Anti-Christian Allusions in Apuleius' Metamorphoses

In the present paper I propose a reading of Apuleius' Metamorphoses against the background of early Christianity and its clash with pagan opinion during the first centuries of the Roman Empire. Essaying a brief but comprehensive discussion of the evidence pointing towards the presence of anti-christian allusions in the African author's work, the baker's wife episode being perhaps the most evident instance thereof, I will try to examine how the new religion is also related to major themes of the novel, most notably its use of the ass motif and the distinction it draws between beneficial and malevolent forms of magic. In the final section, I will conclude by arguing that the problems which surround the episode involving the priests of Atargatis can be resolved if we interpret it as a veiled attack on specific aspects of contemporary Christianity.

The fertility of this approach is best illustrated if we consider its results regarding the riddle of the novel's unity. More specifically, the apparently unbridgeable gap, both in content and tone, between the eleventh and final book of the Metamorphoses and the work's main bulk has seriously divided scholarly opinion. There are two views as to how these two parts might be linked1. The first group invokes the author's supposedly forthright statement in the prologue that the ensuing narrative is nothing but a colorful concatenation of diverse stories, whose sole aim is to amuse the reader2. On this reading, the particularly solemn atmosphere of the eleventh book, where the protagonist's initiation into the Isiac mysteries is described in lavish detail, serves precisely this programmatic goal of variatio. Accordingly, there is no question of genuine inconsistency with the predominantly light, often bawdy character of the stories comprising the novel's main body. On the other side of the interpetive spectrum are those scholars who, downplaying the work's avowed Milesian identity and considering the concluding book as offering the key to the novel's true meaning, claim that the Metamorphoses is a kind of Bildungsroman. On this interpretation, the deformation Lucius suffers as a combined result of his lust for the slave-girl Photis and his morbid curiosity about magic, as well as the adventures he goes through until his pristine human form is finally restored to him thanks to Isis' graceful intervention are a subtle allegory of the lapsed soul's itinerary toward finding spiritual liberation in the Egyptian goddess' mystery cult3. It is clear that both interpretive
1. On the two conflicting interpretations of the novel, see Heine R. (1978), Picaresque Novel versus Allegory, in Hijmans B. L., Paardt (van der) R. Th. (eds), Aspects of Apuleius' Golden Ass, 25-43. 2. See Metamorphoses I.1: At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conseram auresque tuas benivolas lepido susurro permulceam...Lector intende: laetaberis. I follow Robertson and Vallette's Belles Lettres edition (1946). 3. After all, the prologue may be less straightforward than it appears. Following Scazzoso M. (1951), Le Metamorphosi di Apuleio, studio critico sul significato del romanzo, R. Martin believes that a tortuosa ambiguit delle espressioni renders the prologue amenable to an allegorical reading on which laetaberis may also be translated as passive future of laeto (i.e. tu trouveras un enrichissement spirituel). See Martin R. (1970), Le sens de l'expression Asinus Aureus et

attitudes suffer from the same defect, namely a certain one-sidedness that, overemphasizing one aspect of this complex work at the expense of the other, tends to obscure their discrepancy rather than resolve it.

Walsh was the first to suggest that a reading of the Metamorphoses as a piece of anti-Christian propaganda might provide an exit from this interpretive impasse4. In his view, a mature Apuleius viewed negatively the rapid spread of Christianity in his native Africa5 and decided to edit his earlier version of the Metamorphoses, which was more faithful to the Greek original's comic character, so as to include an eleventh book and the story of Cupid and Psyche. The ultimate aim of these additions was to help curb the new religion's vigorous growth by promoting a platonizing adaptation of Isiac religion as an alternative6. This hypothesis offers a reasonable explanation to the tension between the novel's main body and those parts that can be thought to have been added to it later.

