 Introduction of the Metamorphosis, or Golden-S This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Metamorphosis, or Golden-S, by Apileus, translated by Thomas Taylor. Introduction Apileus, the celebrated author of the following work, is undoubtedly the greatest of the ancient Latin Platonists, a portion of whose writings have been preserved to the present time. And though, in consequence of living at a period in which the depths of the Platonic philosophy had not been fathomed and its mysteries luminously unfolded as they afterwards were by certain Carapheian Greeks, he is not to be classed among the chief of the disciples of Plato, yet he will always maintain a very distinguished rank among those who have delivered to us the more accessible parts of that philosophy with consummate eloquence and an inimitable splendor of diction. Of his life, scarcely anything more of importance is known than the particulars respecting himself, which may be collected from his works, and these are as follows. He lived in the second century, about the time of Antoninus Pius, and was a native of Madora, a Roman colony in Africa, and hence, in his Apology, he calls himself a semi-Jetulian and a semi-Numidian, because the place of his birth was situated on the very confines of Numidia and Getulia. His family was of considerable rank, for his father, whose name was Thesias, had exercised at Madora the office of Dumver, which was the first dignity of a colony, and his mother, whose name was Solvia, was originally of Thessaly and descended from the family of Plutarch. He appears to have been well instructed in all the liberal disciplines of the Greeks, to have been graceful in his person, and to have abounded in wit and learning. Hence, speaking of his literary attainment, he says, in his Florida, the first cup of knowledge which we receive from our preceptors removes entire ignorance. The second furnishes us with grammatical learning. The third arms us with the eloquence of the rhetorician. Thus far many drink. But I drink of other cups besides these, at Athens, of poetry the fabulous, of geometry the limpid, of music the sweet, of dialectic the rough and unpleasant, and of universal philosophy, the never satiating and nectarius cup. He studied first at Carthage, then at Athens, and afterwards at Rome, where he acquired the Latin tongue without any assistance, as he himself informs us at the beginning of his metamorphosis. An ardent desire of becoming acquainted with all the arcana of philosophy and all the mysteries of religion induced him to make several voyages and enter himself into several religious fraternities. He spent nearly the whole of his estate in traveling, so that, having returned to Rome, and being desirous of dedicating himself to the service of Osiris, he wanted money to defray the expenses of the ceremonies of his reception. Hence he was under the necessity of parting with his clothes to make up the requisite sum. After this he procured the means of subsistence by pleading, and through his eloquence and skill was not in want of causes, some of which were of great importance. He restored his fallen fortune, however, much more by a lucky marriage than by forensic herrings. A widow, whose name was Pudentilla, neither young nor fair, but who stood in need of a husband, and had a good estate, thought Apuleius adapted to her purpose. The accuser of Apuleius, as we learn from the Apology, affirmed she was sixty years of age, but his design in asserting this was to prove that the passion she had conceived for the accused was not natural, but the effect of magic. Apuleius made it appear that she was not much above forty years of age, and that, if she had passed fourteen of those years in a state of widowhood, it was not from any aversion to matrimony, but from the opposition of her father-in-law to it. And that, at length, celibacy had so far impaired her health, that the physicians and midwives were of opinion that the best remedy for the diseases which were the consequence of it was wedlock. The argument employed by Apuleius on this occasion was that a lady so advised, and who had no time to lose, if she desired to make the best use of her teeming years, wanted not to be constrained by magic art to make choice of espouse. This rich widow Apuleius cheerfully married at a country house near Oéa, a maritime town of Africa. This marriage involved him in a troublesome lawsuit, the relations of this lady's two sons pretending that he had employed magic to possess himself of her money and her heart. Hence they accused him of being a wizard, before Claudius Maximus, the procuncel of Africa. From this charge he defended himself with great ability and vigor, as is evident from the apology that is still extant which he delivered before his judges. He was also extremely laborious and wrote many books, some in verse and others in prose, of which but a small part has escaped the ravages of time. Hence, in his apology, in answer to his adversary on the subject of eloquence, he says, As to eloquence, if ever I had any, it ought not to appear to be either wonderful or odious, if having from my youth to this time strenuously applied myself to the study of literature, spurning all other pleasures with greater labor perhaps than was ever employed by any other man by day and by night, I have endeavored to obtain it with the contempt and loss of my health. He delighted in making public speeches in which he gained the applause of all his auditors. When they heard him at Oéa, the audience unanimously exclaimed that he ought to be honored with the freedom of the city. The people of Carthage, on hearing him hearing, erected a statue of him as a testimony of their esteem of his talents, and he was honored in the same way by other cities. It is said by Sidonius Apollinarius that his wife held the candle to him while he studied, but this, says Béil, must not, I think, be taken literally. It is rather a figure of Gallic eloquence. It has been above observed that he wrote many books. Indeed, it may be sad, as Béil remarks, that he was a universal genius, and there are but few subjects which he has not handled. Hence, he translated the Fido of Plato and the Arithmetic of Nicomachus. He wrote a treatise de república, another de numeris, and another de musica. His table questions are quoted, and also his letters to Sirilia, his Proverbs, his Hermagoras, and his Ludicra. This last work he mentions himself. They read, says he, in my Ludicra, a short epistle in verse concerning a powder for the teeth. The works of Apollius, which have escaped the ravages of time, are his metamorphosis, or, as it is generally called, the golden ass, in eleven books, his treatises of natural and moral philosophy, of the category of syllogism, and of the God of Socrates. And besides this, there are extant his Apology, his Florida, and his treatise de Mundo, which is nothing more than a translation from the Greek of a treatise with the same title, which is generally ascribed to Aristotle. The Latin translation also of the Asclepian dialogue of Hermes Trismegistus is attributed to Apollius, and though it is entirely destitute of that splendor of diction which so eminently distinguishes the writings of our author, yet it is not improbable that it is one of his productions, since a translator, if he's faithful, will not only give the matter, but the manner also of his original. With respect to the treatises translated in these volumes, the metamorphosis is the most celebrated of all the works of Apollius. A great part of this fable may be said to be a paraphrase of the ass of Lucian, which was originally derived from a work of Lucius Patrances, who wrote in Greek, in words of Patre, a city of Achaia. The most important parts, however, of the metamorphosis, the fable of Cupid and Cichay, and the eleventh book in which Apollius gives an account of his being initiated in the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, are not derived from any sources with which we are at present acquainted. I call these the most important parts, because in the former, as it appears to me, the very ancient dogma of the pre-existence of the human soul, its lapse from the intelligible world to the earth, and its return from thence to its pristine state of felicity are most accurately and beautifully adumbrated. This I have endeavored to prove in the notes which accompany the translation of this fable. And as to the eleventh book, though the whole of the metamorphosis is replete with elegance and erudition, yet this book excels all the rest, in consequence of containing many important historical particulars, and many which are derived from the arcana of Egyptian philosophy and religion. What he says about his initiation into the mysteries in particular is uncommonly interesting and novel. Dr. Warburton formed an opinion of the design of the metamorphosis, which in one part of it, at least, appears to me to be singularly ridiculous and absurd. That is, that the author's main purpose was to commend pagan religion as the only cure for all vice whatsoever, and to ridicule the Christian religion. There may be some truth in the former part of this assertion, but it is wholly incredible that at a period when the Christian religion was openly derided and executed by all the heathens, Apilaeus should have written a work, one part of the intention of which was to ridicule, latently, that which, without any concealment, and with the sanction of the existing government, was generally despised. One passage, indeed, occurs, in which he speaks contemptuously of the Christians, then his meaning is so far from being latent that it must be obvious to everyone. The passage I elude to is the following in Book IX, in which Apilaeus, speaking of the nefarious wife of a baker, says to her, Then, despising and trembling on the divine powers, instead of the true religion, counterfeiting an efferious opinion of God whom she asserted to be the only deity, devising also vain observances and deceiving all men, and likewise her miserable husband, she enslaved her body to mourning droughts of pure wine and to continual adultery. In the Tenth Book, also, he denominates a most execrable character, Cruciadius, which, according to Plotus, signifies disquipulus crucius, a disciple of the cross. And perhaps, in thus denominating this murderer, he intended to signify that he was a Christian. But there are no other parts of this work in which there is a shadow of probability that Apilaeus had the Christian religion in view, except it should be said that he eludes to it when, in the Eleventh Book, he calls the heathen the most pure, magnificent and eternal religion. What, then, was the real design of Apilaeus in composing this work? Shall we say, with Macrobius, that Apilaeus sometimes diverted himself with the tales of love, and that this is a kind of fable which professes only to please the ear, in which wisdom banishes from her temple to the cradles of nurses? This, however, is by no means consistent with that dignity and elevation of mind which are essential to the character of a Platonic philosopher. It is not therefore most probable that the intention of the author in this work was to show that the man who gives himself to a voluptuous life becomes a beast, and that it is only by becoming virtuous in the religious that he can divest himself of the brutal nature and be again a man. For this is the rose by eating which Apilaeus was restored to the human and cast off the brutal form. And like the moly of hernies, preserved him in future from the dire enchantments of Cersei the goddess of sense. This, as it appears to me, is the only design by which our author can be justified in composing the pleasing tales with which this work is replete. Indeed, unless this is admitted to have been the design of Apilaeus, he cannot, in certain passages, be defended from the charge of lewdness. But on the supposition that these tales were devised to show the folly and danger of lasciviousness and that the man who indulges in it brutalizes his nature, the detail of those circumstances through which he became an ass are not to be considered in the light of a lascivious description because they were not written with a libidinous intention. For every work is characterized by its ultimate design. Hence, what Yemlika says, respecting the consecration of the folly among the ancients in the spring and the obscene language which was then employed, may