 CHAPTER XI My afterwards walking, mingled with the religious crowd, accompanied the sacred pomp, being known and conspicuous to the whole city and distinguished by the fingers and nods of the men. All the people spoke of me and said, The august power of the omnipotent goddess has restored this man to the human form, happy by Hercules and thrice blessed is he, who is deserved by the innocence and probity of the former part of his life, such an illustrious protection from heaven, so that after a manner being born again he is immediately affianced to the ministry of sacred rites. While these things were said, and during the tumult of the festive vows proceeding gradually, we now approached to the shore of the sea, and came to that very place in which, on the preceding day, I, while I was yet an ass, had taken up my abode. The images which the priests of Isis carried, being there properly disposed, the chief dedicated and consecrated to the goddess, a ship most artificially fabricated, on all sides variously adorned with the admirable pictures, that is, hieroglyphics, of the Egyptians, and exquisitely purified with a burning torch, an egg, and sulfur, at the same time pouring forth from his holy mouth the most solemn prayers. The splendid sail of this blessed ship had a vow inscribed in it, in large letters. These letters renewed the vow which had been made on shore for a prosperous event of the new navigation. Now the mast of that ship was raised, which was a round pine tree, tall and splendid, and conspicuous by its remarkable top. The stern also of the ship was decorated with a goose, with an entorted neck, and was refulgent through being covered with golden spangles, and the whole of the polished keel consisted of shining citron wood. Then all the people, as well as the religious and the profane, emulously heaped together corn fans full of aromatics, and things pertaining to supplications, and poured into the sea a melky paste, till the ship, being filled with copious gifts and auspicious prayers, was freed from the ropes that held the anchor, and was restored to the sea with a peculiar and serene wind. After likewise it had preceded so far that the view of it was uncertain to us, each of those who carried the sacred symbols again took what he had brought, and began cheerfully to return to the temple in a decorous manner, and in the same order of procession in which they came from it. But when we arrived at the temple itself, the chief priest and those who carried the divine images, and who some time prior to this had been initiated in the venerable mysteries, being received into the sanctuary of the goddess, disposed in a proper order the breathing resemblances. And one of these, whom all of them called ascribe, standing before the doors, the company of the pastrofori, which is the name of the members of that sacred college, being cited as to an assembly, uttered from a lofty chair, auspicious wishes, from a book in which they were written. For the great emperor, the senate, and the equestrian order, and for all the roman people, and likewise for the nautical ships, and for all those who are governed under the empire of this hour hemisphere, and then he pronounced, in the greek tongue, and after the grecian manner, ployephasia, which signified that divine service was ended, and that it was lawful for every man to depart, which words were followed by a clamour of the people, signifying that all things would happen felicitously to all of them. Afterwards the people being full of joy, carrying with them branches of olive, sweet herbs, and garlands of flowers, and having kissed the footsteps of the goddess, departed to their own habitations. Nevertheless my mind would not suffer me to go even the breadth of a nail from that place, but being attentive to the image of the goddess, I recalled to my memory my former misfortunes. Swift fame, however, had not, in the meantime, been idle, but had everywhere narrated in my country the adorable benefit of the provident goddess, and my memorable fortune, that is my restoration from the asinine to the human form. At length, therefore, my domestics and servants and those who were nearly allied to me by the bond of consanguinity, laying aside the sorrow which they had conceived from the false relation of my death, and exhilarated by a sudden joy hastened immediately to see me, who had been divinely saved and brought back, as it were from the realms beneath, and presented me with various gifts. With the unexpected view of these, I, being delighted, gave them thanks for their worthy gifts, for my domestics had providently taken care to bring me what would be abundantly sufficient for the expenses of my dress and my food, having therefore spoken to each of them as it was my duty to do, and narrated to them my pristine sorrows and my present joy. I again betook myself to a survey of the goddess, which was to me most delightful, and procured for myself a temporary habitation within the enclosure of the temple, still applying myself to the private services of the goddess, being inseparable from the society of the priests, and a constant adorer of the great goddess. Nor did I pass any night or any sleep without some vision and admonition of this divinity, but she ordered me, by frequent mandates, to be now initiated in her sacred mysteries, to which I had been some time ago destined. But I, though it was what I very much desired, was nevertheless restrained by religious fear. For by diligent inquiry I knew that the service of religion was difficult, that the abstinence which chastity required was sufficiently arduous, and that life which is subject to many casualties is to be defended by cautious circumspection. Frequently revolving these things with myself, I