CLLA 411
Advanced Latin: Apuleius Spring 2025
Division I

In this class, we will study Apuleius’ hilarious and disturbing Latin novel, Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass. This work explores the themes of curiosity, witchcraft, transformation, animality, and religious conversion through the figure of Lucius, a man who accidentally turns himself into a donkey and remains trapped in this body through various trials and adventures. We will translate the famous inset narrative of “Cupid and Psyche,” as well as reading the entire work in English. Our time in class will be spent translating together and discussing readings, which will also include selections from contemporary scholarship and a modern novel inspired by this narrative, C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces. As the final component, students will complete a creative project consisting of their own creative work in any medium inspired by the novel and a commentary that engages closely with the Latin text.