be said in defense of these passages in the metamorphosis. That is, the powers of the human passions that are in us, when they are entirely restrained, become more vehement. But when they are called forth into energy, gradually and commensurately, they rejoice in being moderately gratified, are satisfied, and from hence, becoming purified, they are rendered tractable and are vanquished without violence. On this account, in comedy and tragedy, by surveying the passions of others, we stop our own passions, cause them to be more moderate and are purified from them. In sacred ceremonies, likewise, by certain spectacles and auditions of things base, we become liberated from the injury which happens from the works effected by them. Things of this kind, therefore, are introduced for the sake of our soul and of the diminution of the evils which adhere to it through generation and of a solution and liberation from its bonds. On this account also, they are very properly called by Heraclitus remedies as healing things of a dreadful nature and saving souls from the calamities with which the realms of generation are replete. Notwithstanding, however, there is no real lasciviousness in these passages, yet as the generality of readers in the present age would, on the perusal of them, fancy that there is, they are not published in the following translation of this work. In translating Apuleius, I have endeavored to be as faithful as possible and to give the manner as well as the matter of the author, since a translation in which both these are not generally united must necessarily, as I have already observed, be essentially defective. I have also availed myself of the best editions of the works of Apuleius and among these of the Delphin edition, which I think is excellent on the whole, though the editor frequently in his interpretation substitutes other words for those of the original when this is not necessary. There is an ancient translation into English of the metamorphosis by one Edlington, the first editions of which were printed in 1566 and 1571, and the last edition in 1639. And there are other intermediate editions, but as he everywhere omits the most difficult and the most elegant passages, his work is rather a rude outline or compendium than an accurate translation. Bale does not appear to have been acquainted with this work of Edlington, but of the French versions he observes as follows. I have never met with any modern French translation of the Golden Asse. If I am not mistaken, John Louvaux is the author of the first old translation. Lacroix Jumain mentions it, without setting down the ear in which it appeared. He only says that it was printed at Lyon. It was reprinted at Paris by Claudius Meca in 1584. One Aie de Montlia published a translation of the same book with a commentary. One of the two editions, which I have seen, was, according to the copy, printed at Paris by Samuel Phoebus, 1623. The preface is long and contains a criticism on several errors of John Louvaux. I find that Lacroix Jumain and Du Vérdier Vaud-Privat have mentioned a translation which may very well be older than that of John Louvaux. They say that Georges de la Boutière, or de la Boutier, a native of Autin, rendered the metamorphosis or Golden Asse of Apuleius into French. The one says that this version was printed at Lyon by John de Tourne and William Gazot in the year 1553. The other, that it was printed by John de Tourne in 1516. There is an error of the press in the last date, and it is evident that to put the figures in the right places, it ought to be 1556. Now, as the same author has said, that the translation by John Louvaux was printed in the year 1558, there is reason to suppose that it was later than that of Georges de la Boutière. Since the first edition of this dictionary, part of a translation of the Golden Asse has appeared at Paris. The Journal d'Escavins of the 9th of January 1696 mentions it. M. Baron de Couture published with notes in 1698, his French version of the treatise D'Eosocrates. I shall conclude with observing that I trust the readers of this work will candidly peruse it, as one labor more, among many of no common magnitude, of a man who has spent the far greater part of his life in endeavoring to obtain himself a knowledge of the philosophy of Plato, and to elucidate and promulgate it for the benefit of others, who also, in accomplishing this, has had to encounter the hiss of envy and the bite of detraction, the laugh of folly, and the sneer of contempt, unmerited unkindness and unfeeling neglect, together with domestic ills of an overwhelming nature and of the rarest occurrence. In short, the present translation is the work of a man whose life has been most eventful and singularly disastrous, a few splendid circumstances accepted, which have illuminated an enlivened oppressive gloom of adversity like a sunbeam in a winter's day, and which, whenever he may deem it expedient to give the detail of his literary career to the public, he will most gladly and gratefully record. End of introduction. Chapter 1, 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 D. Wycoff. The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, by Apilius. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Chapter 1, Part 1. The Metamorphosis of Apilius. Book, The First. In the following Militian narration, I will insert various fables and charm your benevolent ears with an elegant and pleasing murmur, if you will not disdain to look into this Egyptian papyrus, written with the delightful subtlety of an allotic reed. And containing an admirable account of men changed into different forms, and, by certain vicissitudes, again restored to themselves. But who I am, I shall briefly thus unfold. The Attic Midas, the Corinthian Ismus, and the Spartan Tenerus, Happy Soils, and which, in more felicitous books, were believed to be eternal, are the ancient originals of my race. There, I mean in Athens, I learnt the first rudiments of Grecian literature. Soon after, as a stranger, I came to Rome and applied myself to the study of the Roman tongue, which, with great labour, I attained the knowledge of, without the assistance of a preceptor. Behold then, I solicit pardon if I should offend the reader by the rude utterance of a foreign language. Indeed, this first attempt of mine to write in the Latin tongue corresponds to the disultory matter of which we have undertaken to treat. We will begin, therefore, to narrate a Grecian fable. Reader, attend, and you will be delighted. I went to Thessaly on business, for in that place the foundations of our origin on the maternal side were laid by the illustrious Plutarch, and afterwards by his nephew Sextus, the philosopher, and thus became the source of renown to us. After, therefore, I had passed over the lofty mountains, the slippery valleys, the dewy turf, and the glabless plains, being very weary with riding, for I rode on a Thessalian white horse, who was also very much fatigued. In order that I might shake off my sedentary lassitude by the refreshment of walking, I leaped from my horse, diligently wiped the sweat from his forehead, stroked his ears, drew the reins over his head, and walked him gently, so that the usual and natural aid afforded by the discharge of urine might relieve the inconvenience of weariness. And while he was delighted with his ambulatory breakfast, and in a prone position, passed over the meadows with his mouth inclined towards his side, I joined myself to two companions who were riding a little before me. And while I listened to their conversation, the one laughing said to the other, Desist, and do not enter into any further detail of such absurd and incredible fictions. On hearing this, as I was thirsty after novelty, I said, Make me a partaker of the narration. Not that I am inquisitive, but one who wishes to know either all, or certainly most things, and by doing so the delightful pleasantness of tales will, at the same time, smooth the asperity of the hill which we are ascending. But he, the laughed before it, his companion said, That false narration of yours is as true as if someone should assert that by magical incantation rapid rivers might be made to run back to their source. The sea be congealed, the winds blow without spirit, the sun be stopped in his course, the moon drop her foam, the stars be plucked from their spheres, the day be taken away, and the night held back. On hearing this, I said, Do not you who began the narration, repent of having done so, or be weary of telling what remains to be told. And turning to the other, but you, said I, Whose ears are gross, and whose mind is obstinate, Refuse your assent to things which, perhaps, are truly narrated. For indeed you are not aware, that through depraved opinions, those things are thought to be false, which either appear novel to the hearing, or rare to the sight, or arduous from being beyond the reach of thought, but which, if you a little more accurately explored, you would not only find to be evident, but would perceive may be easily accomplished. At length in the evening, while I was endeavoring in the company of certain voracious guests, to bite a larger piece of a cake consisting of barley, flour, and cheese, I was nearly choked through the softness of the gluttonous food sticking in my jaws, and impeding the aggress of my breath. Nevertheless, lately at Athens, before the porch called Pysil, I beheld with both my eyes a juggler, who swallowed a two-handed horseman's sword that had a very sharp edge, and afterwards, for a small sum of money, buried in his lower vissars a hunting spear, and so as to have that part of it downward, which threatens destruction, and lo, the iron head of the spear, having passed through the groin, and being forced out again through the hinder part of the head, an effeminately beautiful boy was seen dancing on the other extremity of the spear. This boy in dancing turned and twisted himself, as if he had been without nerves and bone, to the admiration of all that were present, so that you would have said it was the noble serpent which adheres with slippery embraces to the half-amputated branches of the knotted staff of the medical god. But I entreat you, said I, to him who began the tale, to continue it. I alone will give credit to your narration, and will treat you with a dinner at the first inn at which we arrive. This shall be your reward. To which he replied, I take in good part what you promise, and will proceed with my narration. But prior to this I will swear to you by this son, the all-seeing god, that what I shall relate is true. Nor will you any longer doubt that it is so if you go to the next city, which is Hypatia, for there the things which were openly transacted are everywhere divulged. But that you may first know who I am, from what race I am descended, and in quest of what gain I am now going here. I am of Agena, and am traveling through Thessaly, Etola, Beatus, for the purpose of procuring honey, cheese, and other articles of traffic of the like kind. Having found therefore that in Hypatia, which is the principal city of all Thessaly, new cheese of an excellent flavor was to be sold for a very reasonable price, I hastily betook myself to that place in order to buy the whole of it. As it often happens, however, I came in an evil hour, and was frustrated of my hopes of gain, for one Lupus, a great purveyor, had bought all of it the day before. Being weary, therefore, through an inefficious celerity, I then went, the evening commencing, to the public baths. When low, I beheld my companion Socrates, sitting on the ground, half covered with a torn and coarse mantle, and who appeared to be almost another person, he was so deformed by paleness and miserable leanness. For he resembled one of those who, being reduced to the extremity of distress, are compelled to beg in the streets. Hence, though he had been my guest, and was well known to me, yet I approached him with a dubious mind. Alas, my Socrates, I said, what is the meaning of this? What a figure! What crime have you committed? Great lamentation and weeping are made for you at home. Tutors are given to your children by decree of the provincial magistrate. Your wife, having performed the duties which are due to the dead, and being deformed by grief and long-continued sorrow, so that she had almost lost her sight through excessive weeping, has been compelled by her parents to exhilarate herself by the joys