However, Walsh's proposal would seem to run up against a prima facie insurmountable obstacle, the complete absence of any explicit reference to Christianity from Apuleius' extant corpus. Of course, such an argumentum ex silentio would hardly suffice to preclude any knowledge of the new religious movement on the author's part. Although the old view that wanted Madaura, his native city, to have also been home to the first North African martyrs is now discredited7, it is improbable that Apuleius, a man so keenly interested in religious matters that, as he himself confesses in the Apology, he was acquainted with practically all available belief-systems, would not have encountered Christianity, at least at some point during his wanderings around the eastern
la signification du roman apulien, Revue des tudes Latines 48, 343. 4. See Walsh P. G. (1968), Lucius Madaurensis, Phoenix 12, 143-157. 5. Shortly after Apuleius' time, Tertullian would warn the persecuting Roman proconsul of Africa that if he really wanted to eliminate Christianity from his province, he would have to decimate Carthage. See Tertullian Ad Scapulam 5.2: Hoc si placuerit et hic fieri (i.e. bloody persecution), quid facies de tantis milibus hominum, tot uiris ac feminis, omnis sexus, omnis aetatis, omnis dignitatis, offerentibus se tibi?...Quid ipse Carthago passura est, decimata a te.... See also Harnack (von) A., Moffatt J. (tr.) (1972), The mission and expansion of Christianity in the first three centuries v. 2, 156. 6. See also Schmidt V. (1997), Reaktionen auf das Christentum in den Metamorphosen des Apuleius, Vigiliae Christianae 51, 53: Wie er (sc. Walsh) behauptet, ist Apuleius' Isisbuch als Reaktion auf die rasche Ausbreitung des Christentums in Africa geschrieben und habe die Isisideologie eine wirksame Alternative zum Christentum gebildet.The tale of Cupid and Psyche is thoroughly suffused with Platonic elements. See Hooker W. (1955), Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche as a Platonic myth, The Bucknell Review V.3, 24-38. Apuleius carries on Plutarch's earlier attempt to reconciliate Platonism with Isiac religion. See Walsh P. G. (1981), Apuleius and Plutarch, in Blumenthal H. J. & Markus R. A. (eds.), Neoplatonism and Early Christian Thought: Essays in honour of A. H. Armstrong, 20-32. The novel's unusual number of eleven books, apart from testifying to the last one's additive character, may have philosophical implications as well. See Heller S. (1983), Apuleius, Platonic dualism, and eleven, AJPh CIV, 321-339. 7. See Walsh P. G. (1968), 154, and Tripp D. (1988), The baker's wife and her confidante in Apuleius, Met. IX 14 ff.: some liturgiological considerations, Emerita, LVI, 248, n.6.

Mediterranean, where the presence of the new religion was more intensely felt8. There also existed other ways by which Apuleius could have come in contact with Christianity: by his time, many authors, including Pliny, Tacitus and Fronto, had expressed their unequivocal contempt for this newly arrived oriental superstitio in works Apuleius could hardly be unaware of. Moreover, the second century was also witnessing the first efforts of Christian writers such as Aristides, Athenagoras, and Justin to defend systematically their faith against the accusations leveled against it by pagans. Their apologetic works often took the form of open letters addressed to Roman emperors like Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus. These treatises, which were literally inundating Rome during Apuleius' lifetime, allow us a glimpse into the reasons that could excite a pagan intellectual's indignation against Christianity9. In the eyes of a distinguished sophist and middle-Platonist philosopher like Apuleius10, both the violent dismissal of classical heritage by representatives of early Christianity's anti-intellectualist strand such as Tatian and Tertullian11, and its appropriation by apologists such as the former Platonist Justin, who, favorably disposed as he was to classical culture, and philosophy in particular, tried to present his adopted religion as a culmination of all that was positive in them, would appear equally disagreeable. We may reasonably assume that Apuleius would feel the need to respond to such claims, all the more so when they were accompanied by a derision of pagan cult, particularly that of Isis, of which he was an initiate, and Asclepius, whose priesthood he was to hold later on in his life12.