deferred the being initiated, I know not how, although hastening to the accomplishment of it. On a certain night I appeared to myself to see in a dream the chief priest offering to me his full lap. And on my asking what that was, he answered me that the contents of his lap were sent to me from Thessaly, for that a servant of mine, whose name was Candidus, had arrived from the same province. When I awoke I revolved in my mind frequently, and for a long time what the vision portended, especially as I was certain that I never had any servant who was called by that name. Nevertheless, I believed that some gain was undoubtedly signified by the priest offering me the contents of his lap. Thus being anxious and attentive to that more abundant gain I impatiently waited for the opening of the temple in the morning. And while the white veils, by which the image of the goddess was screened from the view of the profane being drawn aside in different directions, we implored the venerable face of the goddess. The priest going round the altars, which were disposed in order, applied himself to divine works. And together with the usual prayers, poured from a vessel, water drawn from a fountain, which was in the penetralia of the temple. The sacred rites therefore, being now properly performed, the religious loudly announced the first hour of the day by their morning adorations. And behold, the servant suddenly came from my country, whom I had there left. After photos by her base arrows had forced me to be tied by a rope, that is to become an ass, for my kindred had brought back with them my servants, and also had recovered that horse of mine, which I recognized by the spot on its back, after it had been sold to various persons. Hence, I then especially admired the sagacity of my dream, that besides the congruity of the promised gain, it had restored to me my horse, which was of a white color under the designation of the servant, Canada's. After this I, being still solicitous about the same thing, assiduously applied myself to the worship of the goddess, perceiving that the hope, which I had conceived of future good, was now confirmed by the present benefits. Nevertheless, my desire of engaging in sacred offices increased daily, more and more. Hence I frequently went to the chief priest, and most earnestly entreated him to initiate me in the arcane mysteries of the sacred night. But he, though otherwise a severe man, and celebrated by his observance of that abstemious religion, deferring my request mildly and gently, and in the way in which parents are accustomed to moderate the immature desires of their children, allured my mind, though otherwise anxious, by the solace of better hope. For he said that the day in which he who desired he might be initiated was indicated by the will of the goddess, and that by her providence the priest was chosen who ought to perform the sacred rites, and that by her maddened also the expense necessary for the ceremonies was ordained. All which circumstances, he thought, should induce me to wait with obsequious patience, since we ought by all means to avoid eagerness and obstinacy as faults, and neither be dilatory when called, nor precipitate when not called. He added that there was not any one of their number who was so lost to a sense of propriety, or rather so destined to death, as to rashly and sacrilegiously dare to engage in the service of the goddess, and thus contract a deadly guilt, unless she peculiarly ordered him to do so. For the gates of the realms beneath and the guardianship of life are placed in the hands of the goddess, and the delivery of her mysteries is celebrated as a thing resembling a voluntary death and a precarious life, because she is accustomed to choose for this purpose men who, having arrived at great age, are now placed in the extreme boundary of their life, but to whom nevertheless the great arcana of religion may be safely committed, and who, through her providence, being after a manner born again are restored to the race of a new life, it therefore was requisite that I should also wait for the celestial mandate, although by the clear and manifest favor of the great goddess I had some time ago been called and destined to a blessed service, and that I should now abstain from profane and nefarious food, no less than other worshippers of the divinity, in order that I might, with greater rectitude, accede to the more secret arcana of the most pure religion. Thus spoke the priest, nor was my compliance broken by impatience, but I attentively performed daily the laborious service pertaining to the observance of sacred rites, with mild tranquility in laudable silence. Nor did the salutary benignity of the powerful goddess deceive me, nor torment me by the delay of a length of time, but she clearly admonished me by no obscure mandates of obscure night, that is, in a nocturnal dream, that the day was now arrived that had been always the object of my desire, and in which she would put me in possession of my greatest wish. She also informed me what sum of money would be requisite for my procuring the sacred apparatus, and at the same time appointed for me as the minister of sacred rites, that very Mithras himself, her own chief priest, who, she said, was conjoined to me by a certain divine consent of the stars, but I, by these of other benevolent precepts of the supreme goddess, being mentally refreshed, sleep having left me, though it was not yet clear day, immediately proceeded to the dwelling of the priest, and having found him then going out of his bed-chamber, I saluted him, and I had now determined to request more firmly than ever that I might commence my religious service as a thing that was due to me, but he as soon as he saw me began prior to me, thus