Editing Apuleius (section)

== Works ==
[[File:ApuleiusFrontispiece.jpg|right|thumb|Frontispiece from the ''[[Bohn's Classical Library]]'' edition of ''The Works of Apuleius'': a portrait of Apuleius flanked by Pamphile changing into an owl and the Golden Ass]]

=== ''The Golden Ass'' ===
{{Main article|The Golden Ass}}
''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus Aureus'') or ''Metamorphoses'' is the only [[Latin]] novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the adventures of one Lucius, who introduces himself as related to the famous philosophers [[Plutarch]] and [[Sextus of Chaeronea]]. Lucius experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into an [[donkey|ass]]. In this guise, he hears and sees many unusual things, until escaping from his predicament in a rather unexpected way. Within this [[frame story]] are found many [[story within a story|digressions]], the longest among them being the well-known tale of [[Cupid and Psyche]]. This story is a rare instance of a fairy tale preserved in an ancient literary text.<ref name=":0" />

The ''Metamorphoses'' ends with the (once again human) hero, Lucius, eager to be initiated into the [[mysteries of Isis|mystery cult of Isis]]; he abstains from forbidden foods, bathes, and purifies himself. He is introduced to the ''[[Navigium Isidis]]''. Then the secrets of the cult's books are explained to him, and further secrets are revealed before he goes through the process of initiation, which involves a trial by the elements on a journey to the underworld. Lucius is then asked to seek initiation into the cult of [[Osiris]] in Rome, and eventually is initiated into the ''pastophoroi''&nbsp;– a group of priests that serves Isis and Osiris.<ref>{{citation |last=Iles Johnson |first=Sarah |chapter=Mysteries |title=Ancient Religions |pages=104–105 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-674-02548-6}}</ref>

=== ''Apologia'' ===
<!-- [[Apologia (Apuleius)]] redirects here: please update if changing section title-->
{{lang|la|Apologia}} ({{lang|la|Apulei Platonici pro Se de Magia}}) is the version of the defence presented in [[Sabratha]], in 158–159, before the proconsul [[Claudius Maximus]], by Apuleius accused of the crime of magic. Between the traditional exordium and peroratio, the argumentation is divided into three sections:
# Refutation of the accusations levelled against his private life. He demonstrates that by marrying Pudentilla he had no interested motive and that he carries it away, intellectually and morally, on his opponents.
# Attempt to prove that his so-called "magical operations" were in fact indispensable scientific experiments for an imitator of Aristotle and Hippocrates, or the religious acts of a Roman Platonist.
# A recount of the events that have occurred in Oea since his arrival and pulverize the arguments against him.
The main interest of the {{lang|la|Apologia}} is historical, as it offers substantial information about its author, magic and life in Africa in the second century.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1989 |title=Apulée |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopédie berbère]] |publisher=Edisud |url=http://journals.openedition.org/encyclopedieberbere/2565 |last=Cèbe |first=Jean-Pierre |location=Aix-en-Provence |volume=6 {{!}} Antilopes – Arzuges |issue=6 |pages=820–827|doi=10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.2565 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== Other ===
His other works are:
* ''Florida''. A compilation of twenty-three extracts from his various speeches and lectures.
* ''De Platone et dogmate eius (On Plato and His Doctrine)''. An outline in two books of [[Plato]]'s physics and ethics, preceded by a life of Plato
* ''{{visible anchor|De Deo Socratis}} (On the God of Socrates)''. A work on the existence and nature of [[Daemon (classical mythology)|daemons]], the intermediaries between gods and humans. This treatise was attacked by [[Augustine of Hippo]] in ''[[The City of God]]'' (Books VIII to X), while [[Lactantius]] reserved it for short-lived creatures.<ref>{{Cite journal|language=it|author=Moreschini, Claudio ([[Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa]])|date=1972|title=La Polemica Di Agostino Contro La Demonologia Di Apuleio|journal=Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia|volume=2|issue=2|pages=583–596|access-date=2025-04-09|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24301469}} (related [https://journals.sns.it/index.php/annalilettere/article/view/2185 bibliographic record])</ref><ref>Augustine played a decisive role in the transmission of Apuleius' texts up to the present day. Cfr. {{Cite book |author=Carandino, Martina |title=Apuleio e Agostino: tra ricezione e demonologia |access-date=2025-04-09 |language=it |publisher=[[Academia.edu]] |url=https://www.academia.edu/31025358/Apuleio_e_Agostino_tra_ricezione_e_demonologia}}</ref> ''De Deo Socratis'' contains a passage comparing gods and kings which is the first recorded occurrence of the proverb "'''familiarity breeds contempt'''":<ref>{{citation |page=149 |title=Apuleius |first=S. J. |last=Harrison |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-927138-2}}</ref>{{Blockquote|''parit enim conversatio contemptum, raritas conciliat admirationem''<br />(familiarity breeds contempt, rarity brings admiration)|sign=|source=}}
* ''On the Universe''. This Latin translation of [[Pseudo-Aristotle]]'s work ''[[De Mundo]]'' is probably by Apuleius.

Apuleius wrote many other works which have not survived. He wrote works of [[poetry]] and [[fiction]], as well as technical treatises on [[politics]], [[dendrology]], [[agriculture]], [[medicine]], [[natural history]], [[astronomy]], [[music]], and [[arithmetic]], and he translated Plato's ''[[Phaedo]]''.{{sfn|Walsh|1999|pp=xiv–xv}}

=== Spurious ===

Extant works wrongly attributed to Apuleius include:<ref>{{cite book |last=Morford |first=Mark P. O. |title=The Roman Philosophers |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |page=227}}</ref>
* ''Peri Hermeneias'' (''On Interpretation''). A brief Latin version of a guide to [[Aristotelian logic]].
* ''Asclepius''. A Latin paraphrase of a lost Greek dialogue (''The Perfect Discourse'') featuring [[Asclepius]] and [[Hermes Trismegistus]].
* ''Herbarium Apuleii Platonici'' by [[Pseudo-Apuleius]].