These considerations show that it would not be unlikely for a well-read and widely traveled
8. See Apologia 55: sacrorum pleraque initia in Graecia participavi. In Apologia 25 and Florida 15, Apuleius claims to be knowledgeable about the doctrines of the Persian Magi, the Chaldaean astrologers, and the Indian Brahmani. See also Walsh P. G. (1968), 151, and Tripp D. (1988), 148. 9. This holds true despite the fact that the relative chronology between them and the Metamorphoses cannot always be established with complete certainty, or even when they are at best slightly posterior, as in the case of Tertullian's Apologeticus. On the vexed issue of the novel's date, see Hunink V. (2002), The date of Apuleius' Metamorphoses, in Deffose P. (ed.), Hommages Carl Deroux II: Prose et lingustique, Mdicine, 224-235. The author favors a publication date not too long after 160. Nevertheless, he draws attention to the fact that circulation should not necessarily follow immediately upon composition, and allows for the possibility of revisions. For a recent discussion of the Christian apologists, see Goodman M., Price S., Rowland C. (eds.) (1999), Apologetics in the Roman Empire, Pagans, Jews, and Christians. 10. See the latter's proverbial Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis? Quid academiae et ecclesiae? (De praescriptione hereticorum 1.9). Tatian opens his work quite aggressively, denying the Greeks any genuine contribution to culture: ' ;... ; (Oratio ad Graecos 1.2). 11. See Justin, Apologia II, 13.2: , , ' , , . Still, he considers the tenets of Christianity to be (ibid. 15.3). 12. Pagan devotion to such impotent deities was criticized as useless. See Marcianus Aristides, Apologia 10.5: ;, and 12.3: . We infer that Apuleius had been initiated into the Isiac mysteries from the autobiographical twist the narrative takes in Met.11.26. There, Lucius suddenly emerges as a native of Madaura. On Apuleius' priesthood, see Rives J. B. (1994), The priesthood of Apuleius, AJPh 115, 273-290.

individual like Apuleius, who also happened to possess a keen interest in religious matters, to come in contact with Christianity and react against it. After all, the lack of direct references to the new religion would be in keeping with the attitude of many another pagan author who, even when directly concerned with Christians, took pains not to sully their writings by mentioning their nomen invisum13. A possibility, however, is not a probability. Speculation aside, one is therefore inclined to ask the following question: are there any specific details in the Apuleian corpus that could plausibly be interpreted as indications of Apuleius' sharing in the general hostility against Christianity? As regards this question, we shall briefly occupy ourselves with the author's other works, especially the Apology and Florida, prior to embarking on an examination of the Metamorphoses. The suggestion has been put forward that in the former work Apuleius seems to have carefully phrased the invective delivered against his accuser, Aemilianus, so as to turn the jury against him by making him appear like a Christian. He paints a portrait of his opponent not as ordinarily impious, but as systematically avoiding any contact whatsoever with pagan religion, even to the point of incurring the nickname Mezentius as result of his contempt for the gods14. It is telling that Aemilianus' irreligiosity is cast as the exact opposite of Apuleius' own unreluctant compliance with traditional religiosity, as this is described in the opening passage of the Florida15. This excerpt, in which Apuleius confesses the delight he takes in small acts of piety, like the veneration of sacred rocks and trees that were ridiculed by Christian apologists such as Minucius Felix16, constitutes so proud an affirmation of pagan self-identity that it could reasonably have resulted from the author's realization of the radical threat the new religion posed to long-cherished beliefs. The hypothesis that by drawing Aemilianus' unfavorable portrait Apuleius wants to evoke against his prosecutor the hostile feelings associated with Christian impiety, would gain in credibility if we take into account the reference he makes to his enemy's earlier conviction by the Roman prefect Lollius Urbicus, who might have been present at the author's trial for magic. It turns out that this official was also known
13. Walsh P. G. (1068), 153, n.53, mentions the case of Cassius Dio, who refrains from mentioning the Christians though they are relevant to his theme. Christianity's conspicuous absence from the writings of Plutarch, the greatest historian of religion, even comparative religion, of his day, is noticed by Brenk F. E. (1007), Plutarch, Judaism and Christianity, in Joyal M. (ed.), Studies in Plato and the Platonic tradition: Essays presented to John Whittaker, 99. This does not deter him from searching for influences of Christian eschatology in Plutarch's work. 14. Apologia 56: atque ego scio nonnullos et cum primis Aemilianum istum facetiae sibi habere res diuinas deridere...nulli deo ad hoc aeui supplicauit, nullum templum frequentauit, si fanum aliquod praetereat, nefas habet adorandi gratiam manum labris admouere...igitur adgnomenta ei duo indita...alterum, quod libentius audit, ob deorum contemptum, Mezentius. 15. Compare Apologia 56: negant uidisse se qui fuere unum saltem in finibus eius (sc. Aemiliani) aut lapidem unctum aut ramum coronatum, with Florida 1: neque enim neque enim iustius religiosam moram uiatori obiecerit aut ara floribus redimita... aut fagus pellibus coronata...uel lapis unguine delibutus. parua haec quippe et quanquam paucis percontantibus adorata, tamen ignorantibus transcursa. 16. See Minucius Felix, Octavius 3: non boni viri est...hominem...in hac imperitiae vulgaris caecitate deserere, ut, tam luculento die, in lapides eum pateris inpingere, effigiatos sane et unctos et coronatos. See Hunink V. (2000), Apuleius, Pudentilla, and Christianity, Vigiliae Christianae 54, 82-85.