of a new marriage. But here you present yourself to the view, the resemblance of some wicked ghost, to our great disgrace. To this, he replied, Orestes means you are ignorant of the slippery turnings and windings, the unstable incursions, and the reciprocal vicissitudes of fortune. And immediately after he had thus spoken, he covered his face, which had been for some time read through shame, with his ragged and coarse mantle, so that the rest of his body from his navel downward was rendered naked. But I, not enduring to behold such a miserable spectacle of infelicity, extended my hand to him that I might help him to rise from the ground. He, however, with his head covered as it was, said suffer, O suffer fortune, still longer, to enjoy the trophy which she has suspended. I have acted in such a way that this must follow, and at the same time I put off one of my two old garments and speedily clothed, shall I say, or covered him. Immediately after I brought him to a bath, anointed and wiped him, and laboriously rubbed off the enormous filth with which he was defiled. Having also well attended to him, and being weary myself, I supported him, who was fatigued with great difficulty, and brought him to my inn, where I refreshed him with the bed, satisfied him with food, mitigated his sorrows with wine, and soothed him by fabulous narrations. And now our conversation and jests tended to hilarity, and we were not only facetious, but noisy, when he, painfully and profoundly sighing, and striking his forehead with his indignant right hand, exclaimed as follows. Miserable creature that I am, said he, who, while I was intent on gratifying myself with the sufficiently celebrated spectacle of gladiators, have fallen into these calamities. For as you well know, when I went to Macedonia for the sake of gain, I was there detained for the space of ten months, on my return from thence, enriched by merchandise, and little before I came to Larissa, in order to see the above-mentioned spectacle, I was attacked by a band of most desperate robbers in a certain devious and winding alley, from whom, however, after having been plundered by them of all my property, I at length escaped. And being through this reduced to extreme distress, I betook myself to a certain woman that sold wine, whose name was Miro, and who, though old, was very pleasant and agreeable, and to her I unfolded the causes of my long peregrination of my anxiety to return home, and of my being plundered of my property on that day. And while I, miserable man, narrated such particulars as I remembered, she, beginning to treat me very humanely, supplied me with an agreeable and gratuitous supper, and afterwards received me to her bed through the instigation of lust. At the same time also that I, an happy man, lay with her, I contracted a lasting pestilence, a most baneful love, from only being once connected with her, and even gave her those ragged garments which the humane robbers had left me to cover my nakedness. I likewise presented her with the little gain which I obtained by making the short garments of soldiers while I was yet in a good condition of body, and thus at length this good wife and ill fortune reduced me to the naked state in which you just now saw me. You indeed, said I, deserved to suffer the most severe of ills, if yet there is anything more extreme than that which is last, who have preferred venereal pleasure and a wrinkled harlot to your own house and children. But he, raising the finger next to the thumb to his mouth, and being struck with astonishment, be silent, said he, be silent. And looking around to see whether he might speak with safety, cease, said he, to revile a divine woman lest you injure yourself by an intemperate tongue. Why so, said I, what kind of woman is this powerful and royal tavern keeper? He replied, she is a divine sorceress, and is able to draw down the heavens to elevate the earth, to restrain fountains, to dissolve mountains, to place on high the shades of the dead, to thrust down the gods, extinguish the stars, and to illuminate Tartarus itself. I beseech you, said I, take away this tragic tapestry, roll up the theatric curtain, and speak in a familiar language. Do you wish, said he, to hear one or two or many of her deeds? For she is capable not only of making her fellow citizens to love her to their own destruction, but the Indians also, the inhabitants of both the Ethiopias, and even the Antiquanis themselves, are only the leaves, as it were, of her art, and trifling examples of her skill. Here, however, what she accomplished in the presence of many spectators. She changed by one word only her lover into a beaver, who had by force debauched another woman. Because that beast, fearing lest it should be taken, frees itself from the hunter that pursues it by the obsession of its own testicles, in order that the same thing might happen to her lover in consequence of his having been connected with another female. She likewise changed into a frog, an innkeeper, who was her neighbor, and of whom she was on that account envious. And now that old man, swimming in a tub of his own wine, and merged in the dregs of it, calls on his ancient guests with a hoarse and courteously croaking voice. She likewise changed one of the advocates of the court because he had declaimed against her into a ram, and now that ram pleads causes. The same sorceress also condemned to perpetual pregnancy the wife of her lover, who was now a parturient, by closing her womb and retarding the aggress of the infant because she had reviled her somewhat severely. And according to the computation of all men, the belly of the miserable woman has been distended for the space of eight years, as if she were about to be delivered of an elephant. As this unfortunate woman, however, and many others, had been frequently injured by her arts, the public indignation was excited against her. And it was decreed that on the following day she should be severely punished by being stoned to death. But she frustrated this design by the power of her enchantments. And as Medea, having obtained by entreaty from Creon the space of one day prior to her departure, burnt the hull of his palace and also his daughter, together with the old man, with coronal flames, or flames at the top of the head. Thus likewise this sorceress, having performed certain deadly implications in a ditch, as she herself lately told me, enclosed all the inhabitants of the town in their own houses by so great a power of incantations that, for the space of two whole days, neither the bars of the doors could be broken, nor the grates be opened, nor the walls themselves be dug through, till, by mutual consent, the people unanimously exclaimed and swore in the most sacred manner that they would not offer any violence to her, and would afford her salutary assistance if any person should attempt to injure her. Being therefore after this manner appeased, she liberated the whole city. At midnight, however, she conveyed the author of this conspiracy with all his house, with the walls, the ground, and the foundation, closed, as it was, into another city, distant from thence, a hundred miles, and situated on the summit of the lofty mountain, in consequence of which it was deprived of water, because likewise the houses of the inhabitants were built so near to each other that they did not afford any room to this newcomer, she threw the house before the gate of the city and departed. You narrates that I stupendous things, my Socrates, and such as are no less cruel than wonderful, and in the last place you have excited in me no small solicitude, or rather fear, for you have thrown at me not a little sharp stone but a spear, lest that old woman, employing in a similar manner the assistance of some demon, should know the whole of our present conversation. Let us therefore quickly but take ourselves to rest, and when we have lightened our lassitude by the refreshment of sleep, fly from hence as far as we can before the dawn of day. While I was yet persuading the good man Socrates thus to act, he, being oppressed with unusual intoxication and lassitude, snored loudly, but I, after I had closed the door, secured it with bars, and placed my bed against the hinges of it, betook myself to rest. And at first, indeed, I remained for a short time awake through fear, but afterwards I closed my eyes a little about midnight. I was scarcely, however, asleep when the doors were suddenly opened, with the force too great to induce anyone to believe that this was affected by thieves, and besides this, the doors were hurled to the ground, the hinges being entirely broken and torn off. The bed, too, which was very short, deprived of one foot, and rotten, was thrown down with great violence, and falling so as to be reversed, covered and concealed me, who was rolled in it, and shaken off the bedstead to the ground. Then I perceived that certain affectations of the mind were naturally excited by contrary causes, for as tears frequently proceed from joy, thus also in that extreme fear I could not refrain from laughing on perceiving myself from being a rista means made a tortoise. And while prostrate on the floor and looking obliquely, I wait for the issue of this affair being protected by the situation of the bed, I saw two women of an advanced age, one of whom carried a lighted lamp, but the other a sponge and a drawn sword. With these accoutrements they surrounded Socrates, who slept profoundly. End of Chapter 1, Part 1 Translated by Thomas Taylor Chapter 1, Part 2 I am left to lament an eternal widowhood, extending likewise her right hand in showing me to her panthea. But this, said she, is his good counsellor, Aristomanes, who is the author of this his flight, and now, near to death, flies prostrate on the ground with the bed upon him, and who likewise sees all these transactions, and thinks that he shall not be punished for the disgraceful things which he has said of me. I will take care, however, that he shall repent, though late, or rather presently, or even now of his former defamation and his present curiosity. On hearing this, I, miserable man, felt all my members in a cold sweat, and my bowels began to shake with fear, so that the bed, also being agitated and restless, leaped up and down on my back through my palpitation. But, O sister, said the good panthea, shall we first delicerate this man after the manner of the back-eye? Or, binding his limbs, shall we amputate his genital parts? To this, Merot replied, for I then perceived that her name accorded in reality with the narrations of Socrates, rather let him live, in order that he may cover with the little earth the body of this miserable creature Socrates, and immediately after, having moved the head of Socrates to the other side, she plunged the whole of the sword into his body up to the hilt, through the left part of the neck, and diligently received the emission of the blood and small vessel placed under it, so that no drop of it might ever be perceived. These things I beheld with my own eyes. The good Merot, however, inserting her right hand through the wound, as far as to the most inward parts of the body, and exploring them, lest, as I think, she should at all deviate from the rites pertaining to a victim, drew out the heart of my unhappy companion. While he, in the interim, his windpipe being cut by the force of the sword, emitted through the wound a voice, or rather a stridulous, uncertain sound, and, with the bubbles of blood, poured forth his soul, but Pantheas stopped the whole orifice of the wound with a sponge and said, Beware, O sponge, born in the sea, that you do not pass through a river. Having thus said, and lifted my bed from the ground, they entirely drenched me with the moisture of the most filthy urine. Afterwards they had scarcely passed over the threshold, when the doors rose again, entire to their pristine state, the hinges settled on their receptacles. The bars returned to the side of the doors, and the bolts to their cavities and the posts. But I, in the state in which I still was, prostrate on the ground, dismayed, naked, cold, and drenched in urine, like an infant that has recently emerged from the womb of its mother, and besides this half-dead, or even surviving myself, and born again after my death, or rather a candidate for the cross, to which I was now destined, said, What will become of me when, in the morning, this my companion shall be found with