Metamorphoses, << MEHT uh MAWR fuh seez, >> is the title of two classics of Latin literature, one written by Ovid and the other by Lucius Apuleius. Metamorphoses means transformations, and both books deal literally and thematically with many kinds of transformations in culture, history, and mythology. For example, in a story in the Ovid Metamorphoses, the nymph Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree. In the Apuleius Metamorphoses, a young man is transformed into a donkey.
Ovid’s work is a collection of stories in verse composed about A.D. 8. The stories are filled with characters from ancient history, legend, and mythology adapted from already familiar Greek and Roman sources. Although the stories are not connected, they generally tell the history of the world chronologically. Ovid began by describing how the world was created out of unformed material called Chaos. Ovid ended his book with the elevation of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar into a god after Caesar’s death in 44 B.C. The very theme of metamorphosis hints that even Rome is not too stable as an institution.
Apuleius wrote his Metamorphoses during the A.D. mid-100’s. The work is also called The Golden Ass. The book is the only complete ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive to modern times. The author based the work on Greek sources. Lucius, a young man who uses a magic ointment that turns him into a donkey, narrates the story. In this form, he wanders through Greece, enduring abuse from several owners. The book includes many lively stories involving such themes as witchcraft and love. The tone ranges from comedy to horror. The most famous story tells about Cupid, the Roman god of love, and his beautiful mortal wife, Psyche. At the end of the book, Lucius is restored into his human form by the Egyptian goddess Isis.
Apuleius’s Metamorphoses is especially valued for its descriptions of many ancient religious sects and ceremonies and for its portrait of manners in the ancient world. The book had a major impact on later European narrative literature. It influenced such writers as Giovanni Boccaccio of Italy, Miguel de Cervantes of Spain, and François Rabelais of France.