for having persecuted Christianity during his tenure. As a matter of fact, his decision to have three Christians put to death caused quite a stir, prompting Justin to compose his Second Apology17.

The passages discussed so far could, therefore, constitute internal textual evidence of author's inimical attitude against Christianity. Furthermore, if it is indeed the case that we should emend the text of the Apology so as to read the name of Jesus in the catalogue of famous magicians that is drawn there, it follows that Apuleius did incorporate at least one explicit reference to Christianity's founder in his work18. Be that as it may, let us now turn to the baker's wife episode.

Notwithstanding its oblique character, this passage constitutes an almost transparent allusion to contemporary Christians. The protagonist of the story, part of the cluster of adultery tales contained in the ninth book19, is presented as a paragon of depravity, a particularly vicious woman among whose numerous moral defects lustful behavior and winebibbing figure prominently along with a scornful rejection of the gods20. It is this last trait that allows us to identify her as an adherent of the Christian religion. The woman is explicitly said to cling to the cult of a sole divinity she declares to be a deus unicus, the one true god. In trying to specify the precise nature of her religious affiliations, we are left with only two candidates, Judaism and Christianity, the only exclusively monotheistic religions at the time of the novel's composition. However, given the status of religio licita the Jewish faith enjoyed in the Roman empire, it is rather unlikely that Apuleius would have indulged in such a violent repudiation of it as an idle and vain fabrication. Indeed, pagan authors were quite ambivalent in their attitude against Judaism, since the rejection of its exclusive claims was often mitigated by a certain respect it commanded on account of its extreme antiquity. This characteristically Roman regard for all things old, however, could not apply to Christianity too21. Besides, the woman's identification as a Christian is also corroborated by the two other negative
17. See Justin, Apologia 3: aegre Lollius Urbicus ab eius pernicie temperarit, Just. Apol.II, 1: , ... . 18. See Apologia 90.6: ego ille sim Carmendas uel Damigeron uel his Moses uel I[oh]annes. For the suggestion to read Iesus instead of his, see Hunink V. (2000), 91. I consider this a very plausible emendation, pace Tripp (1988), 251. I also believe that the third figure can be identified with Iannes, one of the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses according to 2 Timothy 3.8-9: . See Tromp J. (2007), Jannes and Jambres, in Graupner A., Wolter M. (ed.), Moses in Biblical and Extra-Biblical Traditions, 211-227. Sick D. H. (2005), Apuleius, Christianity, and Virgin Birth, WS 118, 95, prefers to read Ioannes. 19. See Bechtle G. (1995), The adultery-tales in the ninth book of Apuleius' 'Metamorphoses', Hermes 123, 106-116. 20. See Metamorphoses 9.14: Tunc spretis atque calcatis diuinis numinibus in uicem certae religionis mentita sacrilega praesumptione dei, quem praedicaret unicum, confictis obseruationibus uacuis fallens omnis homines et miserum maritum decipiens matutino mero et continuo stupro corpus manciparat. 21. Unlike Christians, Jews were licensed atheists, to use the felicitous expression of Ste Croix (de) G. (2006), Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy, 135. See Tacitus, Historiae 5.5: antiquitate defenduntur. For the baker's wife and her companion as Christians, see also McDonald M. Y. (1996), Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion, 67-73.