his throat cut? To whom shall I appear to say what is probable, though I should speak the truth? For they will say you ought at least to have called for assistance, if you, though so large a man, could not resist a woman. What! was the throat of a man cut before your eyes? And yet you were silent? Why were you not slain at the same time? Why did outrageous cruelty spare you, who witnessed the murder, and suffer you to remain an indicator of the deed? Because therefore you have escaped death, now return to it. These things I frequently revolved with myself, and the night verge towards day, it appeared therefore to me to be best to leave the inn privately before daylight, and to pursue my way, though with trembling steps. I take my bundle, put the key in the door, and draw back the bolts, but those good and faithful doors which had been spontaneously opened during the night, were then scarcely and with great labour unfolded by the frequent insertion of the key. And I then said, Soho, Porter, where are you? Open the door of the inn as I wish to depart before the break of day. But the Porter, who was lying on the ground behind the gate of the inn, and was even then half asleep, said, What are you who would begin your journey at this hour of the night, ignorant that the roads are infested by robbers? For though you may wish to die through the consciousness of some crime which you have committed, yet we have not the head of a gourd that we shall die for you. Then said I, It is nearly day, and besides, what can robbers take away from a traveller who is extremely poor? Are you ignorant, O stupid man, that he who is naked cannot be plundered even by ten athletes? To which the Porter wary and half asleep, and turning himself on the other side replied, How do I know whether you have not killed your companion with whom you came hither yesterday in the evening, and that now you commit your safety to flight? For I remember at that time, i.e. at midnight, I saw Tartarus, which is at the extremity of the universe, and in it the dog Cerberus ready to devour me. And I recollected indeed that the Good Morrow did not spare my throat through pity, but cruelly reserved me for the cross. Returning therefore to my bed-chamber, I deliberated with myself about a speedy kind of death. But since fortune had supplied me with no other deadly weapon than my bed alone, I said now, O bed, most dear to my soul, who hast endured with me so many sorrows this night, and who are conscious and a witness of what has been transacted in the course of it, and whom alone, when I am accused, I can induce in proof of my innocence, supply me, who am hastening to the realms beneath, with a solitary instrument of death. Having said this, I began to undo the rope with which the bed was corded, and having tied one end of it to a small beam which was under the window, and with the other made a sliding knot, I stood upon the bed, elevated to destruction, and put my head into the halter. But while with one foot I kicked away the prop by which I was supported, so that the rope being strained about my throat might by the pressure of the weight stop my breath. The rope which was both rotten and old, suddenly broke, and I, violently descending from on high, fell upon Socrates, for he lay near me, and, together with him, I was rolled on the ground. And lo, at that very instant the porter rushed into the bed-chamber, crying with a loud voice, where are you that made such haste at midnight, and now lie snoring rolled in the bed-clothes? At these words Socrates rose first, whether awakened by my falling, or by the discordant vociferation of the porter I know not, and said, It is not without reason that all these hustlers are executed, for this impertinently curious fellow, by his unseasonable intrusion, with an intention I have no doubt of stealing something, has roused me, though very weary, from a profound sleep by his outrageous noise. On hearing him say this, I rose up, cheerful and glad, and replete with unhoped forejoy. I said, Behold, O most faithful porter, my companion, my father, and my brother, whom you, being intoxicated, falsely accused me of having slain, and immediately after I embraced Socrates and kissed him for joy, but he, being filled with the scent of the most filthy liquor with which those witches had infected me, vehemently spurned me from him. Take yourself from hence, said he, for you stink like the bottom of a privy. And he began mildly to inquire the cause of this fetid smell. But I, miserable man, having immediately devised an absurd tale, turned his attention to something else, and taking him by the right hand said, Let us go and enjoy the pleasure of a morning walk. So I took my bundle, and having paid the innkeeper for our night's lodging, we departed. We had not proceeded far before everything was refulgent through the rising of the sun, and I curiously intelligently observed the neck of my companion in that part in which I had seen the sword plunged and said to myself, O foolish man, you certainly have had a most absurd dream, because you have been overwhelmed with intoxication through wine. Behold, Socrates is entire, sound, and safe. Where is the wound? Where the sponge? And in the last place, where is the scar so deep and so recent? Addressing myself to him, I said, To which he, laughing, replied, Nevertheless, my throat appeared to me also in my sleep to be cut, for I felt a pain in my neck, and thought that my heart was plucked out, and even now my spirit fails me. My knees tremble. I stagger, and wish for some food to refresh my spirits. Behold, said I, a breakfast is ready prepared for you, and having said this I took the script for my shoulders, and placed it on the ground, and hastily extended to him some cheese with bread. I also said, we will sit down near that plain tree, which having done I also took some bread and cheese from the same script. And beholding him somewhat more intently as he was greedily eating, I saw him become of a pale yellow color. At length also his natural color was so disturbed, that on imaging to myself through fear, those nocturnal furies, the piece of bread which I had first taken, though it was very small, stuck in the middle of my throat, so that it can neither pass downward, nor return upward. For the frequency of our going together caused an accumulation of my fear. For who would believe that one of two companions could be slain, without the fault of the other? He, however, after he had devoured a sufficient quantity of food, began to be impatiently thirsty, for he had greedily eaten a great part of a most excellent cheese, and not far from the roots of the plain tree, a gentle river sluggishly flowed after the manner of a stagnant marsh, and which in its color emulated silver or glass. Lo, said I, satiate yourself with the milk-white liquor of this fountain. He rose, and, being covered with his short cloak, inclined himself on his knees towards the more equitable part of the bank, attempting, with great avidity, to drink the water. But he had scarcely touched the topmost dew of it with the surface of his lips, when the wound of his throat opened into a deep cavity, and the sponge suddenly rolled out of it, accompanied by a small quantity of blood. Lastly, his body, being without life, had nearly fallen into the river. But I, laying hold of one of his feet, drew it with great difficulty and labour to the upper part of the bank. And after I had lamented my unfortunate companion as much as the time would permit, I buried him in the sandy soil, which is eternally in the vicinity of the river. I also, trembling and exceedingly fearing for myself, fled through various and inaccessible deserts. And as if guilty of homicide, having left my country and my home, and embraced a voluntary exile, I now dwell in Atodia, having there again entered into the cannubial state. Thus far, Aristomanes, that companion, however, of his, who from the first rejected his narration with an obstinate incredulity, said, There is nothing more fabulous than this tale, and nothing more absurd than this lie, and directing his discourse to me. But you, said he, who are a man of a cultivated mind, as the form of your body and your dress indicate, do you believe in this fable? To this, I replied, I do not think there is anything which may not be affected. But all things happen to mortals according to the decrees of fate. For many things usually happen to me and to you, and to all men of an admirable nature, and almost incredible, which nevertheless, if narrated to an ignorant person, would lose their credibility. But I, by Hercules, believe in what Aristomanes has said, and give him the greatest thanks for having excited our attention by the pleasantness of a delightful tale, and enabled me to accomplish a rough and long journey without weariness and labour, with which kindness I think that my horse also is much gratified, since I have been carried without fatigue even to the gate of the city, not on his back but by my ears, and thus terminated our conversation and our journey, for both my companions turned to the next villages on the left hand. But I entered into the first inn which I perceived and acquired of an old woman who kept a tavern, whether this was the city Hyparta, and she gave me to understand, by a nod, that it was. Do you know, I said, a certain person of the name of Milo, who is one of the principal men of the city. At this question she laughed and said, Milo is deservedly considered to be one of the first men who dwells out of the whole city, and out of the Pomerium. Justing apart I said, tell me I beseech you most excellent mother, what kind of man he is, and where he lives. Do you see, said she, those last windows which outwardly look to the city, and that gate on the other side which fronts the next street, there Milo dwells, who abounds in money and is very opulent, but is extremely avaricious and shamefully sordid. In short he frequently employs himself in usury on a very large scale, receiving for this purpose pledges of gold and silver. Shut up in a little house, and always dwelling on his tarnished money, with a wife who partakes of his misery, nor does he keep anyone besides in his house except one female servant, and is always when he walks abroad, habited like a mendicant. To this I laughing replied, my Dimeis has kindly and providently consulted for me, who has recommended me in travelling to a foreign country to such a man with whom while I stay I shall have no occasion to fear clouds of smoke, or the smell of the kitchen. Having thus said I proceeded a little farther, came to the gate, and knocked at the doors, which were strongly barred, at the same time calling to someone to open them. At length a certain girl came forth and said, Oh, you who knock at our doors so violently, what is the kind of pledge on which you want to borrow money? Are you alone ignorant that we admit of no pawn, except it is either gold or silver? Predict better things, I said, and rather inform me whether I shall find your master at home. He is indeed, she replied, but what is the cause of this question? I have brought a letter, I said, written to him by the Corinthian Dimeis. Wait for me, she said, in this very place while I deliver your message to him. And immediately on saying this, having again fastened the doors, she went into the house. Returning from thence shortly after, and having opened the doors, she said, My master requests you to come in. I accordingly entered and found him sitting on a very little bed, and just then beginning his supper. His wife sat at his feet and before an empty table. Which showing to me, she said, Behold your entertainment! It is well, I said. And immediately I delivered to Milo the epistle of Dimeis, which having hastily read, he said, I love my friend Dimeis who is procured for me such an illustrious guest. And having said this, he ordered his wife to depart, and desired me to sit in her place. Taking hold of my garment likewise and drawing me, who was reluctant through modesty. Sit there, said he, for through fear of robbers we dare not procure for ourselves any seats, nor even as much furniture as is sufficient for domestic purposes. I did what he ordered me to do. He then said, I may rightly conjecture from the excellent form of your body, and from this virgin modesty, that you are sprung from an illustrious race. But my friend Dimeis also asserts the same thing in his letter. I beseech