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69-11701 SANDY, Gerald N Eil, 1937 I This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 69-11,701 SANDY, Gerald Neil, 1937- COMPARATIVE STUDY OF APULEIUS1 META­ MORPHOSES AND OTHER PROSE FICTION OF ANTIQUITY. [Portions of Text in Latin]. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1968 Language and Literature, classical University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan © Copyright by- Gerald Hell Sandy 1969 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AFUIEIUS’ METAMORPHOSES AND OTHER PROSE FICTION OF ANTIQUITY DISSERTATION Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Gerald Neil Sandy, B.A., A.M. ****** The Ohio State University 1968 Approved by Adviser Department of Classics iii VITA October 15, 1937 Born - Cleveland, Ohio 1 9 6 3 ......... B.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 196^-1966 . Teaching Assistant, Department of Classics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 196^......... M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 196 7 ......... Instructor, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 196 8 ......... Assistant Professor, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada FIELDS OF STUDY Latin Literature. Professor Kenneth M. Abbott Greek Literature. Professors Clarence Forbes and Robert J. Lenardon Reman and Greek History. Professor W. F. McDonald Linguistics. Professor Kenneth M. Abbott Palaeography. Professor Kenneth M. Abbott Textual Criticism. Professor John Titchener CONTENTS Page VITA.................................................... iii PREFACE..................................... ............ iv INTRODUCTION............................................. 1 Chapter I THE THEME OF THE METAMORPHOSES................... 8 II THE STRUCTURE OF THE METAMORPHOSES............... k6 III COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE NARRATIVE OF THE METAMORPHOSES AND OTHERPROSE FICTION OF ANTIQUITY 79 Milieu....................................... 81 Tone......................................... 82 Foreign Literary Genres in Prose Fiction........ 93 Foreign literary genresin the comic romances . 100 Literary allusions in the Satyr ic o n ........ 102 Scientific Digressions........................ Ill Inserted Tales............................... 118 Transcending Powers.......................... 126 Soliloquies................................. 133 Ekphraseis................................... 138 CONCLUSION............. 1^2 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 153 iv PREFACE In view of the Importance of the novel today, the fictional prose of antiquity is a surprisingly neglected area of scholarly study. Treatments of "connecting links," "forerunners," "intermediate stages of development" and Quellenforschung in general are frequent enough.^ What is lacking is not a study of the relationship of the Greek and Latin romances to what supposedly preceded them, but a study of their relationship to one another.2 In attempting to fill this gap in our understanding I shall use a twofold approach: I shall first analyze the theme and structure of Apuleius' Metamorphoses; with reference to this analysis I shall next note, evaluate and discuss the comparable thematic and structural elements which appear in other novelists of antiquity. These writers are for my purposes Petronius and the anonymous author of Apollonius of Tyre in Latin and Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesus, Heliodorus of Emesa and Achilles Tatius in Greek. Infrequent notice will be taken of Petronius since the fragmentary nature of the Satyricon precludes accurate analysis. Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, though p r o b a b l y ^ e n Perry, The Ancient Romances (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 19 6 7 )* pp. llff., criticizes the '^biological'" approach to literature, i.e., the tendency to search for "stages of development" and their like. a exception to this is Lucian's Aountoq T7 *bvo£ • It and its relationship to Apuleius1 Metamorphoses have been the object of specialized studies by several scholar's, e.g., Paul Junghanns, Rxilologus, Suppl. 24, Heft 1 (1932). To avoid rehashing the excellent work that has been done on this question, I exclude the *t)vos from my study. iv V the best of the Greek romances, will receive only cursory attention; its fixed bucolic setting and slowly evolving narrative of the psychology of love make it unsuitable for comparison with the adventure-filled, variegated Metamorphoses. INTRODUCTION The opening words of the Metamorphoses would seem to discourage a critic from expecting to find coherence of any sort: At ego tibl sermone lsto Mileslo varlas fabulas conseram (l,l; 1,1).3- Modern critics have not been lacking to illustrate by example the prophetic nature of this opening passage. Foremost among those who doubt Apuleius' ability to impart unity and consistency to his narrative are Rudolf Helm and Ben Perry.