion of ashes, and, hanging over a forehead, concealed the greatest part of her face. This woman, thus deformed in her attire, gently with her hand taking hold of the baker, led him into his bed chamber as if she had something to say to him in secret.  But when all the corn was ground, which had been given to the servants of the baker, and it became necessary to ask for more, the lesser men's servants standing near the bed chamber called their master by name, and asked for more corn to supply the mill. And, as no master answered them, though they frequently called him, and with a loud voice, they now more forcibly knocked at the door. Because likewise it had been most carefully bolted, suspecting something of greater consequence, and of a worse nature than usual, with great effort their length either plucked off or broke the hinges, and made an entrance for themselves. That woman, however, was nowhere to be found. But they saw their master hanging from a certain beam to which he was tied and now lifeless. Freeing him therefore from the knot by which his neck was fastened, they took him down from the beam with the greatest lamentations and weeping, and procured for his corpse the last ablution. Having likewise performed the officers pertaining to the dead, they buried him, a great crowd attending the funeral. On the following day his daughter came running from the next little town in which he had lately been married, sorrowful, shaking her pendulous hairs and sometimes beating her breasts with her hands. For she knew all that happened, though no one had narrated to her the misfortune of the house, because the lamentable former of her father had presented itself to her in sleep, having the neck still tied with the cord, and unfolded to her all the wickedness of her stepmother, the adultery, the enchantment, and how he had descended to the realms beneath being strangled by a nocturnal ghost. And when she had tormented herself by long continued lamentation, at length being restrained by the concourse of her friends and acquaintance, she gave a pause to her grief. And now the funeral solemnities being in the usual manner completed as his sepulchre. On the ninth day she brought forth the servants, the furniture, and all the laboring beasts to be sold by auction. Then the rash fortune of an uncertain sale dispersed in various ways the property of one house. Lastly, a certain poor gardener bought me for fifty pieces of money, which he said was a great price, but he purchased me in order that he might procure food for himself by our common labor. And the thing itself appears to me to require that I should also explain the discipline of this my servitude. In the morning, my master was accustomed to drive me to the next city, laden with many herbs, and after I parted with him for a certain sum of money, to those who sold them to others, he thus returned to his garden, sitting on my back. But while he was digging and watering and performing other rural works in a bent position, I in the meantime, being at leisure, refreshed myself with placid quiet. Behold, however, the year running back through the number of days and months by orderly and established circulations of the stars had descended to the wintry frost of Capricorn after the pleasures of the Vintage of Autumn. But I was tormented by continual cold through the daily rains and the nightly dews being exposed to the open air and shut up in an uncovered stable. From my master, on account of his great poverty, could not purchase, even for himself, and much less for me, some straw or a small covering. But he lived contented with the leafy umbridge, which his little cottage afforded. Besides this, also in the morning I endured great labour, in walking with unshod feet on excessively cold clay and pieces of very sharp ice, and was not able to fill my belly with my accustomed food. For both my master and myself had an equal and similar supper, and it was very slender, since it consisted of old and unsavory lettuces, which having, through the great age of the seeds grown into an irregular height, like long brooms, had degenerated into the bitter putridity of muddy juice. On a certain night the master of a family of the next village, being impeded by the darkness of a moonless night, and wet, through a heavy shower of rain, and in consequence of this prevented from pursuing his journey in the direct road, turned out of the way, with his now wearied horse, to our garden. And being as courteously received as the time would permit, though not in a delicate yet in a necessary sucker of rest, and desiring to remunerate his benign host, he promised that he would give him from his farm some corn and oil, and besides this two caddy of wine.  And this journey being now finished, we came to the before mentioned farm, and there the benign host immediately gave my master to partake of a subtuous dinner. While too they were exciting each other alternately to drink, the perfectly stupendous prodigy happened to take place. A hen, belonging to a coop in which others were kept, running through the middle area made a noise with her native clanger as if she wanted to lay an egg. Her master, beholding her, said, oh, good servant and sufficiently prolific, who for a long time has to nourished us with the eggs which thou has daily brought forth. Now also, as I see, you think about preparing for us a breakfast. And oh boy, said he, speaking to one of his servants, let the basket appointed for the hens when they were about to lay eggs, be placed in the accustomed corner. While the boy was doing what he was ordered to do, the hen, kicking away the bed which had been made for her as usual in the basket, brought forth before the very feet of her master a premature offspring, which was portentous of something very dire. For she did not bring forth an egg, such as we know a hen is accustomed to do, but a chicken, perfectly furnished with feathers and claws and eyes and voice, and which immediately began to follow its mother. In a similar manner also another prodigy arose, far greater than the former, and at which all men would be justly terrified. For under the very table which sustained the relics of the dinner, the earth opening itself from the bottom, a most copious fountain of blood burst forth, and many drops rebounding from thence sprinkled the table with gore. At that very moment likewise, in which all that were present were fixed in astonishment, admiring and trembling at those divine portents, one of the servants ran from the wine cellar, announcing that all the wine, which had long ago been deposited in it, boiled up in all the vessels with the fervent heat, and just as if a large fire had been put under it. In the meantime also weasels were seen out of the house, drawing into it a dead serpent, a small green frog leaped out of the mouth of a shepherd's dog, and a ram rushing on the dog which stood near him, strangled him by one bite. These prodigies, so many and so great, produced an extreme stupor with great fear in the minds of the master of that house and all of his family, so that they knew not what should be done first or last, what would more or what would less appease the anger of the gods, or how many and what kinds of expiatory victims should be procured. And while all of them were still torbid through the expectation of some most horrible subject of fear, a certain little servant came running and announced to the master the great and extreme destruction of his family, for he lived full of glory through having three sons, now adult, furnished with learning and addued with modesty. Between these young men and a certain poor man, the master of a small cottage, there was an ancient familiarity, but a powerful rich and young neighbor and who badly used the renown of his ancestors' race possessed ample and fertile fields contiguous to that small cottage, and as he was powerful in the number of his dependents and easily accomplished in the city, whatever he pleased, he behaved in a very hostile manner to a poor man who was his neighbor by killing his sheep, taking away his oxen and trampling on his corn before it was ripe, when also he had now entirely deprived him of the product of his labor, he likewise desired to expel him from the possession of his farm, and exciting a frivolous controversy about the boundaries of the fields, he vindicated the whole of the land to himself. Then that Rusty, who was otherwise a simple harmless man, seeing himself plundered through the avarice of a rich man, in order that he might at least retain enough of his paternal land for a sepulcher collected together with great trepidation many friends for the purpose of demonstrating to them what were the boundaries of his land. Among others, those three brothers were present, affording some small assistance to the greatness fortune of their friend. Nevertheless, the insanely furious rich man, not being in the least terrified or even confused by the presence of many citizens, not only was unwilling to abstain from rapping, but also from intemperance of language. For when they mildly expostulated with him and endeavored to mitigate his fierce manners by sully words, he, immediately swearing most sacredly by his own safety and that of his friends, asserted that he considered the presence of so many mediators to be a thing of small consequence, and lastly that he would order his servants to take that neighbor of his by the ears and expel him to a great distance from his little cottage, and that this should be done immediately. When he had thus said, the greatest indignation was excited in the minds of all that heard him, then one of the three brothers answered without delay and a little more freely, that he, in vain trusting to his riches threatened with tyrannic pride, since the poor also were accustomed to be avenged of the insolence of the rich, through the liberal aid afforded by the laws. Such as oil is to flame, sulfur to burning, and a whip to the furies, such was the fuel of these words to this furious man. And now, being insensate even to extreme insanity, and proclaiming that he would send all of them and their laws to be hanged, he ordered the shepherd's dogs to be liberated, and also the mastiffs that were fierce and cruel, and accustomed to feed on the dead bodies that were thrown into the fields, and besides this were nourished by the bites with which they everywhere lacerated the passing traveler. And he likewise commanded that they should be urged to the destruction of the men that were present. But these, as soon as by the accustomed signal of the shepherds they were excited and inflamed, rushed on the men with furious rage being, at the same time horrible by their dissonant barky, and attacking they plucked their flesh and lacerate them with various wounds, nor did they even spare them while they fled, but being more irritated by their flight, more eagerly pursued them. Then, among the condensed slaughter of a trembling and flying multitude, the youngest of the three brothers stumbled against a stone, and having bruised his fingers was thrown on the ground, and furnished a nefarious feast to those cruel and most ferocious dogs. For immediately, having found a prostrate prey, they tore in pieces the miserable young man, and as soon as the rest of his brothers knew that he was dying, by his piercing cries, they ran, overwhelmed with sorrow, to give him assistance, and rolling their garments about their left hands, they strived to defend their brother, and to drive off the dogs by throwing at the many stones. They could not, however, either terrify or vanquish their ferocity. For the miserable young man, being torn in pieces, immediately died, and treating with his last words that they would revenge the death of their youngest brother on that most filthy rich man. Then the two remaining brothers, not by Hercules so much despairing of as voluntarily neglecting their own safety, hastily attacked the wealthy man, and hurled many stones at him with great ardor and a furious impetus. But the bloody murderer, who prior to this had been exercised in many similar abominable deeds, throwing a lance, pierced one of the two brothers through the middle of the breast. Yet the young man did not fall on the ground, though he was slain and perfectly lifeless, for the lance, which had penetrated through him, and the greater part of which came out at his back, was by the violence of the impulse fixed in the earth, and kept his body suspended by its