41 pages • 1 hour read
ApuleiusA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Not for nothing is Lucius transformed into an ass: The symbolism fits him just right. The donkey has long represented stubborn persistence, lowliness, foolishness, brutishness, and hard work—qualities the pleasure-loving upper-class Lucius must either embrace or admit to during his ordeal. But with its long, sensitive ears, the donkey is also a listener. As Lucius remarks, donkeys get to hear all kinds of stories that humans miss. The story’s donkey imagery thus underlines that Lucius’s metamorphosis isn’t just a freak accident, but a humbling education: Being a donkey “render[s him] well-rounded, if not wise” (195). As a donkey, he gains knowledge of both the world and his own nature.
The astonishing statue of Diana and Actaeon that decorates Byrrhena’s foyer foreshadows Lucius’s entire story: It represents a human’s magical metamorphosis into an animal, reflects the transformative power of art, and suggests that moon goddesses are not to be trifled with! As a fiction that brings strange truths to life, this statue echoes The Golden Ass—but its perfection counterintuitively makes a subtle case for the superior power of storytelling among the arts. The statue’s intense-but-fantastical
9th-12th Grade Historical Fiction
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Allegories of Modern Life
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Ancient Rome
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Animals in Literature
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Art
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Coming-of-Age Journeys
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European History
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Fantasy
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Laugh-out-Loud Books
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Mythology
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Pride Month Reads
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School Book List Titles
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