you, therefore, not to despise the poverty of our little house. For, behold, that little bed-chamber contiguous to this room, and which is a decent receptacle, will be for your use. Do not, therefore, unwillingly take up your abode with us. For you will render our house more ample by dating to dwell in it, and will, besides, procure for yourself no small renown. If, being content with a little house, you emulate the virtues of Theseus, the namesake of your father, who did not disdain the slander and poor cottage of the old woman heckily. Then, calling his maid-servant, he said, Photis, take the baggage of our guest, and faithfully place it in that bed-chamber, and at the same time bring quickly from the cellar oil to anoint him, a towel to wipe him, and other things useful for the same purpose, and conduct my guest to the neighbouring baths, for he is weary through a journey sufficiently difficult and long. When I had heard these things, considering with myself the mode of living and the frugality of Milo, and wishing to conciliate myself to him in a still greater degree, I said, I am not at all in want of things of this kind, because I carry them with me in all my peregrinations. And as to the baths, I can easily inquire where they are. Do you, Photis, take this money and procure for me hay and barley for my horse, who has so well conveyed me hither, for this is my principal concern. When this was done, and my things were brought into that bed-chamber, I proceeded towards the baths, but first went to the market in order to procure something for supper. There I saw a great quantity of fish to be sold, and having asked what was the price of them and refused to give a hundred pieces of money, at which the fishmonger valued them, I bought them for twenty pence. Immediately on departing from thence, Pytheas followed me, who had been a school-fellow of mine at Athens, who having at length recognised me, stopped me in a friendly manner, and having embraced and gently kissed me, said, Oh, my Lucius, it is certainly a long time since I have seen you, as we have not met before since we left our master. But what is the cause of this, your peregrination? You will know, I said, to-morrow. What, however, is the meaning of this? I rejoice that you have obtained your wish, for I perceive the lictors and the fassies, and that your dress is such as perfectly becomes a magistrate. To this he replied, I am a prefect of the market, and an eddile, and if you wish to buy any food I will take care that you shall have it at a reasonable price. But I signified to him that I could not avail myself of his kindness, because I had already provided myself with a sufficient quantity of fish for supper. But Pytheas, beholding my basket and shaking the fishes, in order that they might be more easily seen, said, What did you give for this refuse? I replied, I could scarcely obtain them from the fishmonger for twenty pence. Which when he had heard, taking hold of me by the right hand, he brought me back again to the market, and said, From which of these men did you buy this rubbish? I pointed out to him a little old man sitting in a corner, whom immediately rebuking in a most severe tone of voice, in consequence of his authority as an eddile. Do you neither spare, said he, our friends, nor any strangers, that you sell trifling fish for so great a price, and thus have reduced this city which is the flower of all Thessaly, to the form of a desert and an inaccessible rock, through the dearness of provisions? But this conduct shall not remain unpunished, for I will now make you know how worthless men ought to be restrained by an eddile. And having thrown my basket to the ground, he ordered one of his attendants to stand on the fishes, and trampled them under his feet, with which severity of discipline my pytheus, being satisfied, and having persuaded me to depart, he said, I have sufficiently punished, O Lucius, this old man, by causing him to suffer so great a disgrace. This being done, I betake myself to the baths, astonished and perfectly confounded, perceiving myself to be at one and the same time deprived of my money and my supper, through the officiousness of my school-fellow. Having likewise washed myself, I returned to the house of Milo, and afterwards to my bed-chamber. And lo! the maid-servant photos said, your host invites you to supper. But I, who already knew the parsimony of Milo, gently excused myself by saying that I thought the fatigue of the journey was not to be removed by food, but by sleep. Milo, however, on receiving this message came himself to me, took hold of my hand, and kindly endeavoured to lead me to supper. And while I delay and modestly resist, he said, you shall not depart from hence till you follow me. Accompanying him likewise what he said with an oath he drew me, who unwillingly complied with his pertinacity to his bed. And when I was seated, he said, How is our friend Demeus? Are his affairs prosperous? Tell me likewise all that you know respecting his wife, children, and servants. He also more accurately inquired of me the causes of my journey, which after I had carefully narrated he then asked me most particularly concerning my country and the leading men in it, and in the last place he inquired about the prefect of it, but perceiving that I was weary from the molestation of so rough a journey and also from the length of my narration that my words were cut short in the midst through sleep. And that lassitude occasioned me to speak indistinctly and to stutter. He at length permitted me to go to rest. I escaped therefore from the loquacious and hungry supper of the sordid old man, burdened with sleep and not with dainties, having supped on tales alone. And returning to my bed-chamber I delivered myself to the wished-for rest. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, by Apuleus. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Chapter 2 Part 1 Soon as the night been dispersed, a new sun had made the day, emerging at the same time from sleep and my bed, being likewise anxious and above-measured, desirous of knowing what is rare and admirable, and recollecting that I was in the midst of Thessaly, where the genuine incantations of the magical art are reported to have originated by the unanimous consent of the whole earth. I diligently considered the several particulars of that narration of my excellent companion, Aristomenes, which was occasioned by the proximity of this city, Hypata, to Thessaly, though I was otherwise in suspense from the desire of seeing something wonderful and my diligence in the investigation of it. Nor was there anything in that city which, when I beheld, I could believe to be that which it really was. But I was induced to think that everything was transmuted into another form by magical incantations, so that the stones which I met with were hardened into that shape from men. The birds which I heard singing had once been in the human form, but were now invested with feathers, and that this was also the case with the trees which were clothed with leaves and surrounded the pomerium or precinct of the town, and with the fountains of water which devolved their streams from the liquefied bodies of men. I now likewise expected to find that the statues and images would walk, that the walls would speak, that sheep and that kind of cattle would prophesy, and that an oracle would suddenly be given from heaven itself and the orb of the sun. Being thus astonished or rather stupefied with tormenting desire, finding no beginning or even trace of the objects of my wish, I rapidly investigated every particular. Nevertheless, while, like one intoxicated, I wandered through the whole town from one gate to another. I suddenly, and without knowing where I was, came to the market in which delicate provisions were sold. There, as I was walking quickly, I overtook a certain woman who was surrounded with a great number of servants. Her earrings and her garments were adorned with gold, in the form of which it was wreathed and was woven in the latter, which demonstrated her to be a woman of the first rank. By her side there stood a very old man, who, as soon as he saw me, said, This by Hercules is Lucius, and at the same time he kissed me. Immediately after he whispered in the ear of the woman something which I did not hear. Will you not, said he, approach and salute your parent? I dare not, I replied, salute a woman who is unknown to me. And immediately blushing I stood still with my head inclined to the other side. But she, fixing her eyes upon me, said, Behold the generous offspring of his most chaste mother, Salvia, and the other parts of his body also admirably and exactly correspond to each other. For his stature is graceful, his slenderness is succulent, his ruddiness is moderate, his hair is yellow and without affectation, his eyes are azure but quick, and the sight of them is sharp and vigorous, like that of an eagle, in short he is everywhere comely, and his gait is decorous and artless. She also added, I have nursed you, O Lucius, with these my hands, and why should I not, for I not only participated with your mother of the same blood, but also of the same education, since we both originated from the lineage of Plutarch, both of us sucked the milk of the same nurse, and have grown up together in the bonds of consanguinity. And there is no difference between us, except that which arises from dignity. For the marriage of your mother was illustrious, but mine was obscure. I am that Birina, whose name you may perhaps recollect, because it was frequently celebrated among those by whom you were educated. But take yourself therefore confidently to our place of abode, or rather to your own proper house. To this I replied, my bashfulness having been dissipated by the time which she consumed in speaking, far be it from me or mother that I should desert my host Milo without any just cause of complaint. But I will sedulously take care to do whatever can be done by me without violating the rights of hospitality, and as often as I have occasion to come this way I will call upon you. While we were engaged in this friendly altercation, consisting of refusal on my part and invitation on hers, after we had preceded a little farther, we came to the house of Birina. The courtyard was most beautiful, which supported statues of the goddess of victory raised on pillars which were quadripartite in the several angles. The wings of the statues being stretched on each side without any motion of the rolling sphere and decorating the unstable step of the dewy feet made the images seem as if they were not fixed but were really flying. Behold, too, Parry and Marble, fashioned into a statue of Diana, was erected in the middle of the whole place. This image was perfectly splendid for the garment of the goddess appeared as if it was blown back by the wind, and she seemed as if it were to run and to oppose those that were entering into the house. It was also venerable on account of the majesty of the divinity which it represented. Dogs stood on each side of the goddess, and these likewise were fashioned of Marble. The eyes of these seemed to threaten. Their ears were erect, their nostrils were open, and their mouths ferocious. If any barking had been heard from the neighbourhood, you would have thought it proceeded from the stony throats of the dogs. That also in which the excellent statuary had given the most consummate specimen of the carver's art was this, that the dogs being erect and with their breasts advanced, the hind feet stood still, but the forefeet seemed to run. Behind the goddess a rock rose after the manner of a cavern with moss, grass, leaves and sprigs, in one place vines and in another shrubs flourishing from the marble. Within the rock the shadow of the goddess was resplendent from the brightness of the marble. In the extreme margin of the rock, apples and grapes hanging exquisitely elaborated, which art, emulous of nature, represented similar to their exemplars. You would have thought that some of them might have been gathered for food when autumn, the giver of wine, had breathed on them the colour of maturity. And if you beheld in a prone position the fountains, which, running under the feet of the goddess, vibrated in gentle waves, you would have thought that the clusters of grapes which hung from the vine, among other things in which they resembled reality, were also not destitute of mobility. In the