firmness and rigidity. But one of the servants also, who was tall and robust, giving assistance to that homicide, sent from afar a stone with great force at the right arm of the third brother. But the stone, passing through the extremities of his fingers with a vain impetus, fell to the ground inoxious, contrary to the opinion of all that were present. Nevertheless, this milder event administered to the most sagacious young man some hope of revenge, for pretending that his hand was debilitated by the blow, he thus addressed the most cruel wealthy man. Enjoy the destruction of the whole of our family, feed your insatiable cruelty with the blood of three brothers, and triumph gloriously over your prostrate citizens, only remember that you will always have some neighbor, though you may give a still greater and greater extent to the boundaries of your lands. For this, my right hand, which would have entirely cut off your head, now being bruised, is rendered incapable of affecting this through the iniquity of fate. The furious thief, being exasperated by this speech, seizing a sword, rushed on the most miserable young man, intending to slay him with his own hand. He did not, however, attack one who was weaker than himself. For the young man, unexpectedly resisting, and far contrary to his opinion, seized his right hand with the most strong embrace, and brandishing the sword with a great effort, expelled the impure soul of the rich man by many and frequent blows, and that he might also liberate himself from the hands of his domestics, who were running to the assistance of their master, he immediately cut his throat with the sword which was yet sprinkled with the blood of his enemy. These were the things which the before mentioned astonishing prodigies had foreshown, and these were the circumstances which were narrated to the most miserable master. Nor could the old man surrounded by so many evils utter any word, or even silently weep. But, seizing the knife with which he had then divided among his guests the cheese and other parts of the dinner, he also sorely wounded his own throat with many stabs in imitation of his most unhappy son. Till falling prone on the table, he washed away with a river of new blood the stains of that portentous blood which suddenly burst forth from the earth. The gardener, commiserating the fate of that house, which was after this manner destroyed in the shortest space of time, and grievously deploring the cruel events which had taken place, and also paying for his dinner with tears and frequently striking together his empty hands, he immediately got on my back and returned through the road by which we came. His return, however, was not at least inoxious to him.   The soldier, therefore, being indignant at his silence as a mark of contempt, thrust him from my back at the same time striking him with the branch of a vine which he held in his hand. Then the gardener suppliantly answered that he could not know what he said through his ignorance of the latin tongue.  The gardener answered that he was going to the next city. But I said the soldier am in want of its assistance, for it is requisite that it should carry from the neighboring little town with other laboring beasts the baggage of our prefect. And immediately laying hold of the rope by which I was led, he began to draw me along. But the gardener, wiping away the blood which trickled from his head through the wound of the former blow, again entreated the soldier to act by him more humanely and mildly, and this he did conjuring him by his prosperous hopes. For this ass, said he, is sluggish, and besides this frequently falls to that detestable disease epilepsy, and it is with great difficulty that he usually carries a few bundles of herbs from a neighboring garden, and in doing this he is fatigued, and his respiration is languid. So far is he from being adapted to carry larger burdens. After perceiving, however, that the soldier could not be appeased by any prayers, but was in a greater degree incited to his destruction, and that now having inverted the vine branch, he was preparing to fracture his skull with a larger knot of the branch, he fled to his last resource, and feigning that he wished to embrace his knees in order to excite his compassion, he inclined and bent himself, and taking hold of both his feet, lifted him up, and violently dashed him to the ground.  Nor could the soldier either resist or by any means defend himself after he was laid prostrate on the ground, but could only frequently threaten that if he rose again, he would cut him in pieces with his sword. The gardener, being admonished by these words, snatched the sword from him, and throwing it to a great distance again attacked him with severer blows, but the soldier being prostrate and prevented by wounds from defending himself as he could not find any other means of safety feigned that he was dead, which was the only thing that remained for him to do. Then the gardener, taking with him that sword, got on my back and proceeded rapidly in a direct line to the city, and not even thinking of at least visiting his own garden, he betook himself to a certain person with whom he was familiarly acquainted, and having narrated to this friend everything which had happened to him, he implored his assistance in his present dangerous situation, and requested that he would conceal him and his ass for some time till he had escaped a capital indictment by being latent for two or three days. But this acquaintance, not being forgetful of ancient friendship, promptly received him, and having drawn me, my legs being folded together by means of a ladder into the highest room of the house, the gardener crept into a certain chest that was in the cellar, and covering himself over with the lid of it, their lay concealed. The soldier, however, as I afterwards learned, being at length roused as if from excessive intoxication, nevertheless staggering and feeble from the pain of so many wounds, and scarcely able to support himself by a staff, came into the city, and fearing to mention to any one of the citizens any particulars of his violence and inertness, but tacitly devouring the injury he had sustained, when he met with some of his fellow soldiers, he then told them of his misfortune. But they were of opinion that he should conceal himself for some time in their military dwelling, for besides his own proper disgrace, he feared also the military genius who presides over the military oath on account of the sword which he had lost. They, however, having observed our footsteps, diligently applied themselves to the discovery of us, and to their own revenge. Nor was a perfidious neighbor wanting who told them that we were there concealed. Then his fellow soldiers went to the magistrates, and pretended that they had lost on the road a very valuable silver vessel belonging to their prefect, and that a certain gardener had found it and was unwilling to restore it, but it was now concealed in the house of a friend. Then the magistrates, becoming acquainted with the loss and the name of the prefect, came to the gate of our dwelling, and with a loud voice announced to our host that it would be better for him to deliver us up, who were certainly concealed in his house, than to undergo the danger of losing his life. But he, not being in the least terrified and consulting the safety of him whom he had taken under his protection, did not confess anything concerning us, and asserted that he had not seen that gardener for some days. On the contrary, the soldiers, swearing by the genius of the emperor, affirmed that he was concealed there and not in any other place. At length, however, the magistrates were determined, by investigation, to confute him in his obstinate denial. Having therefore sent the Lictors into his house, and the other public ministers, they ordered them diligently to explore everything in all the corners of the apartments.  Then the altercation became more vehement on both sides, on the part of the soldiers, who asserted that we were certainly there, and frequently implored the assistance of Caesar, and on the part of the master of the house, who denied the accusation and continually called the gods to testify the truth of what he said. I, therefore, who was, in other respects, an inquisitive ass, and endued with a restless petulance, when I heard the contention and clamorous murmur was desirous by looking through a certain window with my neck in an oblique position to see what was the meaning of that tumult. And while I was so doing, one of the soldiers, having by chance turned his eyes to my shadow, called all of them to be witnesses of it publicly. Lastly, a great clamour was presently raised, and certain persons immediately coming to me by the assistance of ladders, laid their hands on me, and drew me from the place of my concealment as a captive. And now, without any delay, more carefully exploring everything, and uncovering also the chest, they found the miserable gardener, drew him out from thence, presented him to the magistrates, and led him to a public prison, in order that he might suffer capital punishment. Nor could they refrain from jesting, accompanied with the greatest laughter it might look he out of the window.  End of Chapter 9, Part 2. Recording by Thomas Copeland Chapter 10, Part 1 of The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Tim Ferrero. The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, by Apuleus. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Chapter 10, Part 1. What my master the gardener did, on the following day, I know not. But the soldier, who was most beautifully beaten, on account of his extreme imbecility, loosened me, and brought me away from that manger, without the prohibition of anyone. From his own tent also, as it appeared to me, he led me into the public road, laden with his own bundles, and perfectly adorned and equipped in a military manner. For he placed on my back a glittering helmet, a shield far more splendid than the rest of the armor, and also a lance, conspicuous for its very long steel head, which he diligently disposed on the top of the bundles, as it is usual to do in an army, not then indeed for the sake of discipline, but for the purpose of terrifying miserable travelers. Having therefore passed over the plains, which was attended with no difficulty, we came to a certain little town, nor did we then but take ourselves to an inn, but to the house of a Decurion. And when the soldier had delivered me to the care of a certain servant, he, without delay, solicitously proceeded to his own prefect, who had the command of a thousand soldiers. I remember that a most wicked and detestable deed was perpetrated in that town a few days after our arrival, but I will insert it in my book that you also may read it. The master of that house had a son, who was a young man of great literary attainments, and, on that account, was consequently remarkable for his piety and modesty, so that you also would wish to have him, or his like, for a son. The mother of this young man, having been dead for many years, the father had married again, and from another wife had begun another son, who had now just passed beyond the twelfth year of his age. But the stepmother, who was powerful in the house of her husband, rather from her beauty, than the worthiness of her manners, regarded her son-in-law with wanton eyes, whether she was naturally immodest or was impelled by fate to that extreme wickedness. Now therefore, excellent reader, know that you will peruse a tragedy and not a comedy, and that you will ascend from a shoe to the buskin. As long, however, as the amatory desire which she nourished from the beginning was small, it's force being yet imbecile. The woman, easily repressing the slender frame, resisted it in silence. But when love, immoderately raging, burnt the whole of her breast with an insane fire, she was then vanquished by the fierce and tyrannical God, and, feigning illness, she pretended that her disease was not mental, but occasioned by the language state of her body. Now there is not anyone who is ignorant that all the detriments which the health and the face sustain accurately accord both with those that are ill and those that are in love, such as a deformed paleness, marced eyes, weary legs, turbulent sleep, and sighs, more vehement from the slowness of the torment by which they are produced. You might believe she was only agitated by feverish vapors if she had not also wept. Alas, unskillful physicians, what to the pulsation of the artery, immoderate heat, wearied respiration, and the frequent and reciprocal changes and turnings of the sides indicate. Good gods, how easy is the comprehension of amatory desire by one who is learned, though he does not profess the medical art when he sees someone burning with bodily heat. Being therefore more profoundly agitated by the impatience of venereal fury, she at length burst her long silence, and ordered her son to be called to her, which name she would have willingly obliterated in him in order that she might not, by using it, be admonished of her shameless passion. Nor did the young man make any delay in obeying the mandate of his diseased parent, but having his forehead wrinkled with sorrow for her pretended illness, like that of an old man, he went into the bed-chamber of the wife of his father and the mother of his brother, paying that obedience to which was, in a certain respect, her due. But she, being for a long time fatigued by tormenting silence and hesitating, as in a shallow of doubt, rejecting every word, which she at first conceived to be most adapted to the present occasion, and even now fluctuating through shame, she was dubious when she should assume the exhortium of her speech. The young man, however, not then suspecting anything sinister, with the dejected countenance spontaneously asked her what were the causes of her present disease. Then she, availing herself of the pernicious opportunity afforded by solitude, burst out into audacity and weeping abundantly, and hiding her face with her garment, with the trembling voice thus briefly addressed him.  