A Companion to the Prologue of Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Nowadays we can judge books by their covers. In antiquity, when a 'book' was a papyrus roll, its first few words advertised the nature of the text to follow. The Prologue of Apuleius' innovative novel, the Metamorphoses (or Golden Ass), is an extraordinary example of a programmatic opening, which has captivated readers and scholars from the Renaissance to the present day. This short text raises a variety of important questions about liberty, andabout historical and linguistic interpretation. Along with a new text and translation of the Prologue, the twenty-four discussions in this volume, commissioned from internationally known specialists,cover issues ranging from philosophy and cultural history to intertextuality and Latinity. This collection of essays combines the broader perspectives of an interdisciplinary anthology with the closer focus of a traditional commentary. As a model for collaborative work, it displays the strength and diversity of existing approaches to ancient texts and is designed to stimulate new developments in the study of classics and later literatures.

“"This book of 325 pages...is given over to only the first 119 words of Apuleius'Metamorphosesin twenty-four essays by some of the best Classicists of this generation."--Religious Studies Review”

One of the most extraordinary projects of recent times. Greece & Rome The format, provides real benefits, allowing for a more diverse exploration of the issues than a typical commentary, with each chapter teasing out a little more fully the dynamics of the Prologue and the remarkable novel it introduces Helen L. Morales, Times Literary Supplement

Andrew Laird is at University of Warwick, and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Classics at Princeton University. Ahuvia Kahane is at Northwestern University.

Nowadays we can judge books by their covers. In antiquity, when a 'book' was a papyrus roll, its first few words advertised the nature of the text to follow. The Prologue of Apuleius' innovative novel, the Metamorphoses (or Golden Ass), is an extraordinary example of a programmatic opening, which has captivated readers and scholars from the Renaissance to the present day. This short text raises a variety of important questions about liberty, and about historical and linguistic interpretation. Along with a new text and translation of the Prologue, the twenty-four discussions in this volume, commissioned from internationally known specialists, cover issues ranging from philosophy and cultural history to intertextuality and Latinity. This collection of essays combines the broader perspectives of an interdisciplinary anthology with the closer focus of a traditional commentary. As a model for collaborative work, it displays the strength and diversity of existing approaches to ancient texts and is designed to stimulate new developments in the study of classics and later literatures.

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