to speak. Oh, my Lucius, how happy and blessed are you, whom the August Divinity is so greatly honoured by her propitious will, and why, said he, do you now stand idle and make any delay? The day sought by your continual wishes is now present to you, in which you will be initiated in the most pious arcana of sacred rites, by these my hands, through the divine mandates of the multi-nominal goddess, and the most humane old man taking hold of me by the hand, led me immediately to the doors of the most ample temple, and having performed the office of opening them in the accustomed solemn way, and making the morning sacrifice, he took from the most inward parts of the adetum certain books written in unknown characters, that is, in hieroglyphics, partly compenduously suggesting the words of a discourse by the figures of animals of every kind, and partly fortified against the inquisitive perusal of the profane by knotted accents, and which were bent after the manner of a wheel, and folded in each other like the tendrils of a vine. From these books he informed me what must necessarily be prepared by me for the purpose of initiation. Immediately, therefore, I strenuously procured the previous requisites, and somewhat more abundantly than I was ordered to do, partly through myself and partly through my associates. And when the time, as the priest said, required it, he led me to the nearest bath, which was surrounded by a company of religious men, and when he had placed me in the accustomed bath, he himself washed me, and sprinkled me with water in the purest manner, after he at first implored the pardon of the gods. Again also he brought me back to the temple, and there placed me before the footsteps of the goddess, two parts of the day having been now passed over, and having given certain mandates in secret, which are too holy to be uttered, he clearly ordered before all that were present that I should abstain from luxurious food during those ten continued days, and that I should not eat the flesh of any animal, and should refrain from wine. These precepts, therefore having been properly observed by me with a venerable continence, the day had now arrived in which I was to appear before the image of the goddess Isis in order to be initiated, and the sun descending led on the evening. Then behold, there was a conflux of the people on all sides, every one honoring me with various gifts, according to the ancient custom of sacred rites. Then also the priest, all the profane being removed, taking hold of me by the hand, brought me to the penetralia of the temple, clothed in a new linen garment. Perhaps inquisitive reader, you will very anxiously ask me what was then said and done. I would tell you if it could be lawfully told. You should know it if it was lawful for you to hear it. But both the ears and the tongue are guilty of rash curiosity. Nevertheless, I will not keep you in suspense with religious desire nor torment you with long continued anxiety. Here, therefore, but believe what is true, I approach to the confines of death, and having trod on the threshold of prosopinae, I returned from it, being carried through all the elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining with a splendid light, and I manifestly drew near to the gods beneath, and the gods above, and proximately adored them. Behold, I have narrated to you things of which, though heard, it is nevertheless necessary that you should be ignorant. I will, therefore, only relaint that, which may be enunciated to the understanding of the profane without a crime. The morning arose, and the solemnities being performed, I came forth consecrated in twelve sacerdotal garments, in a dress indeed very religious, but of which I am not forbidden by any law to speak, because it was seen by many who were then present. For by order of the priest I ascended a wooden throne, which was in the very middle of the sacred dwelling, that is, of the temple, and was placed before the image of the goddess, and there I sat conspicuous in a garment which was indeed linen, but was elegantly painted. A precious cloak also depended from my shoulders behind my back, as far as to my heels. Nevertheless, to whatever part of me you directed your view, you might see that I was remarkable by the animals which were painted round my vestment in various colors. Here were Indian dragons, their hyperborean griffins, which the other hemisphere generates in the form of a winged animal. Men devoted to the service of divinity called this cloak the Olympic garment, but in my right hand I carried a burning torch, and my head was decorously encircled with a crown, the shining leaves of the palm tree projecting from it like rays of light. Thus being adorned like the sun and placed so as to resemble a statue, on a sudden the veils being drawn aside, I was exhibited to the eyes of the people. Afterwards I celebrated the most joyful day of my initiation, as my natal day, by delightfully pleasant and facetious banquets. The third day also was celebrated with the same ceremonies, and was accompanied by a religious breakfast and the legitimate consummation of the initiation. And having stayed for some days in that place, I enjoyed through the divine image, that is the image of the Goddess, an inexplicable pleasure being indebted to it for a benefit which can never be repaid. Nevertheless, through the admonition of the Goddess, having suppleantly given her thanks, though not such as she deserved, yet to the best of my ability, I prepared myself very slowly to return home. Having therefore with difficulty burst the bonds of my most ardent desire of remaining with the Goddess, I at length prostrated myself before her, and having for a long time wiped her footsteps with my face, the