For those eyes of yours, having penetrated through my eyes, into the most inward recesses of my breast, have there excited a most vehement fire.  For I justly love you, in consequence of recognizing his image in your face. You will be perfectly secure on account of the solitude of the place, and you will also have leisure sufficient for the accomplishment of this necessary crime, for that which no one knows has nearly no existence. The young man, being disturbed by the sudden evil, though he immediately abhorred such an abominable deed, yet did not think it fit to exasperate her by the unseasonable severity of a denial, but to appease her by the procrastination of a crafty promise. He promised, therefore, abundantly, and earnestly persuaded her to keep up her spirits, restore her strength by nutriment, and pay attention to her health till a free space of time should be granted to pleasure, by some journey of his father. And he immediately withdrew himself from the noxious view of his stepmother. Conceiving likewise that this great destruction with which his house was threatened required more abundant counsel, he immediately related the affair to a certain aged tutor of well-tried gravity and prudence. And, after long continued deliberation, nothing seemed to be so salutary as to escape the tempest of raging fortune by a rapid flight. But the woman, being impatient even of the smallest delay, having devised a certain occasion, immediately persuaded her husband, with wonderful art to take a journey, with all speed, to certain little farms which were situated at a great distance. Which being done, she, precipitately, urged by the insanity of accelerated hope, demands the accomplishment of the promised gratification of her lust. The young man, however, avoids her execrable sight, adducing at one time this thing, and at another that, as the cause of his delay. Till she, manifestly perceiving from the variety of his messages, they refuse to fulfill his promise to her, transferred with the lubricous mobility, her nefarious love to a far more pernicious hatred, and immediately calling a most iniquitous servant whom she had brought with her dowry to her husband, and who was prepared for the perpetration of any wickedness, she communicated to him the counsels of her perfidy, nor did anything seem to them to be better than to deprive the miserable young man of life. She immediately, therefore, sent this villainous servant to buy the most effective poison, and having diligently diluted it with wine, she prepared it for the destruction of her innocent son-in-law. And while the wicked servant and stepmother deliberate with themselves about the fit time of giving him the poison, it happened that the junior youth, who was the proper son of this most abandoned woman, returning home after the labor of his morning studies, and being thirsty after taking his breakfast, found the cup of wine, in which the enclosed poison was concealed, and drank it up at one drought, being ignorant of the latent fraud which it contained, who, as soon as he had drank the death which had been prepared for his brother, fell lifeless on the ground. Immediately the tutor of the youth, being agitated by his sudden death, called the mother and all the family, with a howling clamor. And now, the case of the noxious potion being known, each of those that were present ascribed to different authors than a farious deed. But that dire woman, and who was a singular example of noverical malice, not being at all moved by the bitter death of her son, nor by the consciousness of Parasite, nor by the misfortune of her house, nor the grief of her husband, nor funereal sorrow, took a shorter method of revenge by the destruction of her family. She immediately, therefore, sent a courier to inform her husband on his journey of the calamity that had befallen his house.  And, in asserting this indeed, she did not altogether speak falsely, because the boy had preoccupied the death which was prepared for the young man. But she famed that the younger brother was destroyed through the wickedness of her son-in-law, because he was unwilling to give assistance to the disgraceful lust by which her son-in-law had endeavored to commit adultery with her. Nor was she contented with lies so enormous, but she also added that he threatened her with a sword, because she had detected his wickedness. Then the unhappy man, being greatly afflicted by the death of both his sons, is agitated like the waves of the sea with mighty tempests of sorrow. For he saw his younger son buried before his face, and he knew that his other son would certainly be condemned to death for incest and parasite. Besides this, also, he was impelled to extreme hatred of the son by the famed lamentations of his too dearly beloved wife. Scarcely, therefore, were the funeral rites pertaining to the internment of his son performed when immediately the miserable old man hastily proceeded from his pyre to the forum, irrigating his face with tears yet recent, and tearing his hoary hairs defiled with ashes.  Lastly, thus lamenting, he inflamed with so much commiseration, and with such great indignation, the senate and the people that, laying aside the tediousness of a judicial process, and the manifest proofs of accusation, and also the meditated labyrinths of answer, they all cried out that a public evil should be punished publicly, and that the author of it should be destroyed by being overwhelmed with stones. In the meantime, the magistrates, through the fear of peculiar danger, namely less sedition should proceed from the small elements of indignation to the destruction of discipline in the city itself, began partly to beseech the senators, and partly to restrain the people. That sentence might be pronounced conformably to the civil law, judgment being properly passed according to the custom of their ancestors, and the allegations on both sides equitably examined. They added that no one should be condemned without a hearing after the manner of barbaric fierceness or tyrannic violence, since by doing so they would leave in this time of profound peace a dire example to posterity. The salutary council pleased them, and immediately the crier was ordered to proclaim that the senators should assemble together in the senate house. But when these were seated in their accustomed places, according to the order of their dignity, the crier again calling the first accuser came forward. Then, in the last place, the defendant also being cited was introduced. And the crier, in conformity to the Attic law and that of the Areopagus, announced to the advocates that they should plead without preambles and without endeavoring to excite commiseration. I knew that these things were thus transacted from what was said by many in their conferences with each other. But as I was not present at the trial, because I was tied to the manger, I could not know what words the accuser employed, nor by what arguments the defendant confuted him, nor in short what were the speeches and answers, nor can I narrate to you things of which I am ignorant, but I shall only commit to writing what I have found to be certainly true. For as soon as the contention of the orders was finished, the senators thought fit that the truth and credibility of the crime should be shown by certain proofs, and that a thing of such consequence should not be left to suspicions and conjecture. They likewise thought it requisite that the servant who was said to be the only one that knew these things were thus transacted should, by all means, be brought forward. Nor was that disciple of the cross in the least disturbed, either by the doubtful event of so great a prosecution, or by the view of a full court, or even by his own evil conscience, but began to affirm and assert those things which he had himself devised as if they were true. For he said, that the young man being indignant with the fastidiousness of his mother-in-law had called him, that in order to avenge the injury he had ordered him to destroy her son, that he had promised him a great reward if he was silent, that on his refusing to do what he wished, he had threatened him with death, that he had delivered to him the poison diluted with his own hand, to be given to his brother, and that on his suspecting he had neglected to give him the potion, and had reserved it for a proof of the crime, he at length had extended it to the boy with his own hand. When this villainous nave with a feigned trepidation had uttered these egregious lies which had very much the appearance of truth, the inquiries and proofs were finished, nor was any one of the senators so favorable to the young man as not to pronounce that he ought to be sewed up in a leathern sack, as he was evidently found to be guilty of the crime of which he was accused. The opinions of all of them being concordant, according to the custom perpetually observed, they were to have been committed to writing in tablets or shells, and put into an urn after which the die being cast it was not lawful for anything to be changed, but the life of the accused person was in the hand of the executioner. Before this, however, could be done, a certain physician belonged to the senate of an advanced age of Transcendent Fidelli, and of great authority, covering with his hand the orifice of the urn lest any one should rashly put into it his shell, thus addressed to the court. I rejoice that I have lived long, because even as far as to this period of my life I have obtained your approbation.  I myself cannot bear to decide iniquitously, deceiving my own conscience, and trampling on the reverence which is due to the gods. Learn, therefore, from me the truth of the affair. This villainous fellow, being solicitous to procure the most effective poison which he said was necessary for a certain sick person, who being vehemently afflicted by the long continuance of an incurable disease, was anxious to withdraw himself from the torments of life. This fellow came to me some time ago, and offered me a hundred golden solidi, which is to say a hundred shillings, for the purchase of the poison. But I, perceiving the vain blabbering of that iniquitous nave, and that he assigned inappropriate causes, and also being certain that he was about to perpetrate something iniquitous, I gave him indeed a potion, but providing for an investigation into the affair which might be made at some future time, I did not immediately accept the price which he offered me. But I said to him, lest by chance some one of these golden solidi which you offer me, should be found to be bad, or adulterated, deposit them in this bag, and impress it with your own seal, till they are to-morrow examined in the presence of a banker. Being persuaded by what I said, he sealed the money, which immediately after he was brought here to give evidence, I ordered one of my servants to take speedily from my shop and bring it to this place.  