Introduction

About the lecture

In this module, we provide a brief introduction to Apuleius and his Metamorphoses (also known as 'The Golden Ass'), focusing in particular on: (i) Apuleius' early life and education, his travels around the Roman Empire, and his study of rhetoric and philosophy; (ii) the position of the tale of Cupid and Psyche within Apuleius' novel as a whole; and (iii) the basic plot of Apuleius' Metamorphoses.

About the lecturer

Costas Panayotakis is Professor of Latin at Glasgow University. His research interests are on Latin fiction, especially of the Neronian period, and on Roman comic theatre of the Republic. He is currently working on a critical edition of the fragments of Fabula Atellana and a translation and commentary on the sententiae of the Syrian mime-writer Publilius.