tears bursting forth, interrupting also my speech by frequent sobs, and as it were devouring my words, I thus addressed the Goddess. Thou, O holy and perpetual saviour of the human race, being always munificent in cherishing mortals, dost employ the sweet affection of a mother on the misfortunes of the miserable. Nor is there any day or night, or even a slender moment of time which passes unattended by thy benevolent interpositions, thou protectest men both by sea and land, and dispersing the storms of life dost extend thy salutary right hand, by which thou draws back the inextricably twisted thread of the fates, and dost mitigate the tempest of inclement fortune, and restrain the noxious courses of the stars. Superdial gods reverence thee, and those in the realms beneath attentively, observe thy nod. Thou, role-less for the sphere of the universe, round the steady poles, dost illuminate the sun, govern the world, and tread on the dark realms of Tartarus. The stars move responsive to thy command, the gods rejoice at thy divinity, the hours and seasons return by thy appointment, and the element reverents thy decree. By thy nod blasts of wind blow, the clouds are nourished, seeds germinate, and blossoms increase. Birds swiftly passing through the tracks of the air, wild beasts wandering on the mountains, serpents concealed in the ground, and the enormous monsters that swim in the sea are terrified at the majesty which invests thy divinity. But I, who in celebrating thy praises possess but weak abilities, and for offering sacrifices but a slender patrimony, have by no means eloquence sufficient to express all that I conceive of the dignity of thy nature, nor are a thousand mouths, and as many tongues nor the eternal series of unwearied speech equal to the arduous task. I will therefore be solicitous to perform that, which a religious though poor man may be able to effect, for I will image to myself thy divine countenance, and most sacred deity and perpetually preserved and concealed in the most secret recesses of my soul. After this manner having implored the supreme goddess, I embraced the priest Mithras, whom I now called my parent, and clinging to his neck and giving him many kisses, I begged him to pardon me that I could not remunerate him in a manner adequate to such mighty benefits, and therefore I had been for a long time engaged in giving him thanks, I at last departed and proceeded directly to my paternal abode in order to revisit it after so long an absence. Hence when a few days had elapsed, I rapidly collected together my viatica in bundles through the admonition of the powerful goddess, and entering into a ship I directed my course towards Rome. Being likewise certain of prosperous winds during my voyage, I quickly entered into port, afterwards travelled with great rapidity in a chariot, and arrived at this hallowed city on the day before the Ides of December in the evening. Nor afterwards was any concern of such principal importance with me as that of daily supprecating the supreme divinity of Queen Isis, who is there propitiated with the greatest veneration under the name of Isis Capensis, which appellation she is allotted from the situation of her temple. Lastly, I was an assiduous worshiper of her divinity, being a foreigner indeed in her temple, but a domestic of her religion, and behold, when the great sun having passed through the sign-bearing circle, that is the zodiac, having completed the year, the vigilant care of the beneficent goddess again interrupted my sleep, and again admonished me of initiation and sacred rites, and I wondered what she was preparing for me to do and what future event she announced, for how is it possible I should not, since I appeared to myself to have been already abundantly initiated. While therefore I partly discuss my religious scruple in my own mind, and partly avail myself of the councils of the priests, a novel and perfectly admirable circumstance took place, for I found that I was only initiated in the mysteries of the goddess, but not in those of the great god and supreme father of the gods, the invincible Osiris, for though the nature of their divinity and religion is connected, or rather is transcendently united, nevertheless there is the greatest difference in the initiations into their mysteries, hence it ought to be known by me that the great god required that I should be one of his servants, nor did the thing long remain ambiguous, for on the following night I saw in a dream one of the priests clothed in the garments, who, carrying Theosai and Ivy and certain other things of which it is not lawful to speak, placed them before my household gods, and occupying my seat announced to me that I should prepare the banquets of a magnificent religion. He also walked gently with a limping step, the ankle bone of his left foot being a little bent, in order that he might forward me some sign by which I might know him. All the darkness of ambiguity therefore was removed after such a manifest declaration of the will of the gods. Hence, as soon as I had performed the morning salutations of the goddess, I diligently inquired whether any one of the priests resembled him whom I had seen in a dream, nor was he wanting, for I immediately beheld one of the pastorforae exactly according with the nocturnal image, not only by the indication of his foot but also by his stature and features, and who as I afterwards knew was called Asinius Marcellus, a name not foreign to my transformation. Without delay therefore I went directly to him who was not ignorant of what I intended to say, because he had already been admonished by a similar mandate that he should initiate me in the mysteries of Osiris. For on the preceding night, while I was adapting crowns for the