Let him see and recognize his own seal, for how can the son and law of the stepmother be accused of having procured the poison which this servant bought? After this a great trepidation seized the villain, a deadly paleness succeeded to his native color, and a cold sweat ran through all his members. Then he began to move his feet with uncertain alternations, to scratch now this, now that part of his head, and to utter foolish I know not what trifles, stammering with a half-closed mouth, so that no one could justly think him to be entirely innocent of the crime. His craft, however, being again restored, he did not cease to deny the charge most firmly, and to accuse the physician of a lie. But the physician, independently of his being bound by oath to decide justly, when he saw that his honor was openly lacerated, endeavored with an increased effort to confute that nefarious knave, till the public servants, by order of the magistrates, taking hold of the hands of the most iniquitous servant, found the iron ring and compared it with the seal of the bag, which comparison corroborated the preceding suspicion. Nor were the wheel and the rack called Eculius wanting, prepared for the purpose of tormenting him after the manner of the Greeks. But he, being strengthened by a wonderful audacity, did not succumb to any blows nor even the fire itself. Then the physician said, I will not suffer by Hercules, I will not suffer, either that you should punish that innocent young man unjustly, or that this fellow should escape the punishment of his nefarious deed, our judgment being frustrated. For I will give you an evident proof of the present affair. When this most abandoned man was anxious to procure the deadly poison, but I did not think it accorded with my art to administer to any one the causes of death, having learnt that medicine was not sought after for the destruction but for the preservation of men. Fearing last, if I refused to give it to him, I should open for him a path to wickedness by an unseasonable repulse, and that he would accomplish the nefarious design he had begun, either by buying a deadly potion for some other person, or lastly by the sword or some different weapon. Fearing this I gave him not poison, but a preparation of that somniferous plant Mandrake, famous for the torpor which it occasions, and which produces a sleep most similar to death. Nor is it wonderful that this most desperate nave, being certain of suffering the extreme punishment which must befall him conformably to the custom of our ancestors, should easily endure these torments as things of a lighter nature. But if the boy has really taken the potion which was tempered by my hands, he still lives, is in a chiescent state, and sleeps, and immediately on the oppressive sleep being dissipated he will return to the lucid day. But if he is truly perished, if he is truly overtaken by death, you may from other sources investigate the causes of his destruction. The old man, having thus addressed the senators, they assented to what he said, and immediately proceeded with great haste that sepulcher in which the body of the boy was deposited. There was not any one of the senate, nor any one among those of the first rank that did not run thither impelled by curiosity. And behold, the father himself, having with his own hands removed the lid of the coffin, found his son rising from death, the deadly sleep being just then dissipated, and having most closely embraced him in not being able to express in words his present joy, he led him forth to the people, and the boy was brought into court in the condition in which he still was bound and wrapped in funeral garments. Now, likewise, the naked truth was obvious to everyone, the wickedness being manifested of the most iniquitous servant, and of the still more abandoned woman. And the stepmother, indeed, was condemned to perpetual exile, but the servant was hanged, and by the consent of all the golden solidi were given to the good physician, as the reward of the opportune sleep which he had procured. Thus the famous and fabulous fortune of that old man received determination worthy the providence of the gods, since in a slender moment, or rather in the smallest point of time, he suddenly became the father of two young men, after he had been in danger of losing both. But I, at that time, was rolled about by such tempestuous waves of fate as the following. That soldier who brought me without anyone selling me, and who made me his own without price, paying due obedience to the mandate of his tribute, being about to carry letters to the great prince, which was to say to the emperor, towards Rome, sold me for eleven pence to two servants in the neighborhood who were brothers. The master of these was a very opulent man, but one of them was a confectioner who made bread and eatables tempered with honey, and the other was a cook, who by the assistance of heat made minced meat seasoned with the sweetest juices of bruised herbs and aromatics. These two, dwelling together, lived in common, and bought me for the purpose of carrying those numerous vessels which were necessary to their masters for various uses, when they traveled through many regions. I was taken, therefore, as a third companion with those not having at any time of my transformation experienced a fortune so benevolent. For in the evening, after most sumptuous suppers, and the most splendid apparatus of them, my masters were accustomed to take into their own little room many fragments. One of them, the most ample remains of pigs, chickens, fishes, and minced meat of every kind, but the other, bread, pastry, spice cakes, tarts in the shapes of hooks and lizards, and many honeyed sweet meats. When these two, having fastened the door of their chamber, went to the baths for the sake of refreshing themselves, I abundantly feasted myself on the dainties which were offered to me through the favor of the gods.   But when becoming still more confident of concealment, I devoured the most exquisite fragments, and rejecting the more rancid began to eat the sweeter morsels. No small suspicion stimulated the minds of the brothers. And though they did not then believe any such thing of me, nevertheless they diligently investigated the author of their daily loss. At length also they accused each other of that most disgraceful wrapping, and now they bestowed greater care in a more vigilant observation, and counted the fragments. At length being no longer restrained by bashfulness, one of them thus addressed the other. It is neither equitable nor courteous that you should daily perloin the choicest parts, and by selling them latently increase your wealth, and yet contend for an equal division of what remains. For in short, if our partnership is displeasing to you, we may indeed remain brothers so far as pertains to everything else, and yet depart from this bond of communion. For I see that complaint of the loss proceeding to infinity nourishes very great discord between us. To this the other replied, I also, by Hercules, applaud your perseverance, that after you have daily and secretly stolen fragments you have prevented the complaint, which I have for a long time silently and sorrowfully retained, lest I should seem to accuse my brother of sordid wrapping. But it is well that by speaking to each other we seek a remedy for our loss, lest our dissembled hatred increasing by silence should excite in us Etioclean contentions. After these and other similar reproaches arising from their mutual altercation, they both of them swore that they had not committed any fraud nor any theft, but agreed that they ought by all possible means to search after the thief, who was the cause of their common loss. For they said, it was not possible that the ass, which alone was present, could be delighted with such kind of food, and yet the choicest portions of it were daily not to be found. They added that neither did fly so large as were the harpies of old who took away by violence the foods of Phineas wing their way into their apartment. In the meantime I, being largely fed with dainty morsels and abundantly satisfied with human food, filled my body with gross fat, rendered my hide soft with succulent suet, and nourished my hairs with a liberal neatness. But that gracefulness of my body produced a great disgrace to my modesty, for they being excited to suspicion by the unusual distention of my hide and perceiving that my hay remained daily untouched, they now directed all their attention to me, and having as usual shut the doors the accustomed hour, as if they were going to the baths, they beheld me through a certain small chink, intently eating the fragments which were everywhere exposed.  At length laughter so great and so unrestrained seized on all of them that it also reached the ears of the master who was passing that way. He, therefore, inquiring what good had occurred to make a servant's laugh so excessively, and having learnt what the affair was, he likewise, looking through the same chink, was extremely delighted. And afterwards, he also breaking out into laughter so unrestrained as to cause pain in his intestines, and having opened the door of the chamber came nearer to me, and considered me more tentatively. For I, beholding the countenance of fortune in a certain respect, smiling more propitiously upon me, continued eating tranquilly, not in the least disturbed, the joy of those that were present afforded me confidence, till the master of the house being exhilarated by the novelty of this spectacle, ordered me to be led to the supper-room, or rather he brought me to it with his own hands, and the table being furnished he directed every kind of solid food to be placed before me, and such delicacies as had not been touched. But I, though I was well crammed, yet desiring to render myself more acceptable and more commendable to him, ate as if I had been hungry of the food that was placed before me. For they, prompted by curiosity, thinking of everything which an ass mostly abhors offered it to me, for the purpose of exploring my mildness, such as flesh seasoned with the juice of the herb master-wort, birds sprinkled over with pepper, and fish that had been pickled. In the meantime the banquet resounded with excessive laughter. End of Chapter 10, Part 1 Chapter 10, Part 2 of the Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Tim Ferrara The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, by Apuleus translated by Thomas Taylor. Chapter 10, Part 2 At length a certain buffoon who was present said, Give some wine to this guest. To which the master assenting answered, Nave, you have not spoken absurdly, for it is very possible that our comrade will also willingly drink a cup of meat. And he said, Come hither, boy, wash well that golden cup, fill it with mead and offer it to my parasite, and at the same time admonish him that I have previously drank to him. After this the great expectation was exciting among the guests. Nevertheless, I, not being at all disturbed, drank at one draft all that was contained in that most capacious cup, leisurely, and in a sufficiently pleasant manner, incervating the extremity of my lip in the shape of a tongue. A clamor was raised, through all of them, with one according voice, drinking my health. Lastly, the master, being excessively joyful, and having called the servants that bought me, ordered that four times the sum which they paid for me should be given to them, and he delivered me to a certain person who had been his slave, but was now manumitted, to whom he was very much attached, and who was very rich, and desired him to pay me every requisite attention.  