features of her portrait. Many scholars have discerned a parody of Christian liturgical practices in the description of the woman's daily habit of drinking wine very early each morning, in the company of an elderly friend who also acts as a go-between with her lovers22. According to Pliny's celebrated exchange of epistles with Trajan, the Christians of his province used to gather before dawn to celebrate the Eucharist, a prominent feature of which was, of course, the consumption of wine23. Justin, on the other hand, informs us that the sacraments were administered to those absent by specially appointed deacons24. Another early document, the Apostolic Constitutions, dictated that the communion should be carried to female absentees by members of the same sex, so as to forestall any malignant gossip on the part of pagan onlookers25. If the woman's accomplice in marital infidelity is indeed such a deaconess, as has been argued26, we may infer that measures like this, taken by the early Church authorities to combat allegations of christian immorality, did not prove as effective as they were intended to be. Indeed, the Christians' nocturnal gatherings to perform their rites were commonly interpreted by pagans as a false pretext for committing, among else, acts of extreme sexual depravity27. Furthermore, the passage is couched in a vocabulary that could also count upon examination as evidence in favor of our argument. As Schmidt has convincingly argued, Apuleius seems to have borrowed the terms in which he casts the villain's portrait from the current language of interreligious polemics28. Some scholars have gone so far as to claim that the enumeration of the woman's vices betrays a direct knowledge of the New Testament on the author's
22. See Metamorphoses 9.15: anus quaedam stuprorum sequestra et adulterorum internuntia...cum qua protinus ientaculo ac dehinc uino mero mutuis uicibus uelitata.... For the episode as parody of Christian eucharistic practices, see Tripp D. (1988), and Schmidt V. (2003), Is there an Allusion to the Christian Eucharist in Apuleius, Met. 9, 1415?, Latomus 62, 864-874. 23.See Pliny, Epistulae 10.96.7: Adfirmabant...ante lucem convenire. See also Tertullian, De Corona 3: antelucanis coetibus. As we saw earlier, the woman's meetings take place immediately after the day's very first meal (protinus ientaculo). Schmidt, who also believes that Apuleius offers the Isis-cult as an alternative for Christianity, thinks there exists here a deliberate contrast with the the ientaculum religiosum, the pagan Eucharist of Isis and Serapis described in Metamorphoses 11.24. See Schmidt V. (1997), 869-870. 24. See Justin, Apologia I 65.5: ' ... . 25. See Constitutiones Apostolicae 3.16: . Pliny had two such deaconesses confirm his information about Christianity through torture: Quo magis necessarium credidi ex duabus ancillis, quae ministrae dicebantur, quid esset ueri, et per tormenta quaerere (Epistulae 10.96.8). 26. See Tripp D (1988), 253. 27. See Athenagoras, Legatio pro Christianis 3.1: , , , . Fronto inveighed against the allegedly licentious Christian banquets in a lost speech, fragmentarily preserved by Minucius Felix, Octavius 9.8: Et de convivio notum est; passim omnes locuntur, id etiam Cirtensis nostri testatur oratio. See also Baldwin B. (1990), Fronto on the Christians, Illinois Classical Studies 15 (2), 177-181. For Caecilius, Octavius' pagan interlocutor, Christians use their religion as an excuse for their vices, much in the same way as the baker's wife. See Minucius Felix, Octavius 9.2: passim etiam inter eos velut quaedam libidinum religio miscetur. 28. For the numerous echoes of this religises Streitgesprch in the baker's wife episode, see Schmidt V. (1997), Reaktionen auf das Christentum in den Metamorphosen des Apuleius, Vigiliae Christianae 51, 51-71. To mention just one example, let us notice the similarity between Metamorphoses 9.14: omnia prorsus, ut in quandam caenosam latrinam in eius animum flagitia confluxerant and Tacitus, Annales 15.44: per urbem...quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt. The historian passes this hard judgement on Rome while discussing the imperial city's infection by the exitiabilis superstitio Christianorum.