midst also of the stony leaves was a carved acteon looking behind him with prying eyes, and now invested with the brutal form of a stag, and both in the marble and in the fountain he was seen to be expecting the coming of Diana to bathe. While attentively inspecting these works of art I was exceedingly delighted. All that you see, said Birina, is yours, and immediately after she ordered with a low voice all the rest of her attendants to depart. And when all of them were gone, by this goddess, she said, my dearest Lucius, how exceedingly do I fear for you, and how much do I wish that you, who are as it were my son, may be well advised. Take care of yourself, but especially beware of the evil arts and nefarious achievements of that Pamphilly, the wife of Milo, whom you say is your host. She is one of the most renowned witches, and is believed to be mistress of every necromantic incantation, so that by branches of trees and stones and other frivolous things of the like kind, when she has breathed on them with magic words, she knows how to merge into the depths of Tartarus into ancient chaos all this light of the starry world. For as soon as she has beheld any youth of a beautiful form, she is captivated by his elegance, and immediately turns upon him the sight both of her eyes and of her mind. She employs blandishments, she invades his spirit, she binds him with the eternal fetters of profound love, then despising those who are not sufficiently obedient to her and who rank among the vulgar. She changes them in a moment of time into stones and cattle and any kind of beast, but others she entirely destroys. I tremble for you on account of these things, and entreat you to beware of them, for she burns with an eternal love, and you, through your youth and your beauty, are fitted for her purpose. This was what Birena, who was very solicitous for my welfare, said to me, But I, who was otherwise inquisitive, as soon as I heard the name of the magic art, which I always wished to obtain the knowledge of, was so far from dreading the blandishments of Pamphilly that I voluntarily longed to become a proficient in that science, even though at a great price, and to precipitate myself entirely with an accelerated leap into the gulf of magic. Hence I hastily and insanely liberated myself from her hand, as from a certain bond, and having speedily said farewell, I flew to the house of Milo, and while, like one deprived of intellect, I thus accelerate my pace, I said, Now, O Lucius, be vigilant and attentive to yourself, for now you have the wished-for opportunity, and you may satiate your mind with admirable tales, which you have long desired to do. Away then with purile fears, strenuously encounter with the thing itself more nearly, abstain from venereal connection with your hostess, and religiously reverence the conjugal bed of the worthy Milo. Attack, however, with all your might, the maid-servant, Photis, for her form is elegant, her manners are facetious, and her presentation delightful. Yesterday evening, likewise, when you went to rest, she courteously brought you into the bed-chamber, gently laid you in bed, very lovingly covered you, and having kissed your head, showed by her countenance how unwillingly she left you, and in the last place she frequently stood still, turning herself and looking behind her. Let us therefore make advances to Photis as a thing good, felicitous, and fortunate, though it should not be salatory. While I thus determined with myself, I came to the gate of Milo, yet I did not find either Milo or his wife at home, but only my dear Photis, who was preparing for her master and mistress a finely seasoned dish of minced meat, together with some broth, and I conjectured indeed by my smell that she was making very savoury food. She herself, being neatly dressed in a linen garment, and girded a little higher than usual under her breasts, with a red and very splendid band, stirred round with her beautiful hands that dish of minced meat, and as she frequently stirred it, the gradually vibrating motion of her loins and the gentle agitation of the flexible spine of her back produced a graceful undulation. Upon perceiving this I was fixed in astonishment, and stood wondering, and at length I said to her, How beautiful and pleasing my Photis is the motion of your loins in stirring that dish of meat. What honeyed broth are you preparing? Happy and more surely blessed he who is permitted by you to dip his finger in it. Then she, who was otherwise a pleasant and merrily loquacious girl, said, Depart, O miserable man, far from me, depart from my fire, for if the flame of my love should scorch you, though but in a moderate degree, you will be profoundly burnt. Thus speaking she looked at me and laughed. I did not, however, depart from her till I had diligently explored the whole form of her body. But why do I speak of other things pertaining to her, since it has ever been my only care sedulously to survey in the first place the head and the hair in public and afterwards to enjoy them at home? In this decision I am confirmed by considering that this part of the body has a conspicuous position, and is the first thing that presents itself to our sight, and that the native splendour of the hair effects the same thing in the head as the delightful colour of a beautiful garment in the other members of the body. Lastly, most women, in order to exhibit their native gracefulness and allurements, divest themselves of all their garments, and long to show their naked beauty, being conscious that they shall please more by the rosy redness of their skin than by the golden splendour of their robes. But, though it is a thing not lawful to speak of, and may there never be so dire an example of such a thing, if you deprive a woman of the most surpassing beauty of her hair, and strip her face of its native elegance, though she were sent from the heavens, produced from the sea, and nourished in the waves, though I say she were Venus herself surrounded by all the graces, and attended by the whole family of loves, girded with her cestus, fragrant with cinnamon, and dropping balsam as she moves, yet if she were bald she would not be able to please her own Vulcan. How beautiful is the hair when it is of a pleasing colour, shines with a glittering light, is vividly refulgent, when opposite to the rays of the sun, or is more mildly resplendent, and varies its appearance in a different gracefulness. At one time emitting a brightness like that of gold, it sinks into a slender shade of the colour of honey. At another, with a blackness like that of a crow, it emulates the azure flowers of the neck of doves, or now anointed with Arabian drops, separated by the slender tooth of a sharp comb, and tied behind the head, it presents itself to the eyes of the lover. It then, like a mirror, reflects a more pleasing image. How beautiful when being thick it is agglomerated with prolific abundance on the crown of the head, or extended in a long series, flows down the back. Lastly, so great is the dignity of the hair of the head, that though a woman should be adorned with gold, rich garments, precious stones, and every other ornament, yet she would not seem to be decorated unless her hair was gracefully divided. But in my focus, not studied but neglected ornament, added elegance to her person. For her copious hairs gradually falling pendulous on the hind part of her neck, and being afterwards distributed through the neck, and leisurely reclining on the flexuous border of the top of her garment, were, after being a little conglomerated in the extremity, fastened by a knot to the crown of her head. I could not, however, then any longer sustain the torment of such transcendent pleasure, but immediately gave her a most luscious kiss in that part where the hair ascended to the summit of her head. Then she turned herself toward me, and looking at me obliquely and with petulant eyes. So then, you novice, said she, you have taken a sweet and at the same time a bitter draught. Take care, lest from the excessive sweetness of the honey you do not procure for yourself the lasting bitterness of gall. Why do you say so, my delight? I replied, since I am prepared, being renovated, to be roasted by that fire, even for one kiss. And having said this, and embraced her more closely, I began to kiss her more ardently. And now she, co-germinating with me into an equality of love, excelling from her open mouth the odour of cinnamon, and ravishing me with the nectarius touch of her tongue. I said to her, I shall perish, or rather I am already a lost man, unless you will be propitious. To which she replied, having again kissed me, be of good courage, for I am enslaved to you by mutual desire, nor shall our pleasure be deferred any longer, but as soon as it is night I will give myself to your embraces. It was scarcely, however, yet noon, when Berena sent to me hospitable gifts, videti, a fat pig, five hens, and a caddus of wine, valuable for its age. Then I, having called Fotis, said, Behold, back us, the exciter and armour-bearer of Venus, is come of his own accord. For the voyage of Venus alone requires such provision as this, videti, that through the whole of the wakeful night the lamp may abound with oil, and the cup with wine. The rest of the day I passed in bathing, and afterwards in supping, for, being invited by the good Milo, I sat at his scanty table as much as possible out of the view of his wife, in consequence of recollecting the admonitions of Berena, and tremblingly cast my eyes upon her as if I was beholding the lake of earnest. But as I continually looked at Fotis, who waited on us, my mind was refreshed by the view. As it was now evening, Pamphilly, beholding the lamp, said, It will rain abundantly to-morrow, and on her husband asking her how she knew that to be the case, she answered that this was predicted to her by the lamp. At this Milo, laughing, said, We nourish in this lamp a great sable, who sees from the candlestick as from a watchtower all that is transacting in the heavens, and therefore surveys even the sun itself. To this I subjoined. These are the first specimens of this kind of prediction, nor wrought it to seem wonderful that this flame, so small and the work of human hands, should nevertheless have a recollection of that greater and celestial fire as of its parent. And through this should divinely presage and enunciate to us what the source of its existence is about to effect in the summit of the heavens. For with us at Corinth a certain Chaldean stranger now disturbs the whole city with his admirable predictions, and divulges to the common people the arcana of fate for the sake of gain. Thus, for instance, he would tell the day on which the nuptial knot would be tied, or the foundations of walls would be established so as to remain forever, and what day would be auspicious to the merchant, or an anniversary to the traveller, or adapted to navigation. Lastly, to me inquiring of him, what would be the result of this my journey, that it would be attended with many very admirable and different events? For, he said, that at one time I should obtain a sufficiently flourishing renown, and that at another I should write a great history and an incredible fable and compose books. My low laughing on hearing this says, of what stature was this Chaldean, and what was his name? I replied, he was a tall man and of a dark complexion, and his name was Diophonies. It is the same person, said Milo, and no other, who, having similarly predicted many things to many in this city, and gained through it no inconsiderable wealth, or rather a great sum of money, unhappily experienced and inauspicious, or that I may speak more truly, a cruel fortune. For, on a certain day, when being surrounded with a great crowd, he distributed destiny to all around him. A merchant, whose name was Cerdo, came to him, desiring to know what day would be the fittest to take a journey. But when Diophonies had selected and pointed out to him the proper day, and Cerdo, having opened his purse and taken out the money contained in it, had counted a hundred pence, which he intended to give him as the reward of his predictions. Behold, a certain youth of noble family, coming behind him and taking hold of his garment, embraced and kissed him most cordially. But Diophonies, having in his turn also kissed the youth, and at the same time desired him to sit near him, were stupefied, as it were, by