And in the first place, indeed, he taught me to sit down at table leaning on my elbow, afterwards to wrestle and to dance my forefeet being elevated, and, which was especially admirable, to use signs instead of words, so that I could indicate what I wished by raising and what I did not wish by declining my head. He also taught me, when I was thirsty, to look at the cup-bearer, and to ask for drink by alternately closing my eyes. And to all these things I was very readily obedient, which, indeed, I should have done, though no one had shown me how to do them. But I was fearful, lest, if I should happen to perform them after the manner of men, without a master, most would think it pretended sinister events, and that I, as a monster in prodigy, should lose my head and be given for fat provender to vultures. And now my fame was spread abroad publicly, by which I rendered my master illustrious and famous through my wonderful arts. This, said the people, is the man who has an ass for his guest and associate, and asks that wrestles and dances that jests and understands the language of men, and indicates what it means by nods. It is now, however, requisite that I should inform you, though I ought to have done it in the beginning, who that Thaisis was, or once he originated, for this was the name of my master. The country in which he was born was Corinth, which city ranks as the chief of all the province of Ikea. And, as he had gradually obtained all the honors, which his pedigree and dignity demanded, he had been appointed to the office of Quinquennial Magistrate. In order, therefore, that he might act conformably to the splendor of that office, he had promised that he would exhibit during the space of three days, the spectacle of prize fighting, but he had still more amply extended his munificence. Lastly, he had then also come to Thessaly, through the desire of public glory, in order to procure from thence the most noble wild beasts and famous gladiators. And now, having bought and disposed of everything according to his wish, he was preparing to return home. Despising, however, his own most splendid chariots and undervaluing his beautiful coaches and wagons, which were drawn along empty at the extremity of his train, some of them being covered and others open, neglecting also the Thessalian horses and his other Gallic laboring beasts, by which a generous offspring bears testimony to the precious dignity of its origin. Despising and neglecting all these, he wrote most lovingly on me, who was decorated with golden trappings, dyed saddles, purpled coverings, silver bridles, painted girths, and very sonorous little bells, and sometimes he spoke to me in the most courteous language. Among many other things also which he said, he professed to be in the highest degree delighted, that he possessed in me at one in the same time a companion and a carrier. But when, having finished our journey, partly by land and partly by sea, we came to Corinth, a great crowd of citizens ran to meet us. Not so much for the purpose of doing honor to Thessas, is from a desire of seeing me, for so great a rumor had pervaded that city about me, that I was the source of no small gain to my governor, who, when he perceived many longings with great desire to see my sports, he shut the door and introduced each of them separately, having first received money from them, by which means he was accustomed daily to collect no small sums. In that assembly there was a certain matron, powerful and opulent, who, after the manner of the rest, having purchased a sight of me and from thenceforth was delighted with my multi-form pastimes, fell, at length, gradually, through her continual admiration into a wonderful desire of enjoying me, and not applying any remedy to her insane lust, ardently waited for my embraces, like an asinine pacifii. At length she prevailed on my keeper for a great sum of money to let me lie with her for one night, but that knave, in order that he might drive advantage from me, being only satisfied with his own gain, assented. And now, the laborious and wakeful night being finished, the woman withdrew from my embraces, avoiding the conscious testimony of the light, and making a contract with my keeper for some future night, at the same price. Nor did he unwillingly accede to her voluptuous desires, partly induced by the very ample reward which he received from her, and partly through the opportunity afforded him of preparing a new spectacle for his Lord, to whom without delay he unfolded the whole scene of our lust. But he, having magnificently rewarded his manumitted servant, destined me to be shown in public. And because that egregious wife of mine could not be publicly connected with me on account of her dignity, nor any other could be found for the same purpose, a certain vile woman who had been sentenced by the prefect to be devoured by wild beasts was procured for a great sum of money to have connection with me in the enclosure of the theatre in the sight of all the spectators. Of this woman I have heard the following history. She had a husband a young man whose father, undertaking a journey, ordered his wife who was the mother of that same young man in whom he left oppressed with a burden of pregnancy that if she brought forth an infant of the inferior sex she should immediately cause that of which was delivered to be slain. But she, during the absence of her husband having brought forth a girl and being moved by the pious affection naturally inherent in a mother revolted from the mandate of her husband and delivered it to be nourished by one of her neighbours. Her husband also now having returned and that she was destroyed. But as soon as the flower of age required a nuptial day should be appointed for the virgin and as she could not give a dowry suitable to the parentage of her daughter unknown to her husband she did that which she could alone do. Namely, she unfolded the secret to her son which had hitherto a bit concealed in silence. For she was very much afraid lest he by some accident erring through the impulsive juvenile ardour should ignorantly have connection with his sister who also was ignorant that he was her brother. But this young man who was remarkably pious and who religiously obeyed the mandates of his mother and performed the duties due to his sister delivered the arcana of his house to the custody of venerable silence exhibiting only by his countenance a vulgar benevolence toward his sister. And he undertook in such a way to perform the necessary duty of consequently that he received her into the protection of her own house as if she had been some desolate neighbouring virgin and deprived of the guardian care of her parents. And soon after he placed her with a certain most dear associate of his and most liberally bestowed on her a dowry from his own property. But these things being well disposed and in the best manner and with all sanctity could not escape the deadly not of fortune by whose impulse a cruel rivalship immediately directed its course to the house of the young man. And the same wife of his who now was condemned to wild beasts for these very crimes began first to entertain a suspicion of the girl as the rival of her bed and a harlot. In the next place to defeat her and in the third place to contrive the most cruel snares for her destruction. In the last place she devised the following wicked stratagem. Having stolen the ring of her husband she went into the country and from thence sent a servant who was faithful indeed to her but perfectly hostile to fidelity herself and told him to inform the girl that the young man was gone to her village and desired her to come to him and added that she was to go alone with all possible salarity and without any attendant. And lest any doubt should happen to arise in her mind about the propriety of going she delivered to him the ring which she had taken from her husband which being shown would give credibility to his words. But she complying with the mandate of her brother for she alone knew that he was her brother and having also inspected his seal which was shown to her strenuously hastened to go unattended as she was desired to do. As soon however as through the deception of extreme fraud she fell into the snares which were prepared for her then that egregious wife being insanely excited by the stimulus of libidinous fury in the first place indeed having stripped her naked whipped her even to the extremity of torment and afterwards though she explained the things it really was and also exclaimed that she in vain boiled over with indignation through conceiving her to be a harlot and frequently repeated the name of her brother she slew her by thrusting a burning torch into her private parts as if she had lied and invented all that she had told her. Then the brother and her husband being excited by the news of her cruel death flew to her and having mourned the fate of the girl with various lamentations committed her to the grave. Nor could the young man endure with equanimity such a miserable death of his sister by her by whom it was by no means equitable it should have been occasioned. But being most profoundly grieved and wholly possessed by the noxious fury of the most vehement bile he began from that time to burn with a raging fever so that for him also a remedy seemed to be necessary. But his wife who some time ago had lost the name together with the fidelity of a wife went to a certain physician well known for his perfidy who being famous for his victories in many contests could enumerate great trophies which his right hand had obtained and immediately promised him fifty Cistercia in order that he indeed might sell poison so efficacious as to destroy in a moment but that she might by the death of her husband. This being done she and the physician pretended that the most excellent potion which they had brought and which the more learned called sacred was necessary for mitigating pains of the viscera and carrying off the bile. But in its stead they substituted a potion sacred to the health of prosirpeny.  But that audacious woman in order that she might destroy the physician the partner of her guilt and at the same time be enriched by the money which she had promised retaining the cup in the sight of all of them said, O best of physicians you shall not give this potion to my most dear husband till you have drank a good part of it yourself. For how do I know whether a noxious poison may not be concealed in it? And this is a thing which should by no means offend you who are a man so prudent and learned that I as a religious wife being solicitous for the safety of my husband perform a necessary duty of piety. The physician being suddenly agitated by the desperate audacity of the cruel woman and totally deprived of all counsel and of every opportunity of thinking through the shortness of the time drank largely of the potion before he had raised any suspicion of his evil conscience by any trepidation or delay. And the young man following his example took the cup and drank what was offered to him. The present business being thus transacted the physician prepared to return home with the greatest celerity in order that he might extinguish the deadly power of the poison which he had taken by a celluletiferous potion. But the barbarous woman persisting in the same sacrilegious obstinacy as that which she had adopted from the first would not suffer him to depart from her the breadth of a nail till, as she said, the effect of the medicine was evidently proved in consequence of the potion being distributed through the whole body. But being much and for a long time wearied by his prayers and earnest entreaties she at length scarcely permitted him to depart. In the meantime his most inward parts attracted the occult destruction which raged through all his viscera and, at last, he with great difficulty came to his own house very ill and now oppressed with a somnolent heaviness. Scarcely also being able to narrate every particular he ordered his wife to demand at least the promised reward of a double death. And thus that most illustrious physician being destroyed by violence gave up the ghost. Nor did that young man live any longer than the physician but perished by a similar kind of death amidst the fictitious and false tears of his wife. And he, being now buried after a few days had intervened during which funeral rites are performed to the dead the wife of the physician came and demanded the money which was due for the double death. But the woman always like herself overpowering the real form of fidelity in exhibiting only its image mildly answered her and promised everything liberally and abundantly and agreed to pay the stipulated sum without delay only adding that she wished she could give her a little of that potion for the purpose of accomplishing the business she had begun. This, the wife of the physician invagaled by the many snares of the most wicked frauds readily consented to do and that she might render herself more acceptable to the opulent woman hastily returned home and immediately afterwards delivered her the whole box of poison. Having therefore now obtained the grand instrument of wickedness she