Transcript Apuleius’ Golden Ass - harvey.binghamton.edu

Apuleius’ Golden Ass
Desire and its Discontents 2
Values in the Golden Ass…
What is non-normative in Apuleius’
novel? And is there something like a
“Satan”?
Discussion
non-normative

relations between humans
and animals

Satan


bestiality
issue of cowardice
 strong powerful women
demonized
 troupe of queens




feminine
greedy and dishonest
2 sisters

was there a single Satan?
normative marriage values
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
Satanic things… (so there is a
value system)
Venus
satan is in the desires
 curiosity is “satanic” or evilish
 teratogenic grid


monstrous non-nomativity
satan figure is fortune
 no real pure source of eveil

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A gladiator fights his own phallus.
(1st-cent. CE Wind-chime from Pompeii)
Agenda

Recap and Update


Plato’s Symposium Revisited?
Sexual Universality?

The Priests of the Syrian Goddess
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Recap and Update
Plato’s Symposium Revisited?
Story Arc

Lucius curiosus
wants to see magic Meroe
 watches, turns into an ass


Lucius asinus


abusive treatment, fortune comes to the fore
Lucius initiatus

…
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Plato’s Symposium Redux
Pausanias’ Speech
 “Vulgar” erōs for…


Socrates’/Diotima’s Speech
 Physical erōs to…
same/mixed-gender sexual
pleasure
“Heavenly” erōs for...



Male-male friendship (with
benefits)
procreate bodies
Philosophical erōs to...

procreate ideas
“the beauties of the body are as
nothing to the beauties of the soul
(psukhē)” (p. 562)
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Greek ~ Latin Equivalencies
Greek
 Aphrodite
 Eros
 psukhē
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Apuleius’ Latin
 Venus
 Cupid
 Psyche
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Narrative-Thematic Arcs
temptation,
transformation
restoration,
conversion
reunion,
reconciliation,
apotheosis
marriage,
temptation
Psyche
trials, slavery
Lucius
Slavery, sexual performance, humiliation
Non-Platonic Elements?
Wayward desire, passions as “monster”
 “Monster” tamed as marriage
 Marriage as Roman

Lex iulia (de adulteriis coercendis)
 Marriage by manus (male domination)
 Daughter Voluptas (“Pleasure”)?

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Sexual Universality?
The Priests of the Syrian Goddess
Are They “Gay”? (What is Salient?)
“… he [Philebus] was a real old queen
(cinaedum)” (pp. 141)
“ ‘Look, girls (puellae), at the pretty slave
[Lucius] I’ve bought.’ [… the others] saying
that this wasn’t a servant ... but a husband
(non enim seruum, sed maritum) for
himself ” (p. 143)
“… these effeminates (semiviris illis)...” (p.
144)
Dea Syria
Discussion
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