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Rudis Locutor: Speech and Self-Fashioning in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses

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Rudis Locutor: Speech and Self-Fashioning in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses Rudis Locutor: Speech and Self-Fashioning in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses by Evelyn Wynn Adkins A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Classical Studies) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Professor David S. Potter, Chair Professor Sara Ahbel-Rappe Associate Professor Basil Dufallo Professor Yopie Prins If this were a novel it would be the ‘frame story,’ isn’t that what they call it, but it would have an even bigger story inside it. About history. About truth. John Crowley, Aegypt Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist © Evelyn Wynn Adkins 2014 For my parents, with more love and thanks than I can put into words. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work bears the mark of many hands. First and foremost, I thank David Potter for his academic and professional support. Thanks for always encouraging me to see the big picture, unexpected angles, and new connections. Thanks to Basil Dufallo, for discussions about Apuleius and Petronius and for challenging me to keep strengthening my arguments and definitions. To Sara Ahbel-Rappe, for your insightful comments, for Bourdieu, and for urging me to question the systems of the ancient world. To Yopie Prins, for pointing me towards linguistic anthropology, which is providing me with new insights into discourse and power. And to Mira Seo, for helping me take those first steps in organizing my thoughts about Apuleius. Thanks must also go to the Department of Classical Studies at Michigan. To Ruth Scodel as chair, for supporting my interests in Apuleius and archaeology, and for enabling me to teach the ancient novel at Michigan State. Thank you for your generous guidance in teaching us about Classics as a profession as well as a discipline. To Arthur Verhoogt, for your years of advising throughout my graduate career. To Chris Ratté, for your professional and personal advice, for overseeing the final stages of my master’s degree, and for Aphrodisias. To Bruce Frier, for reading my first chapter and for discussions about deviance. Thanks to the many Classics faculty who have chatted with iii me in the hall about Apuleius. Infinite thanks to the amazing Classics staff, especially Michelle Biggs. I would not have survived graduate school, teaching, or the job market without your help. Thanks to colleagues beyond Michigan who have supported this project. To Keith Bradley and Ewen Bowie, for great conversations, helpful feedback, and for introducing me to many other scholars of the ancient novel. To the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Margie Miles, Jack Davis, Michael MacKinnon, Guy Sanders, and Charles K. Williams II, who taught me so much about ancient and modern Greece. To my fellow Regular and Associate Members of 2010-2011: I will never forget our year exploring Greece together. Many thanks to those who first introduced me to the study of the ancient world: the Classics Department at Macalester College, especially Beth Severy-Hoven, Joseph L. Rife, and Mireille Lee. To friends at Michigan past and present, who are always ready to listen, laugh, and vent: Karen Acton, Laura Banducci, Joe Beals, Cassandra Borges, Clara Bosak- Schroeder, Ellen Cole, Angela Committo, Jason Farr, Harriet Fertik, Nick Geller, Carolyn Gersh, Joe Groves, Dina Guth, Ryan Hughes, Tom Landvatter, Mike Leese and Amy Warhaft, Katherine Lu and Dave Hsu, Charlotte Maxwell-Jones, Jonathan and Tiggy McLaughlin, Jana Mokrisova, Beth Platte, Rebecca Porte, Anne Reidmiller, Jared Secord, and many others. Thanks to the Dissertator’s Group and Three Fields Talks organizers, who gave me opportunities to present my research to my graduate colleagues. Thanks to the Ann Arbor School of Yoga and Laurie Blakely, for keeping me sane during the final years of my dissertation. And to the ladies and gent of Unveiled iv Dance Company, thanks for keeping me productively insane throughout graduate school. I could not have done this without the weekly support, laughter, and dancing. Thanks to my friends and family. To my parents, who have always supported me in every way possible - here’s to many more trips together to Mediterranean lands! Love and thanks to Jared, Tara, Bodhi, Opal, and the forthcoming Adkins. To my aunt Anne and my grandparents, Marion and Rufus, for always encouraging me. To Pops and Grandma Dot: I know you would have loved to see this. To the Hammond and Banka clans, who have welcomed me so warmly into your families. And thanks especially to some of the most brilliant and amazing friends I’ve had the pleasure of knowing: Jacquelyn Clements, Sarah Detzner, Sara Lampert, Laura Mariani, and Joanna Stein. To my husband, Mark D. Hammond: thank you for listening, for reading, for your daily love and support, and for your contributions to my ever-growing collection of donkey-related items. My donkeys will always share space with your books. This research was supported by the Department of Classical Studies; a Rackham Graduate School Humanities Dissertation Fellowship (2009-2010), Graduate Student Research Grant (2011), and Centennial Grant (2012); and a Michael Jameson Fellowship at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (2010-2011). v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... iii Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................... vii Abstract........................................................................................................................................ viii Introduction.....................................................................................................................................1 The Life and Works of Apuleius .........................................................................................................3 The Metamorphoses...........................................................................................................................12 History of Scholarship .......................................................................................................................16 Speech and Self-Presentation in the Second Sophistic......................................................................19 Discourse Analysis and Apuleius’ Metamorphoses ..........................................................................24 Speech and Self-Fashioning in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses ...............................................................28 Chapter One. The Priests and the Bandits: The Speech of Alternative Communities...........33 The Priests of the Syrian Goddess .....................................................................................................36 The Bandits........................................................................................................................................44 The Robbers’ Rhetoric.......................................................................................................................47 Chapter Two. Public Speech and Self-Fashioning.....................................................................61 The Tale of Thelyphron .....................................................................................................................65 Lucius at the Festival of Laughter .....................................................................................................70 The Wise Physician of Apuleius’ Phaedra .......................................................................................82 Truth and the Body ............................................................................................................................88 Chapter Three. Lucius’ Speech and Self-Fashioning ................................................................93 Lucius’ Characterization....................................................................................................................96 Lucius’ First Master: Milo...............................................................................................................103 Lucius’ Metamorphosis ...................................................................................................................111 Social Status and Strategies of Communication..............................................................................115 Chapter Four. Curiosity, Magic, Silence, and Revelation.......................................................127 A Brief History of Curiosity............................................................................................................130 The Benefits of Silence....................................................................................................................136 Unheeded Warnings: Magic and the Dangers of Curiosity.............................................................140 Lucius’ Magical Initiation ...............................................................................................................148 Asinine Curiosity, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Ears...................................151 Silence and Revelation ....................................................................................................................157
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