extended far and wide her sanguinary hands. She had a little daughter by the husband whom she had lately killed and she was very indignant that the laws would necessarily give to this little one the inheritance of her father greedily desiring also the whole patrimony of her daughter she waited only for an opportunity of destroying her. Being certain therefore that mothers received the immature inheritances of their deceased children she showed herself to be such a parent as she had proved herself to be a wife and pretending to prepare a dinner in consequence of a circumstance that had occurred she attacked with the same poison both the wife of the physician and her own daughter but that deadly venom immediately consumed the slender life and delicate and tender viscera of the little girl. The wife of the physician however while the tempest of the detestable potion wandered through her lungs with its noxious windings first suspecting what the thing was and afterwards through the oppression of her breath being now more certain that her suspicion was right went to the house of the prefect of the province and with a great clamor imploring his assistance a tumult of the people also being excited in consequence of the disclosure she was about to make of such barbarous wickedness she occasioned both the house and the ears of the prefect to be immediately opened. And now having accurately narrated all the atrocities of this most cruel woman from the beginning being suddenly seized with a dark vertigo of the mind she compressed her lips which were still half open and having for a long time produced a crashing noise by the gnashing of her teeth she fell lifeless before the feet of the prefect. But he though he was a man accustomed to things of this kind would not suffer the multi-form wickedness of this execrable sorceress to flag by a language delay but immediately ordered the chambermaids of the woman to be brought before him and by the force of torments exhorted from them the truth. He also sentenced her to a punishment which was indeed less than she deserved namely that she should be cast to wild beasts because he could not find any other torment so adapted to the enormity of her guilt. With such a woman as this it was determined that I should be publicly connected as if I had been lawfully married to her. And being very much vexed I waited with great anxiety for the day of the spectacle being frequently willing to destroy myself with my own hand rather than be defiled by coming into contact with such an abandoned woman or be defamed by the disgrace of a public spectacle. But as I was deprived of human hands and was also destitute of fingers I could by no means draw a sword with my round and imperfect hoof. However I consoled myself in my extreme misery with a slender hope because the spring now beginning to appear would paint everything with floored buds and would now clothe the meadows with a purple splendor and roses would then burst forth exhaling the sweetest odors which would restore me to my former Lucius which is to say my pristine form. Behold the day destined to the spectacle was present and I was led into the arena the people following me with triumphant applause. And while the beginning of the spectacle was dedicated to the sport of dances of the players I in the meantime being placed before the gate gladly fed on the very flourishing grass was germinated at the entrance now and then also refreshing my inquisitive eyes with the most agreeable prospect of the spectacle because the gate was open. For boys and virgins flourishing in floored youth conspicuous for their beauty in splendid garments acting as they walked dancing the Greek Piric dance and disposed in rank performed graceful circuits now turning round in an orb like a wheel now connected by their hands in an oblique order and afterwards being disposed into the form of a wedge with a square aperture and then becoming separated into two troops. But after the clanger of the terminating trumpet had dissolved the manifold circuits of the reciprocal movements the hangings being removed and the curtains folded a representation of the fable of Paris was prepared as follows There was a wooden mountain made an imitation of that celebrated mountain which Homer calls Ida This was of a lofty structure was planted with grass plants and living trees and from its highest top emitted river water from a fountain flowing through the contrivance of the artist A few goats cropped the grass and a certain young man excellently clothed with barbaric vestments depended from his shoulders and having his head covered with golden tiara after the manner of the Phrygian shepherd Paris pretended to be skilled in the pastoral discipline A beautiful boy also was present naked except that a robe adapted to a child covered his left shoulder This boy was every way conspicuous for his yellow hair among which little golden wings associated by a similar alliance were prominent and the caduceus and the wand indicated that the boy was Mercury He, running with a dancing motion and carrying in his right hand an apple gilt with spangles extended it to him who represented Paris and announced to him by signs the mandate of Jupiter Immediately after elegantly receding he departed from the view A girl succeeded of a beautiful face and resembling the goddess Juno for her head was begirt with a white diadem and she also carried a scepter Another Virgin entered whom you might believe to be Minerva having her head covered with a folgid helmet and the helmet itself was covered with an olive colored crown She also lifted up a shield which is to say the Aegis and shook a spear and appeared to be such as she is when she fights After these another female entered of surpassing beauty representing Venus by the decoration of her divine color and such as Venus was when she was a virgin exhibiting perfect beauty and a body naked and uncovered except that her private parts were enumbrated by a thin silk and garment the fringe of which the busy wind in a sufficiently amorous manner now wantonly blew back that being removed the flower of her age might be manifest and now luxuriantly blew upon that by close adherence the pleasure which the members the private parts were formed to give might be delineated But the color itself of the goddess was various to the view for her body was white because she descended from heaven and her silk and garment was azure because she emerged from the sea and now the several virgins who represented goddesses were surrounded by their attendants Juno indeed by castor and Pollux whose heads were covered with round helmets conspicuous by the stars which glittered on their summits But these representatives of the twin brothers were young actors this virgin Juno proceeding with the tranquil and unaffected gesticulation conformably to the various modulations of the wantonly sounding flute promised the shepherd by modest signs that she would bestow on him the empire of all Asia if he had judged to her the palm of beauty But two boys who represented terror and fear the armor-bearing attendants of the war-like goddess dancing with drawn swords surrounded that virgin who by the arms with which she was adorned represented Minerva and a piper who was behind her played Adorian which is to say a war-like tune and mingling sharp tinkling with flat sounds excited the vigor of brisk dancing after the manner of a trumpet This girl by tossing her head looking with threatening eyes and walking with a quick and entorted step signified to Paris by her cheerful gesticulation that if he gave to her the victory of beauty he should become through her assistance brave and illustrious by the trophies of war Then Venus stood gracefully in the very middle of the scene sweetly smiling accompanied by the great applause of the spectators and surrounded by a crowd of rejoicing boys You would say that those smooth and fair boys were cupids and real cupids who had just then descended from heaven or emerged in the sea for they admirably resembled them by their small wings their little arrows and the rest of their external habiliments They also bore splendid torches before their mistress as if she had been going to some nuptial banquet Unmarried girls likewise a graceful progeny were there assembled Here the most pleasing graces there are the most beautiful hours who rendering their goddess propitious by throwing flowers made into garlands or loose formed the most elegant choir ensued the goddess of pleasure with the hair of the spring Now pipes with many perforations sweetly send forth Lydian modulations and while they delightfully allure the minds of the spectators Venus in a far more delectable manner began placidly to move herself and to proceed with a gentle and slow step the spine of her back at the same time lightly undulating in her head gradually moving and thus she conformed her delicate gestures to the soft sound of the pipes At one time also she gently winked and at another sharply threatened with her eyes and sometimes danced with them alone This girl as soon as she came into the presence of the judge which is to say of the scenic Paris seemed to promise by the motion of her arms that she would give to Paris a wife of surpassing beauty Helen and like herself if you would prefer her to the other goddesses Then the frigid young man delivered with a willing mind to the girl the golden apple which she held in his hands as an indication that she had conquered Why therefore do you wonder almost vile heads or rather forensic cattle are still more properly gowned vultures if all judges now sell their decisions for money For even in the most remote periods of antiquity Thaver could corrupt the judgment which was agitated between gods and men and a young man who was a rustic and a shepherd being elected a judge by the decision of the great Jupiter sold the first judicial decision for the lucre of lust accompanied likewise by the destruction of all his race Thus also by Hercules another judgment posterior to this was given between the illustrious leaders of the Greeks either when Palometes who excelled in erudition in science was condemned by false accusations as a traitor or when the mendicant Ulysses was preferred to the mighty Ajax who was preeminent in military prowess and of what kind was that judgment which was the decision of the law-giving Athenians who were a wise people in the master of all science was not that divinely prudent old man Socrates whom the Delphic God preferred for his wisdom to all mortals circumvented by the fraud and envy of a most iniquitous faction as if he had been a corruptor of youth though he restrained them as with a bridal was not he destroyed by the noxious juice of a pestilent herb leaving to his fellow citizens the stain of perpetual infamy since even now the most excellent philosophers choose his most holy sect before all others and swear in his name for the greatest and most earnest desire of beatitude lest however someone should blame this impetus of my indignation thus thinking with himself behold now shall we suffer an ass to philosophize to us I shall again return to the narration from whence I digressed after that judgment of Paris was finished Juno indeed and Minerva departed from the theater sad and enraged and showed by their gestures the indignation which they felt from being rejected but Venus full of joy and hilarity exhibited her gladness by dancing with all her choir then wine mixed with crocus burst forth on high from the summit of the mountain through a certain latent tube and flowing in scattered streams sprinkled as it fell and an odoriferous shower the goats that fed around it till being dyed into a better form they changed their proper whiteness into a saffron color and now the whole theater exhaling a sweet odor a gulf of the earth absorbed that wooden mountain when behold a certain soldier ran through the middle of the street in order to bring to the people now demanding it that woman from the public prison who as I have said was condemned to wild beasts on account of her multi-form wickedness and detained to be my illustrious bride what was intended also to be our genial bed could be most distinctly seen for it was transparent being made from the Indian tortoise was tumored with a plumus heap and floored with silk and coverlet but I besides the shame of being publicly connected and besides the contagion of a wicked and polluted woman was also in the highest degree tormented with the fear