part, since it seems to be modeled after analogous lists of moral transgressions contained in the Pauline epistles29. This suggestion has been criticized on the ground that pagan intellectuals stubbornly denied to engage in personal study of Christian literature30. This rule, however, was not without exceptions. Philosophers like Numenius are known to have undertaken a systematic study of the biblical canon31. Even more important, some scholars have also detected references to evangelical episodes, and particularly the institution of the Eucharist, in Greek novels like that of Acchilles Tatius32. In light of these parallels, it is not unlikely that a philosopher and novelist like Apuleius could indeed have based his portrait of the wicked adulteress on the Pauline passages mentioned above.

At this point, we may safely claim that the baker's wife episode would suffice, even on its own, to settle the question of the existence of anti-Christian elements in the Metamorphoses. However, if Apuleius' polemics against Christianity were confined to this isolated episode, we would not be justified in drawing any relevant conclusions about the novel as a whole33. In order for this to happen, it is imperative to identify certain pivotal features of the work that could plausibly be interpreted as anti-Christian allusions. Now, it is evident that the utilization of the ass motif and the preoccupation with magic are evidently two of the most fundamental features of the Metamorphoses. Forming the double-stranded axis around which the whole action revolves, these features are closely related to each other, given the fact that it was as a result of a morbid desire to witness some magical act that the protagonist, Lucius, acquired the asinine form he carries until the novel's dramatic denouement. His quest for the rose-petals that would restore him to his pristine nature and his frustrated attempts to procure them form the common background against which the novel's eventful narrative unfolds and which holds it together. Magic, on the other hand which figures prominently in both the main narrative thread and the inserted tales of the first books, not only provides the catalyst that triggers the whole narrative, but also makes a spectacular reappearance in the last book, with Apuleius' miraculous recovery of his humanity. In what follows I will try to demonstrate how magic and the ass-motif acquire a deeper significance if read in the light of current pagan perceptions of Christianity as a magical creed that involved the veneration of
29. Simon M. (1974), Apule et le christianisme, Mlanges d'histoire des religions offerts Henri-Charles Puech, 303-304. Met. 9.14: saeua scaeua uiriosa ebriosa peruicax pertinax, in rapinis turpibus auara, in sumptibus foedis profusa, inimica fidei, hostis pudicitiae and such passages as 1 Cor. 5.11: . 30. See Baldwin B. (1984), Apuleius, Tacitus, and Christians, Emerita 52, 2. 31. Numenius famously thought there existed only linguistic differences between Plato and Moses: ; (Fr. 8 Des Places). 32. See Bowersock G.W (1997), Fiction as History: Nero to Julian, 125, where the point is also made that the 33. This remark is already found in Thomas T. (1822), The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass, and Other Philosophical Works, translated from the original Latin, xvi.

an ass-like divinity.