statue of the great god, he seemed to himself to have heard from that mouth of his, by which he pronounces the destiny of everything, that he should send the Madurencian to him, who was very poor, and to whom his sacred mysteries ought immediately to be administered. For the god said that by his providence renown from religious studies was prepared for the Madurencian and great gain for him, that is, for Asinius Marcellus. After this manner, being affianced to sacred concerns, I was retarded contrary to my wishes through the slanderness of my means to pay the necessary expenses. For the money which I had spent in my journey had consumed the small substance of my patrimony, and the presence which it was requisite I should make in Rome, in order to be initiated in the mysteries of Osiris, exceeded those which I had before made in a Roman province. Hard poverty, therefore, being greatly adverse to my desire, I was tormented, being placed according to the proverb between a sacrifice and a stone. Nor was I less urged by the pressing mandate of the god, and now being frequently stimulated, not without great perturbation, at last by command of the divinity having sold my garment, though but small, I collected a sum sufficient for the purpose. And this very thing I was expressly ordered to do, for the god said to me, Would you at all spare your garments in attempting to procure anything which might administer to your pleasure? And are you now, when you are going to be initiated in such great mysteries, dubious whether you shall commit yourself to poverty, unattended with repentance? All things therefore being abundantly prepared, again being satisfied for ten days with inanimate food, and besides this being also instructed in the nocturnal orgies of the chief god Serapis, I now complied with the divine mandate, full of that confidence which my knowledge of a kindred religion produced. This circumstance afforded the greatest consolation to my peregrination, and at the same time more largely supplied me with the means of subsistence. For the deity of good event being favorable, I supported myself through the gain which I acquired in the forum by pleading causes in the Latin tongue. Behold also, a short time after this, I was again excited by the unexpected and perfectly wonderful mandates of the gods, and was compelled to undertake a third initiation. But I, not lightly solicitous, and in a state of great suspense, frequently exercised my thoughts in considering what the intention could be of this new and unheard-of will of the gods, and what could still remain to be added to an initiation already twice repeated, for I said, both the priests have either wrongly advised me, or less fully, than they ought to have done, and by Hercules I now also began to entertain a bad opinion of their fidelity. While, however, I was thus fluctuating in a stormy sea of thought, and agitated as if I had been insane, the mild image of the god thus instructed me by a nocturnal vision. There is no reason, it said, that you should be terrified by the long series of religious rites, as if anything had been previously omitted, but you ought rather to be exceedingly joyful on account of the honor which the gods assiduously pay you, and to exalt that you will thrice obtain a thing which is scarcely evened once granted to others, and you may justly presume from that number that you will always be blessed. Moreover, you will find that this third initiation is very necessary for you, if you now consider with yourself, that the garment of the goddess with which you were invested in the province remains deposited in the same temple, and that you cannot supplicate at Rome on solemn days in a garment of this kind, or be rendered illustrious by that blessed vestment when you shall be commanded to put it on, in order, therefore, that you may be happy, fortunate, and healthful, again with a joyful mind be initiated in sacred mysteries by the command of the great gods Osiris, Serapis, and Isis. Thus far the persuasive majesty of the divine dream announced to me what was requisite to be done, nor did I neglect the affair afterwards, nor deferred by supine procrastination, but immediately relating what I had seen to my priest, I lived chastely and abstained from animal food, and having of my own accord extended my abstinence beyond those ten days prescribed by a perpetual law, I brought what was requisite for my initiation, spending more largely from a pious intention than with a view to what was wanted, nor by Hercules did I at all repent of my labours and expenses, for by the liberal providence of the gods I was sufficiently enriched by forensic gain. At length, after a very few days, had elapsed, the God Osiris, who is the chief of the great gods, the highest of the greater, the greatest of the highest, and the ruler of the greatest, not being now transformed into some foreign person, but manifestly deigning to speak to me in his own divine words, seemed to me in a dream to declare that I should now indubitably plead causes in the forum with renown, and that I should not fear the slanders of the malevolent, which the learning I had acquired by laborious study would their excite, and in order that I might minister to his sacred rites, mingled with a crowd of other religious men, he chose me to be one of his pastaforae, and also placed me among the quinquennial decourians. And, lastly, my hair being again perfectly shaved, I joyfully performed the duties of that most ancient college, and which was established about the time of Scylla, not shading or covering my boldness, but rendering it in all parts conspicuous. End of chapter 11 part 2 Recording by Todd Albrek End of the Metamorphosis or Golden Nass by Apalaeus Translated by Thomas Taylor