of death thus thinking with myself that in the venereal embrace while we were adhering to each other whatever wild beast should be sent in to the destruction of the woman it would not be so prudent and sagacious or so tutored by art or so frugal and temperate as to lacerate the woman who was placed by my side and spare me as one uncondemmed and inoxious being therefore solicitous not for my modesty but for my life while liberty was granted to me of indulging my own thoughts my master being intent on aptly preparing the bed and all his servants being partly occupied in hunting and partly attentive to the voluptuous spectacle known believing that so mild an ass required to be so attentively guarded I gradually withdrew myself by an occult flight and when I arrived at the next gate I hurried away with most rapid steps when also with great celerity I had traveled over six thousand entire paces I arrived at Kentrea which city indeed is said to be the most noble economy of the Corinthians but it is contiguous to the Aegean and Ceronic Sea where also there is a port which is a most safe receptacle for ships and is very populous avoiding therefore the crowd and choosing the solitary shore near to the erectation of the waves there stretched on a most soft bed of sand I refreshed my weary body for the chariot of the sun had declined to the last boundary of day and sweet sleep overpowered me when I gave myself to the evening repose End of Chapter 10 Part 2 Chapter 11 Part 1 of the Metamorphosis or Golden Ass This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Todd Albrick The Metamorphosis or Golden Ass by Apolaeus Translated by Thomas Taylor Chapter 11 Part 1 Being awakened with a sudden terror about the first watch of the night I beheld the full orb of the moon shining with excessive brightness and just then emerging from the waves of the sea Availing myself therefore of the silent secrets of opaque night as I was also well assured that the primary goddess possessed a transcendent majesty and that human affairs were entirely governed by her providence and that not only cattle and wild beasts but likewise things inanimate were invigorated by the divine power of her light and of her deity that the bodies likewise which are in the earth in the heavens and in the sea are at one time increased as she increases and at another time conformably to her decrements are diminished Being well assured of this I determined to implore the august image of the goddess then present fate being now satiated with my calamities so many and so great and administering to me the hope of safety though late having therefore immediately shaken off sluggish sleep I rose promptly and cheerfully and directly applied myself to purification by washing with marine water and having merged my head seven times in the waves because according to the divine Pythagoras that number is especially adapted to religious purposes I joyfully and readily thus supplicated with a weeping countenance the transcendently powerful goddess Queen of heaven whether thou art pure and nourishing series the original parent of fruits who rejoicing for the discovery of thy daughter didst banish the savage nutriment of the ancient acorn and exhibiting a milder element dost now dwell in the illusion land or whether thou art celestial Venus who in the first origin of things didst associate the different sexes through the intervention of mutual love and having propagated in eternal progeny from the human race art now worshiped in pathos which is washed by the surrounding sea or whether thou art the sister of Phoebus who by relieving the pains of parturient women by lenient remedies has delivered into light such a numerous multitude of men and are now venerated in the illustrious temple of Ephesus or whether thou art proserpene terrific by nocturnal howlings restraining with a tri-form face the assaults of spectres closing the recesses of the earth wandering through various groves and propitiated by different modes of worship with that female light of thine illuminating every city and with moist fires nourishing the joyful seeds of plants and through the revolutions of the sun dispensing uncertain light by whatever name by whatever rights and under whatever form it is lawful to invoke thee graciously succour me in this my extreme calamity support my fallen fortune and grant me rest in peace after the endurance of so many cruel misfortunes let there have been enough of labours let there have been enough of dangers remove from me the dire form of a quadruped restore me to the sight of my kindred restore me to my luscious and if any offended deity oppresses me with inexorable cruelty may it at least be lawful for me to die if it is not lawful for me to live having after this manner poured forth my prayers accompanied by miserable lamentations sleep surrounding me again oppressed my mercid mind in the same bed and scarcely had I closed my eyes when behold I saw in a dream a divine form emerging from the middle of the sea and raising accountants venerable even to the gods themselves afterwards the whole of the most splendid image seemed to stand before me having gradually shaken off the sea but I will also endeavour to explain to you its admirable form if the poverty of human language will but afford me the power of an appropriate narration or if the divinity itself of the most luminous form will supply me with a liberal abundance of fluent diction in the first place then her most copious and long hairs being gradually entorted and promiscuously scattered on her divine neck were softly defluous a multi-form crown consisting of various flowers bound the sublime summit of her head and in the middle of the crown just on her forehead there was a smooth orb resembling a mirror or rather a white refulgent light which indicated that she was the moon vipers rising up after the manner of furrows environed the crown on the right hand and on the left and cerulean ears of corn were also extended from above her garment was of many colors and woven from the finest flax and was at one time lucid with a white splendor at another yellow from the flower of crocus and at another flaming with a rosy redness but that which most excessively dazzled my sight was a very black robe fulgid with a dark splendor and which spreading round and passing under her right side and ascending to her left shoulder there rose protuberant like the center of a shield the dependent part of the robe falling in many folds and having small knots of fringe gracefully flowing in its extremities glittering stars were dispersed through the embroidered border of the robe and through the whole of its surface and the full moon shining in the middle of the stars breathed forth flaming fires nevertheless a crown wholly consisting of flowers and fruits of every kind adhered with indivisible connection to the border of that conspicuous robe in all its undulating motions what she carried in her hands also consisted of things of a very different nature for her right hand indeed bore a brazen rattle through the narrow lamina of which bent like a belt certain rods passing produced a sharp triple sound through the vibrating motion of her arm an oblong vessel in the shape of a boat depended from her left hand on the handle of which in that part in which it was conspicuous an asp raised its erect head and largely swelling neck and shoes woven from the leaves of the victorious palm tree covered her immortal feet such and so great a goddess breathing the fragrant odor of the shoots of arabia the happy deigned with a divine voice thus to address me behold lucius I who am moved by thy prayers am present with thee I who am nature the parent of things the queen of all the elements the primordial progeny of ages the supreme of divinities the sovereign of the spirits of the dead the first of the celestials and the uniform resemblance of gods and goddesses I who rule by my nod the luminous summits of the heavens the salubrious breezes of the sea and the deplorable silences of the realms beneath and whose one divinity the whole orb of the earth venerates under a manifold form by different rites and a variety of appellations hence the primogenial phrygians call me pezenuptica the mother of the gods the attic aborigines sycropion manurva the floating syprians feifian venus the aero bearing cretins diana dictina the three tongue sicilians stygian por serpene and the ilusinians the ancient goddess siris some also call me juno others balona others hecate and others rhamnusia and those who are illuminated by the insipiate rays of that divinity the sun when he rises these the ethiopians the ariai and the egyptian skilled in ancient learning worshiping me by ceremonies perfectly appropriate call me by my true name queen isis behold then I commiserating thy calamities am present now through my providence favoring and propitious dismiss now tears and lamentations and expel sorrow now through my providence the salutary day will shine upon thee listen therefore attentively to these my mandates the religion which is eternal has consecrated to me the day which will be born from this night on which day my priests offer to me the first fruits of navigation dedicating to me a new ship when now the winter tempest are mitigated and the stormy waves of the deep are appeased and the sea itself has now become navigable that sacred ceremony you ought to expect with a mind neither solicitous nor profane for the priest being admonished by me shall bear a rosy crowned in his right hand adhering to the rattle in the very prosync of the pomp without delay therefore cheerfully follow the procession when the crowd is dispersed confiding in my benevolence when also you approach the priest gently pluck the roses as if you intended to kiss his hand and immediately divest yourself of the hide of that worst of beasts and which for some time sense has been to me detestable nor should you fear anything pertaining to my concerns as difficult for in this very same moment of time in which I come to you being there also present I order my priest in a dream to do those things which are to be done hereafter by my command the thick crowd of people shall afford you room to pass through them nor amidst the joyful ceremonies and festive spectacles shall anyone abhor that deformed figure which you bear or malignantly accuse you by putting a sinister construction on the sudden change of your form only remember and always retain it deposited in the penetrally of your mind that the remaining course of your life must be dedicated to me even to the boundaries of your last breath nor is it unjust that you should owe your whole life to that goddess by whose assistance you will return to the human form but you will live happy you will live glorious under my protection and when having passed through the allotted space of your life you descend to the realms beneath there also in the subterranean hemisphere you dwelling in the elysian fields shall frequently adore me whom you now see and shall there behold me shining amidst the darkness of acheron raining in the stygian penetralia and being propitious to you moreover if you shall be found to deserve the protection of my divinity by sedulous obedience religious services and inviolable chastity you shall know that it is possible for me alone to extend your life beyond the limits appointed to it by your fate the venerable oracle being thus finished the invincible goddess receded into herself and without delay I being liberated from sleep immediately arose seized with fear and joy and in an excessive perspiration and in the highest degree admiring so manifested an appearance of the powerful goddess having sprinkled myself with marine dew and intent on her great commands I revolved in my mind the order of her mandates shortly after two the golden sun arose and put to flight the darkness of black night when behold a crowd of people filled all the streets with a religious and perfectly triumphant procession all things likewise independent of my peculiar joy seemed to me to exalt with such great hilarity that I might have thought that cattle of every kind every house and even the day itself rejoiced with the serene countenance for a bright and placid day suddenly succeeded to the frost of the preceding day so that the tuneful birds also sang sweetly allured by the tepid heat of the spring and with bland warbling soothed the mother of the stars the parent of the ages and the mistresses of the whole world