the unexpected sight of his friend, and forgetting what had just then occurred, said to him, How long is it my much wished-for friend since you came into these parts? To this the other answered. I came about the beginning of the evening. But do you also, brother, inform me in your turn how it happened that you sailed so quickly from the island of Euboea to this city and have passed over both sea and land? In answer to this, Diophonies, that excellent Chaldean, being deprived of intellect, and not yet himself, said, May our enemies and all those who are hostile to us meet with the like-cruel and eulissian peregrination. For the ship itself in which we sailed, being injured by various storms, and having lost both the mast and the rudder, could not be impelled to the opposite shore, but was merged in the gulf. And we, having lost all our property, were scarcely able to save ourselves. Whatever we could scrape together, either from the pity of strangers or the benevolence of our friends, was all taken from us by a band of robbers, and my brother, whose name was Arisuatos, being the only one that resisted their violence, was unhappily slain before my eyes. While Diophonies was sorrowfully relating these particulars, the merchant, Cerdor, taking up the money which he had designed to pay for the prediction, immediately ran away. Then, however, Diophonies, being at length roused from his stupor, gave the injury which he had sustained through his imprudence, especially when he saw that all of us who surrounded him burst into the loud laughter. But I wish, Lucius, that the coldee and may have predicted what is true to you alone among all of them, and that you may be happy and make a prosperous journey. During this prolix narration of Milo, I silently lamented and was not a little angry with myself that having voluntarily introduced a series of unseasonable tales, I had lost a good part of the night and the most delightful fruit of it. At length, therefore, I boldly said to Milo, Let Diophonies bear his destiny, and again expose to the perils both of land and sea the money which he may obtain by his predictions. But suffer me, who am still weary from the toil of yesterday, to me take myself quickly to rest. Having said this, I rose up and went to my bed-chamber, and there I found a most elegant arrangement of delicacies. For the bed of the less male servants was laid on the floor at a considerable distance from the door, in order, I suppose, that they might not be a witness of the nocturnal murmurs. A small table stood by my bed sufficiently laden with the rich remains of the whole supper, and two cups already half full of water, only waiting for the admixtion of wine. Near these also was a stone bottle, the orifice of which gradually dilated, and from which the wine could easily be drawn. I was scarcely laid down when, behold, my photos, her mistress having now retired to rest, approached, scattering roses upon the bed, some of which also she carried in her swelling bosom. Having likewise closely kissed me, tied a garland round my head, and strewed upon me flowers, she seized a cup, and pouring warm water into it extended it to me that I might drink. But before I had drunk the whole she gently took it from me, and gradually diminishing with her lips what was left, and at the same time fixing her eyes on me, she sweetly sipped it, a second and a third time also, and frequently we pledged each other. And of Chapter 2 Part 1 Chapter 2 Part 2 of The Metamorphosis or Golden Ass This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Metamorphosis or Golden Ass by Apulias, translated by Thomas Taylor. Chapter 2 Part 2 It happened on a certain day that Birina earnestly desired me to take a small supper with her, and when I very much excused myself, she said she would never forgive me if I refused to come. I went, therefore, to Fotis to ask her advice, considering her ascent as an auspicious omen, who, though she was unwilling that I should depart from her the breadth of a nail, yet she kindly granted me a little respite from our amortary war. But take care, said she, that you return early from supper for a furious band of the most noble youth of the city disturbs the public peace. Hence you will everywhere see men that have been murdered, lying in the middle of the streets, nor can the aid afforded by the prefect of the province on account of its great distance defend the city from so great a calamity. But the splendour of your fortune may create snares for you and your being a foreigner may render you contemptible. Do not disturb yourself, I said, my Fotis, for I shall return early, not only because I prefer my own pleasures to the banquets of others, but also in order that I may remove your fear. Nevertheless, I shall not go unattended, for I shall carry with me the sucker of my safety, since I shall have, depending from my side, my accustomed sword. Thus prepared I betook myself to supper. There I found many guests and as she was a woman of rank they consisted of the flower of the city. The banquet was sumptuous, the beds were splendid with ivory and covered with cloth of gold. The cups were ample, some of which were more precious than others, but all of them were equally beautiful. This was of glass adorned with figures exquisitely wrought, there stood one of crystal, perfectly pure, here was a cup of bright silver and there of glittering gold, and in another place stood one of amber, admirably excavated, so as to be fitted for a drinking vessel. In short, whatever might be believed to be impossible to be affected was there. The servants who distributed the food were numerous and magnificently clothed, and the delicacies were abundant. The virgins, elegantly ministered, attended, and boys with curled locks and beautifully attired frequently handed to the guests old wine in gems fashioned into cups, and now the lamps being introduced convivial conversation abounded together with frequent laughter, liberal jests and pleasant jibes. Then Berina thus addressed me, do you find yourself comfortable in our country? For I know all other cities in temples and baths and other public works. We likewise are bound with provisions. Certainly we have here tranquil liberty, and the stranger who is intent on business may here find a multitude of men resembling those of Rome. But the unambitious stranger will find here rural quiet. Lastly, the whole province comes to this place for the sake of solitary pleasure. For this I replied, what you say is true, nor have I thought myself to be anywhere more free than I am here. But I am very much afraid of the dark and inevitable retreats of the magic discipline, for it is said that not even the sepulchres of the dead are secure, but that certain relics and fragments of dead bodies are snatched from the burning pyres for the purpose of being subservient to the destruction of the living. And old witches at the very moment of the preparation for a funeral outstrip by the rapidity of their speed the burial of strangers. In addition to what I thus said, another person observed, here indeed they do not even spare any of the living, and one whom I know, having suffered something of this kind, was mutilated in his face, which was everywhere deformed. In the meantime unrestrained laughter diffused itself through the whole banquet, and the eyes of all the guests were turned towards a certain person who sat in a corner apart from the rest of the company. This man, being confused by the pervocatiousness of all those who were looking at him, and indignantly muttering to himself, was preparing to rise and go away. But Birena said to him, Do not go, my telephone, but stop a little while and with your usual urbanity resume your narration from the beginning, that this my son Lucius also may partake of the pleasure produced by your facetious tale. To this he said, You indeed, madam, always preserve an inviolable probity, but the insolence of certain persons is not to be borne. Thus he, being moved with indignation, the urgent entreaties, however, of Birena, who conjured him by her own life to give the narration, forced him at length to comply. Telephone, therefore, having made a pile of the coverlets, leaning on his elbow and raising himself a little on the bed, extended his right hand and composed the articulation of his fingers after the manner of orators. Having likewise chucked the two lowest fingers, he expanded the rest in a prominent position and, gently smiling, with his thumb stretched out, began as follows. While I was yet a pupil, I went to Miletus to see the Olympic Games, and as I wished also to visit these places of this famous province, having travelled all over Thessaly, I came with ill omens to Larissa, and while roving through every place, the money which I had brought with me for my journey being very much diminished, I was exploring some means of mitigating my poverty, I beheld in the middle of the forum a certain tall old man. He stood on the stone and proclaimed with a loud voice, if anyone wishes to be the guardian of the dead body of one deceased, he shall be well rewarded for the undertaking. Then I said to one that was passing by, what is the meaning of this proclamation? Are the dead in this place accustomed to run away? He answered, be silent, for you are very young and perfectly a stranger, and you are also ignorant that you are in the middle of Thessaly, where witches everywhere lacerate with their teeth the faces of the dead, and such conduct is to them the solace of the magic art. To this I replied, tell me, I beseech you, in what does this funeral guardianship consist? In the first place, said he, you must incessantly watch through the whole night with open and unwinking eyes continually fixed on the dead body, fully diverted from this object, nor in the smallest degree turned from it, for these worst of witches, having transformed themselves into any brutal body, creep in latently, so that they easily elude the eyes both of justice and the sun, for they change themselves into birds, and besides this into dogs and rats, and even into flies. Then too they oppress the guardians employing dire enchantments, nor can any sufficiently define the magnitude of the frauds which they devise for the sake of gratifying their libidinous appetite. Notwithstanding this, however, not more than four or six pieces of golden coin are offered as the reward of such a dangerous undertaking. And in addition to this, which I had almost forgotten, if he who watches does not on the following morning prepare, he is compelled to repair the whole of whatever has been bitten and taken from it with descriptions from his own face. On hearing this I invigorated my mind with a masculine strength, and going directly to the crier, I said, cease to proclaim any father, the guardian is present, ready prepared for you, tell me what the recompense will be. You will receive, said he, a thousand pieces of money, but be very careful, O young man, to preserve the dead body of one of the principal persons of this city from most iniquitous harpies. You narrate to me, I said, absurdities and mere trifles, you beholding me a man of iron, sleepless, and certainly more sharp-sighted than Lincas himself, or Argus, and one who is all I. I had scarcely finished, when he immediately brought me to a certain house, the gates of which being closed, he introduced me through a narrow back door, and pointed out to me a bed-chamber which was dark in consequence of the window-shutters being closed, and a woman clothed in a black garment weeping, near whom the crier standing said, this man confidently offers to watch the dead body of your husband for the proposed reward, but she, removing to each side the hair that hung down before her face, which even in sorrow was beautiful, and beholding me said, Endeavour, I beseech you to perform the office which you have undertaken vigilantly. Lay aside all care, I said, and only procure for me some over-plus, adapted to the labour of my undertaking. To this assenting she hastily arose, and brought me into another bed-chamber. There she disclosed with her hand a dead body that was covered with very white linen in the presence of seven witnesses who had been introduced into the room, and having wept for a long time, and desired those that were present to bear testimony, she diligently pointed out to them every particular, a certain person at the same time, describing in a writing-table the parts of the