The metamorphosis, or golden ass, and philosophical works, of Apuleius [A. on the God of Socrates; A. on the habitude of the doctrines of Plato] / Translated from the original Latin, by Thomas Taylor.

  • Apuleius
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The metamorphosis, or golden ass, and philosophical works, of Apuleius [A. on the God of Socrates; A. on the habitude of the doctrines of Plato] / Translated from the original Latin, by Thomas Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was fatigued, with great difficulty, and brought him to my inn; where I refreshed him with a 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 bis indignant right hand, exclaimed as follows. “ Miserable creature that I am! said lie; who, while I was intent on gratifying myself with the sufficiently celebrated spectacle of gladiators, have fallen into these calamities. For, as you wTell know, when I w7ent to Macedonia for the sake of gain, and was there detained for the space of ten months; on my return from thence, enriched by merchandise, and a little before I came to Larissa'1, in order to see the above-mentioned spectacle, I wTas attacked by a band of most desperate robbers, in a certain devious and winding valley : from whom, how- ever, 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 wras Meroe, and who, though old, was very pleasant and agreeable : and to her 1 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 parti- culars 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, unhappy man, lay wTith her, I contracted a lasting pesti- lence [viz. a most baneful love] from only being once connected with her: and even gave her those ragged garments wffiich the humane robbers had left me to h A city of Thessaly, situated near the river Peneus, and the country cf Achilles. Hence he was called Larissacus.
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