the very trees likewise both those which were prolific with fruit and those which were barren and only offered a shade being relaxed by the southern breezes and delighted with the germination of their leaves produced through the gentle motion of the branches sweetly whistling sounds and the sea the loud crashing noise of its storms being appeased and the turbid swelling of its waves having subsided softly wash the shore but the heavens the cloudy darkness being dispersed were bright with the clear and serene splendor of their own proper light behold then the preludes of the great pump gradually proceeded beautifully adorned conformably to the votive diligence of everyone concerned in the procession this man being girded with a belt represented a soldier that being clothed with a short cloak and carrying cemeteries and javelins was adorned like a hunter another having golden socks on his feet being clothed with a silken garment and precious female ornaments and with false hair on his head assumed the appearance of a woman by his gliding step but another was remarkable by his boots his shield his helmet and his sword and you would have thought that he came from the school of the gladiators nor was there wanting one who represented a magistrate by the facies in the purple vests nor one who feigned himself to be a philosopher by his cloak his staff and his slippers and his gotish beard nor those who with dissimilar reads represented the one of howler with bird lime the other a fisherman with his hook i also saw a tame bear which was carried on a bench in a metronal dress and an ape with a woven hat on its head and clothed with a fridgian garment of a saffron color carrying in its hand a golden cup and representing the shepherd ganymede and likewise an ass to which wings were agglutinated and which walked near to a certain old man so that you would have said the one was bellarophon and the other pegasus and nevertheless you would have laughed at both during these ridiculous amusements of the people who wandered about everywhere the peculiar pomp of the saviour goddess advanced women splendid and white garments expressing their joy by various gestures and adorned with vernal crowns scattered from their bosom flowers on the ground through the path in which the sacred crowd walked others with mirrors placed behind their backs showed to the goddess the obsequiousness of the crowd as if it had come for the purpose of meeting her there were also others who carrying ivory combs imitated the adornment and combing of royal hairs by the motion of their arms and the inflection of their fingers and there were likewise others who sprinkled the streets with drops of genial bosom and other ointments besides this there was a great multitude of men and women who propitiated the goddess the offspring of the celestial stars by lamps torches wax lights and other kinds of artificial light afterwards sweet symphonies resounded from the most delightful modulations of pipes and flutes a pleasant choir of the most select youths in splendid white garments every way closed followed them frequently singing an elegant song which an ingenious poet had composed through the favor of the muses and which explained the meaning of the procession pipers also consecrated to the great therapist proceeded among those musicians whose songs were antecedent to the greater vows and sung the accustomed modulation pertaining to the god and his temple the oblique pipe being extended to the right ear and there were likewise precursors who proclaimed that convenient room would be given for the sacred procession to pass after this there was an influx of a crowd of those who had been initiated in the sacred rites of the goddess consisting of men and women of every degree and of every age resplendent with the pure whiteness of linen garments the women had their anointed hair enfolded in a pollucid covering but the men had their hair perfectly shaven and the crown of their head was exceedingly bright these terrain stars also of the great religion of the goddess produced a sharp sound from the brazen silver and likewise golden rattles which they held in their hands but those principal men that presided over the sacred rites and who were clothed in a close strong garment of white linen hanging down to the extremities of their feet carried the most illustrious spoils of the most powerful gods and of these the first exhibited a lamp shining with a clear light not resembling those lamps of ours which illuminate nocturnal banquets but it was a golden boat cup which emitted a larger flame from an aperture in the middle the second was clothed in a similar manner but carried in both his hands altars to which the auxiliary providence of the supreme goddess gave a proper name the third preceded raising a palm tree the leaves of which were subtly guilt and also the mercurial caduceus the fourth exhibited the symbol of equity vis a left hand fashioned from the palm or inner part expanded which seems to be more adapted to equity than the right hand because it is naturally sluggish and is endued with no craft and no subtlety the same person also carried a golden vessel which was round like the female breast and from which he poured forth milk the fifth bore a golden corn fan full of golden branches and another carried an amphora in the next place without delay the images of the gods carried by the priests of ices proceeded not disdaining to walk with the feet of men this terrifically raising a canine head but that being the messenger of the supernal gods and of those in the realms beneath with an erect face partly black and partly of a golden color bearing in his left hand a caduceus and shaking in his right hand branches of the flourishing palm tree whose footsteps a cow in an erect position immediately followed this cow was the prolific resemblance of the all parent goddess and was carried on the shoulders of one of the blessed servants of this divinity and who acted the part of a mimic as he walked another carried a cisto or chest containing our canna and perfectly concealing the mystic symbols of a magnificent religion and another bore in his happy bosom the venerable effigies of the supreme divinity which was not similar to any cattle or bird or wild beast nor even to man but was venerable for the subtlety by which it was invented and also for its novelty was an ineffable indication of a more sublime religion and which was to be concealed in the greatest silence but this effigies was fashioned after the following manner there was a small urn formed of splendid gold most artificially excavated the bottom of which was very round and which was externally engraven with the admirable images of the egyptians the orifice of this urn which was not much elevated was extended into a prominent rivulet but a handle adhered to the side opposite to the orifice and receded from the urn by a spacious dilatation on this handle an asps sat raising its neck which was scaly wrinkled and tumoured and embraced it with one fold of its body and behold the benefits in the destiny which the most powerful goddess had promised to me approached and the priest was present bringing with him my salvation and adorned in a manner conformable to what the divinity had previously announced in his right hand he carried the rattle of the goddess which was to me a crown and by Hercules a crown by a necessary consequence because through the providence of the greatest goddess I vanquished the opposition of most cruel fortune after having encountered so many labours and so many dangers nevertheless I did not run violently though I was agitated by a sudden joy fearing lest the tranquil order of religion should be disturbed by the hasty impetus of a quadruped but I hesitatingly passed through the crowd with a quiet and perfectly human step and with a gradual obligation of my body the people giving way to me through the interference of the goddess by the priest as I might very well perceive recollecting the nocturnal oracle and admiring the congreguity of the office which he was commanded to perform immediately stood still and spontaneously extending his right hand presented to my mouth a crown of roses then I trembling and my heart leaping with continual palpitation devoured with great desire in a greedy mouth the shining crown in which delightful roses were interwoven nor did the celestial promise deceive me for immediately my deformed and brutal figure left me and in the first place indeed my squalid hair fell off and afterwards my thick skin became attenuated my broad belly became narrow and the soles of my feet passed into toes through my hooves my hands are no longer feet but are extended to their erect offices my long neck is shortened my face and my head become round my enormous ears are restored to their pristine parvitude my stony teeth returned to those of a human size and the tail which before especially tormented me was nowhere to be found the people admire the religious venerate so evident an indication of the power of the supreme divinity and the magnificence and facility of my restoration which resembled the nocturnal images in my dreams extending likewise their hands to the heavens they proclaimed with a clear and unanimous voice such an illustrious benefit of the goddess but i being fixed in excessive astonishment remained silent my mind not being capable of receiving a joy so sudden and so great and i was dubious what i should first and principally say whence i should assume the beginning of a new voice and more happily commence my speech as my tongue was now restored to me and in what magnificent language i should return thanks to so great a goddess the priest however who through the divine admonition knew all my calamities from the beginning though he himself also was astonished by that remarkable miracle having first signified his wish by a nod ordered that a linen garment should be given to me for the purpose of covering my nakedness for as soon as the acid has spoiled me of my abominable vesture i well fortified myself with a natural covering as much as it was possible for one who is naked to do by closely compressing my thighs and carefully placing my hands over my private parts then one of the religious cohort having promptly divested himself of his upper garment most rapidly covered me with it which being done the priest with a joyful countenance and by hercules astonished at my now human aspect thus addressed me oh lucius you have at length arrived at the port of quiet and the altar of pity having endured many and various labours and great tempest of fortune and then tossed about by mighty waves of calamity nor did the nobility of your race nor your dignity nor even the learning in which you abound at all benefit you but falling into servile pleasures through the lubricity of flourishing youth you have brought back an inauspicious reward of your unhappy curiosity the blindness of fortune however while she has tormented you by the worst of dangers has brought you by her improvident malignity to this religious beatitude let her now go and rage with the greatest fury and let her search for some other subject for her cruelty for hostile misfortune has no power over those who service the majesty of our goddess vindicates to itself what advantage has iniquitous fortune derived from robbers from wild beasts from servitude from the various circuits of the roughest paths and from the fear of death to which you were daily exposed you are now therefore received into the protection of fortune but of the fortune that can see and who also illuminates the other gods with a splendour of her light assume now a more joyful countenance and more adapted to that white garment which you wear attend the pomp of your savior goddess with triumphant steps let the irreligious see let them see and acknowledge their error behold lucius rejoicing in the providence of the great isis and freed from his pristine miseries triumphs in his own fortune nevertheless that you may be more safe and better protected become one of this holy order which you will hear after rejoice that you embraced and now dedicate yourself to the service of our religion and voluntarily subject yourself to the yoke of this ministry for when you have once entered into the service of the goddess you will then in a greater degree enjoy the fruit of your liberty the excellent priest having thus prophesied and breathing with difficulty was silent end of chapter 11 part 1 read by todd olbrich