body which she severally touched for that purpose. Behold, said she, his nose his entire, his eyes are in a sound condition, his ears are safe, his lips have not been violated, and his chin is whole. You worthy citizens! Be witnesses of this! And having said this, she sealed the tables and departed. But I said to her, Be so good, madam, as to order that all things may be procured for me which are necessary to this undertaking. What are these? said she. I replied, large lamp, sufficient oil to supply it with, till it is daylight, warm water with wine vessels and a cup, and a tray furnished with the remains of the supper. Then she, shaking her head, said, Big gone foolish man who dust-expects supper and the relics of feasting in a house full of sorrow and in which for so many days no smoke has been seen. Do you think that you have come hither to feast? Rather assume as adapted to this place sorrow and tears. And at the same time turning to her maid-servant, she said, Marina, immediately give him a lamp and oil, and, shutting me in the bed-chamber, she departed. I, therefore, being thus left alone to the solace of the dead body, having rubbed my eyes and armed myself to vigilance, soothed my mind by singing. When low the twilight commenced, the night advanced still deeper and deeper night, and at length midnight, and my fear became greatly increased. But then a weasel, suddenly creeping into the bed-chamber, stood opposite to me and looked very sharply at me, so that the little animal disturbed my mind by its great audacity. At length, however, I thus spoke to it, depart in pure beast and hide yourself with little mice that resemble you before you experience our powerful blows. Why do you not go away?" The animal fled and immediately left the chamber, but directly after a profound sleep suddenly merged me into its unfathomable depths, so that not even the Delphic god himself could easily distinguish which of us two that were prostrate was more dead. I thus inanimate and requiring another keeper was nearly not there. Scarcely had the streperous song of the crested cohort proclaimed a truce to-night when I, being at length roused and terrified in the extreme, ran to the dead body and taking the lamp with me and uncovering the face of the corpse, I scrutinized every member and found all was right. When low the miserable wife entered weeping with the witnesses of yesterday being very solicitous for the event and immediately falling on the body and kissing it frequently and for a long time she explored everything by the testimony of the lamp. Then, turning herself, she called Philip Disportus the steward of her house and ordered him to pay me without delay the wages of a good guardian. This, being immediately presented to me, we give you the greatest thanks," she said, oh young man, and by her killies for having so well this undertaking we shall afterwards rank you among the rest of our domestics. To this, being delighted with the unexpected gain and astonished at the sight of the glittering pieces of gold which I frequently shook in my hand, I said, indeed, madam, you may consider me as one of your servants and as often as you may be in want of my assistance confidently command it. I had scarcely thus spoken in my remarks, executing the nefarious omen of my words, took up arms of every kind and pursued me. One began to strike me on the face with his fist, another on the shoulders with his elbows, by some I was kicked and by others my hair was plucked off and my garment was lacerated and thus being mangled and torn in pieces by reproaches and maledictions, like the proud youth of Donis I was thrust out of doors and while I recover myself in the next street and too late call to mind my inauspicious and imprudent speech and confess that I deserved to suffer even more blows than I had received, behold, the dead body was now carried out accompanied for the last time by lamentations and clamour and was brought through the forum with all the pomp of a public funeral and according to the rights of his country, in consequence of having been one of the principal men of the city. To the side of the corpse came a certain old man, tearing his native hair and seizing the beer with both hands and with a voice raised indeed but interrupted with continual sighs he proclaimed, By your faith, O citizens, and by your public piety give assistance to your murdered fellow citizen and severely revenge your most atrocious deed on this abominable and wicked woman for she and no other has destroyed by poison this miserable young man the son of my sister in order that she might gratify her adulterer and invade his hereditary possessions. After this manner the old man loudly uttered quarrelous lamentations interrupted by sobs. In the meantime the common people were impaled to a belief of the crime by the probability of its having been committed. They clamorously called for fire they demand stones and they incite the boys to the destruction of the woman. But she loudly lamenting and aduring all the divinities in the most sacred manner possible denied that she had perpetrated so great a crime. The old man therefore said let us refer the decision of the truth of divine providence. Sutclas the Egyptian is present who ranks among the first of the prophets and who agreed with me sometime since for a great reward to recall for a little while the soul of this dead man from the realms beneath and to reanimate this body. And having thus said he brought into the midst of the bystanders a certain young man clothed in linen garments who had on his feet shoes woven together and whose head was entirely shaven. The old man likewise having for a long time kissed his hands and embraced his knees said O priest, take pity on me I beseech you by the celestial stars by the gods of the infernal regions by the natural elements by the silence of night the coptic enclosures the nylotic increments the memphitic arcana give to this body a short use of the sun and infuse a small portion of light in eyes buried in eternal night we do not wish to resist fate nor to deny the earth a thing which is her own but we only request a short space of life as a solace of vengeance. The prophet being thus rendered propitious took a certain herb and laid it thrice on the mouth of the dead body and placed another on the breast of it then turning himself to the east and silently imploring the increments of the august sun he raised the eager attention of those that were present to sow greater miracle by the form of such a venerable apparatus. I mingled myself with the crowd and standing on a certain more elevated stone which was behind the beer I observed everything with inquisitive eyes and now the breast of the corpse began to swell with respiration the salubrious vein to have pulsation and the body to be filled with spirit. The corpse also arose and thus spoke to the young man why I beseech you do you bring me back to the offices of a momentary life after I have drunk of the lethian cup and have swum over the Stygian marshes desist I pray you now desist for me to remain in my rest these words were heard from the body but the prophet being a little more excited said why do you not narrate everything to this crowd and disclose the secrets of your death do you not think that the furies can be called forth by my implications and that your wearied limbs may be tormented to this the reanimated body answered from the beer and thus with a groan addressed the people I was destroyed by the nefarious arts of a new wife and being compelled to take an envenomed potion I delivered to an adulterer my yet tepid bed then the egregious wife assumed confidence from the present circumstances and resisting with a sacrilegious mind contends against her confuting husband the vulgar I inflamed and divided into contrary parties these contend that the most execrable woman should be immediately buried alive with the body of her husband others are of opinion that no credit should be given to the lying testimony of a dead body the subsequent speech however of the corpse dissolved this contest for again profoundly groaning it said I will give you I will give you manifest documents of unviolated truth and will indicate to you what is known to no one else then pointed to me with his finger when this most sagacious guardian said he of my body diligently watched over me old enchantresses ardently longing after the spoil of my members and on this account having frequently been in vain changed into other forms when they found they could not deceive his sedulous attention having at length thrown over him a list of drowsiness and buried him in profound sleep they did not cease to call me by my name till my infirm joints and cold members struggled by sluggish endeavours to obey the mandates of the magic art then this man who was alive indeed but dead only with sleep because he had the same denomination with myself rose ignorant of what had been transacted on hearing his name and walking like an inanimate shadow though the doors of the bed chamber were carefully closed suffered mutilation instead of me his nose first and afterwards his ears being amputated through a certain chink and that other things might correspond with the fraud they accurately adapted to him wax fashioned in the shape of his mutilated ears and provided him with a wax and nose similar to his own while the miserable man stands here having obtained the reward not of his vigilance but of his mutilation on hearing this I being terrified began to try my fortune with my hand I take hold of my nose it follows my hand I touch my ears and they fall off and while I am pointed out by the direct fingers and oblique nods of those that were present while there was an abolition of laughter I escape between the feet of the surrounding crowd wet with frigid perspiration nor being thus mutilated and exposed to ridicule could I return to my paternal abode but with my hair falling on each side of my face I concealed the wounds of my ears and covered the disgrace of my nose with this linen cloth closely applied to it as soon as Telefron had brought this narration to an end all the inebriated guests were again dissolved in laughter and while they asked permission to drink the health of their friends Berina thus addressed me tomorrow comes as a day which it has been usual to celebrate from the earliest infancy of this city on which day we alone of all men propitiate the most sacred god of laughter with hilarity and mirth your presence will render him more pleasant to us and I wish you could devise anything from your own proper pleasantry of a joyous nature in honour of the god in order that we might in a greater and more perfect degree please so great a divinity it is well I said and what you request shall be done and by Hercules I wish I could invent something very festive which might excite a moderate laughter after this I myself distended with much wine I immediately rise through the admonition of my servants who informed me that it was now night and having hastily bid farewell to Berina I proceed homeward with staggering steps and while we go through the first broad street the torch to which we trusted was extinguished by a sudden blast of wind so that being scarcely liberated from the darkness of unexpected night it was with difficulty and weariness that we could reach our home our toes frequently striking against the stones but when we now drew nearer to our street behold three men of strong and vast bodies rushed with greatest violence against our gate and were not in the smallest degree terrified by our presence but frequently attacked it with a greater accumulation of force to all of us and especially to me they appeared to be robbers and of the most cruel description immediately therefore I seized a sword liberated from my bosom on which I carried with me concealed in my garments for these purposes without delay I threw myself into the midst of the robbers and plunged my sword profoundly into the body of each that presented himself in the contest till at length they expired before my feet pierced with many and deep wounds and when I had thus fought Photis being awakened by the tumult and having opened the gate I entered into the house breathing with difficulty and wept with perspiration immediately also I delivered myself to bed and sleep being as much fatigued with the slaughter of the stubborn robbers as if I had killed the tricorporal Geryon End of Chapter 2 Part 2