^ The words of a modern critic.; who in general is sympathetic toward Apuleius, are suggestive of the difficulty in demonstrating a cohesive narrative for the Metamorphoses: "Atque Apuleius . consulto varias fabulas nttl.loq.ue inter se nexu cohaerentes levlssimis tantum vinculis fabulae primariae adiunxit. "3 A few of the objections expressed by Helm and Perry will indicate the nature of the criticism that has been made. 3-All citations of Apuleius' Metamorphoses are from Rudolf Helm's edition (Leipzig, 1931)* For the sake of precision I give the page and line numbers of Helm's text. For those who may not have that text at hand I have included the conventional book and chapter citations. Thus the citation "1,1; 1,1" denotes "Book I, chapter 1; page 1, line 1." Occasionally only the book and chapter reference will be cited e.g., "I, 1." My quotations differ from time to time from Helm's orthography, e.g., imp - for Helm's inp ^Perry's remarks on this topic as well as references to other critics appear In Ancient Romances, pp. 2k2ft., and in his numerous articles which are referred to in the Notes of that book, pp. 3Tiff •; Helm's in the praefatio to his edition of Apuleius' Florida (Leipzig, 1910), pp. xv-xvii. Also see S. Hammer, Eos 28 (192$) 51 and nn. 2-3, for citations of others critical of Apuleius' narrative skill. ^Hammer, op.clt., p. 51. 1 2 Ferry's views about the Metamorphoses of Apuleius are usually linked very closely to his preoccupation with the original but now lost MexajLtopcpajae ic; ascribed by Ehotius (Bibllotheca, 129) to Lucius of Patrae and the sur­ viving epitome often said to be by Lucian, entitled Aomttoc; fj Perry states, "I have noted upwards of fifty instances in which Apuleius is plainly wrong, that is, self-contradictory or intrinsically absurd or distinctly less plausible or less logical than the ”0vo£ ,"5 and else­ where that "Apuleius would not write or plan an extensive book for the sake of illustrating any moral or any one idea. Ferry brings ancient testimony to bear on the same point. Macrobius (Commentary to Cicero's Somnium Scipionls, I, 2,8): "argumenta fictis casibus amatorum referta, quibus vel multum se Arbiter exercuit vel Apuleium nonnumquam luslsse miramur." And Julius Capitolinus (Vita Clodil Albini, XI and XII) states that Albinus was said to have composed "Milesias quarum fame non lgnobilis habetur, quamvis mediocriter scriptae sint." Capitolinus goes on to give the views of Septimius Severus about Albinus: Maior fuit dolor quod ilium pro litter.ato laudandum plerique duxistis, cum ille neniis quibus- dsun eailibus occupatus inter Milesias Punic as Apulei sui et ludicra litterarla consenesceret. From this ancient testimony Perry Implicitly draws the conclusion that Milesian tales are lascivious nugae. As to the literary framework of ^A convenient resume of the prdblem of the interrelationship among these three stories of change may be found in Ferry, "The Literary Art of Apuleius," TAPA 54 (1923) 196tt, 5ibid., p. 1 9 8 . ^Ancient Romances, p. 372, n. 10 (which begins on p. 371). 3 the Milesian tale, the generally held view of modern scholars is that it was not continuous but rather comprised of disjunct a membra. 7 Perry considers the story of Thelyphron to be an awkward compound of three different stories: (l) a tale of magic in which a penalty is to be paid by the guardian if he fails to protects the corpse; (2 ) a narrative of the disastrous results of two people having the same name; and (3) the story of the necromancer Zatchlas.8 For proof of this contention Perry elaborates on what he considers to be incongruities. From Ferry’s discussion I repeat only enough of his objections to give a general idea of their nature. For instance, the widow of the man whose corpse Thelyphron is to guard weeps in the presence of Thelyphron alone, though she has no reason to pretend that she is the grieving widow she is later found out not to be.9 Perry further wonders why Thelyphron*s ears and nose do not fall off during the beating which he receives as the result of an untimely remark (II, 2 6 ), since his nose and ears later fall off at a touch (II, 30).10 Perry raises the same kind of doubts about the very similar story of Socrates which is told, as in The Canterbury Tales, by one Tftncient Romances, pp. 92-95. 8"The Story of Thelyphron in Apuleius," CP 24 (1929) 231-238. For a rebuttal, see Blanche Brotherton, "The Introduction of Characters by Name in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius," ibid., 29 (193*0 4-7-50 and especially p. 47, n. 3 8 . Cf., too, Paul Vallet'te in his introduction to the Bude edition of the Metamorphoses (Paris, 1 9 6 5), p. xxvii, n. 8 . 9Perry, ibid., p. 232. l°Ibid., p. 2 3 3 . wayfarer to another.11 In it Perry sees a weak combining of two stories, a witch tale and the account of a lover's attempted suicide. Ferry notes that the suicide attempt (I, 1*0 has much in common with similar attempts in erotic contexts hut is inappropriate for the circumstances of this episode.12 Ferry continues by arguing that the words which pass between a doorkeeper and Aristomenes are senseless in this non-erotic c o n t e x t ,13 In short, there are genuine absurdities in the text.
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