I have already mentioned the view that the Metamorphoses were partly intended as a manifesto of Isiac cult. Let us, therefore, begin our discussion with the ass motif's symbolic function in this context. According to Plutarch, whose work On Isis and Osiris contains the most extensive treatment of the mythology surrounding Isiac religion, the ass was associated with the murderer of Isis' brother/husband Osiris. On Plutarch's philosophical reinterpretation of the story, Seth, the Egyptian equivalent of Typhon, stood for those forces of primordial chaos that perpetually threatened to undermine the cosmic order guaranteed by the rule of the gods, above all Isis, whose very name is etymologized by the middle-Platonist polymath to mean divine wisdom itself34. On account of its proverbial stupidity, the ass was an ideal symbol of the goddess' deadliest enemy35. As a matter of fact, Seth was regularly represented as carrying what appears to be a donkey's head on his shoulders36. Isis herself, in a brief interview she has with her future devotee in a dream, makes no secret of the intense aversion she feels at beholding Lucius' asinine form37. An indication of the ass' symbolic function seems also to be inherent in the novel's alternative title, Asinus Aureus. Admittedly, this heading is attested only in late manuscripts, whereas older manuscripts favor the title Metamorphoses38. Nevertheless, it was the only title known to Augustine, whose value as a source of information on Apuleius is next only to the author's own works39. Therefore, if the NorthAfrican Father's testimony is to be trusted, Asinus Aureus may well have been the original heading. Martin contends that the meaning of this title is quite incomprehensible in itself, and becomes meaninful only if read as a hint at some peculiar aspects of Isiac cult40. According to Plutarch, not all asses were thought to be incarnations of Typhon but only those of an auburn hue 41. Now, although , the term used for auburn by Plutarch, would normally correspond to the Latin fulvus, Martin's minute scrutiny of relevant passages culled from all periods of Latin literature
34. See Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 351E: . 35. See (ibid.) 371C: , . 36. For such a depiction of Seth, see Preisendanz K. (ed.) (1974), Papyri Graece Magicae: Die griechischen Zauberpapyri v.2, 76, plate 2, illus. 11. The name of Seth figures often in documents of this kind. See Tatum J. (1979), Apuleius and the Golden Ass, 43-45. 37. See Metamorphoses 11.6: pessimae mihique iam dudum detestabilis beluae istius corio te protinus exue. 38. See Mnstermann H. (1995), Apuleius: Metamorphosen literarischer Vorlagen (Beitrge zur Altertumskunde Bd. 69), 46-47. 39. See Augustine, De Civitate Dei 18.18: sicut Apuleius in libris, quos asini aurei inscripsit. 40. See Martin R. (1970), Le sens de l'expression asinus aureus et la signification du roman apulien, Revue des tudes Latines 48, 332-354. Martin believes that the original title was replaced with Metamorphoses -a loan from Ovidby medieval copyists who found it incomprehensible, as they were no longer familiar with its religious overtones. I consider Martin's explanation for the existence of two titles much more likely than Mnstermann's suggestion that beide sind von Apuleius gesetzt (See o.c. 56). 41. The reason is given in Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 362F: .

demonstrates that aureus, too, could be used for the same color42. On this reading, therefore, an allegorical interpretation of Lucius' transformation would be invited by the work's very title.

How might all this be related to Christianity? To begin with, the hostility of apologists such as Aristides43 against the rival mystery cult of Isis would suffice to make Christians appear as yet another historical instantiation of the goddess' archetypical foe, Seth, all the more so since early Christians were indeed accused by their pagan opponents of venerating an ass' head44. The charge of onolatry had originally been leveled against the adherents of Judaism. Its widespread nature is attested by the fact that Philo of Alexandria deemed it necessary to devote a section of his Against Apion to the refutation of the view, found in many Greco-Roman sources, that the ass had a prominent role in Jewish worship45. According to this calumnious tale, the only exception to the Jerusalem temple's otherwise aniconic sanctuary was a golden statue of an ass, purportedly erected, as we may infer from Tacitus' version of the story, in commemoration of an incident that transpired during the Exodus46. Plutarch, despite underlining the tale's fictitious character, does not omit to mention those authors who made the ass-headed Seth/Typhon the mythological ancestor of the Jews on the ground that, after being expelled from Egypt by the victorious Horus, he took refuge to Palestine, where he begot two sons, Hierosolymus and Judaeus47.

Eventually, the representation of Jews as Typhonians was extended to Christians as well. Several early Christian documents testify to the popularity of this association48. The testimony most often cited in this context is that of Tertullian. According to his Apology49, the authorities of Carthage
42. See Martin R, (1970), esp. 347-351. 43. See n.13 above. 44. See Vischer L. (1951), Le prtendu 'culte de l'ne' dans l'glise primitive, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions 70, 14-35. 45. See Henten (van) J. W., Abusch R. (1996), The depiction of the Jews as Typhonians and Josephus' strategy of refutation in Contra Apionem, in Feldman L. H., Levison J. R. (eds.), Josephus' Contra Apionem, 271-309. The transmission of the ass-libel is traced in Bar-Kochva B. (1996), An ass in the Jerusalem temple: the origins and development of the slander, (ibid.), 310-326. 46. See Tacitus, Historiae 5.4: Effigiem animalis, quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant, penetrali sacravere. A herd of wild asses had purportedly saved the wandering people from death by dehydration. See also Plutarch, Quaestiones Conviviales 670D: . Damocritus (De Iudaeis, apud Sudam s.v. ), speaks of a statue made of gold: . I wonder whether this detail has something to do with the novel's original title. 47. See Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 363C: ' , . 48. See Minucius Felix, Octavius 9: audio eos turpissimae pecudis caput asini consecratum,nescio qua persuasione, venerari 49. See Tertullian, Apologeticus 16:Nam, et ut quidam somniastis, caput asininum esse deum nostrum. Hanc Cornelius Tacitus suspicionem eiusmodi dei inservit...Sed nova iam dei nostri in ista proxime civitate editio publicata est, ex quo quidam frustrandis bestiis mercenarius noxius picturam proposuit cum eiusmodi inscriptione . Is erat auribus asininis, altero pede ungulatus, librum gestans et togatus.

ridiculed the persecuted Christian religion by having a convicted criminal parade the caricature of a man with the head of an ass. The obscene inscription Deus Christianorum that accompanied the spectacle was meant to dispel any doubts as to the meaning of this curious spectacle. The suggestion, moreover, that the typhonic symbol of the ass could also denote in the Christian enemies the Christian enemies of Isis in the Metamorphoses is backed up by an archaeological discovery. The Alexamenos graffito50, found in the Palatine hill at Rome, depicts a man raising his hand to salute a crucified figure with a human body and the head of an ass. The inscription scratched on the left, , can be read either as an imperative (i.e. Alexamenos: pay worship to god), or as a misspelled indicative (i.e. Alexamenos worships (sc. his) god). Either way, the sketch, one of the earliest depictions of the crucifixion, was almost surely drawn to deride Alexamenos' Christian beliefs. Some scholars have identified Alexamenos as an adherent of a Gnostic Christian sect, the Sethians, who assimilated Jesus with Seth, a god commonly depicted, as we have already seen, with a donkey's head51. If so, the possible connection between Christians and Typhon/Seth in the Metamorphoses would not only echo slanders of pagan origin but also reflect the actual beliefs of an early Christian sect.

Let us now turn to the relation of Christianity with the second pillar on which the literary edifice of the Metamorphoses rests. The novel does not employ an one-dimensional notion of magic. It is not only the malevolent activities of Hypata's witches that are magical. The miraculous intervention of Isis, through which Lucius recovers his human form, is also magical but benevolently so. This contrast between two varieties of magic diametrically opposed to each other echoes the distinction in the Apology between a base kind of magic and a more refined one regarded by Apuleius as a noble pursuit, not unlike medicine religion, and philosophy52. In this light, the horrendous deeds of
50. See Dictionnaire d'Archologie Chrtienne et de Liturgie 1.2, 2044, fig.585, s.v. ne. On the Alexamenos graffito in connection with the Metamorphoses, see Smith W. (2007), Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Jewish/Christian Literature, Ancient Narrative 10, 11-12. 51. See Wnsch R. (1898), Sethianische Verfluchungstafeln aus Rom, 112. However, the name of this obscure group might not be etymologically connected to the Egyptian god, as Wnsch would have us believe. Pearson B. A. (1978), The figure of Seth in Gnostic literature, in Layton B. (ed.) The Rediscovery of Gnosticism: Proceedings of the International Conference on Gnosticism v.2, 500, avers that it was derived from the biblical Seth, son of Adam. Nevertheless, he admits the influence of Seth/Typhon on Gnostic descriptions of Iao, i.e. the Jewish god. Be that as it may, ass-like heavenly beings do appear in Gnostic contexts. In the fragments which survive from the , a lost Gnostic apocryphon, Zechariah's vision involves an (See Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses, 26.12). According to Origen, Contra Celsum 6.30, one of the seven Archons of the Ophites (identified with the Sethians by Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 1.28: o , ) , . The importance of such Gnostic beliefs to a discussion of the ass' symbolic function is noted by Cocchia E. (1915), Romanzo e realt nella vita e nell' attivit letteraria di Lucio Apuleio, 391. I believe their relevance is enhanced by the additional existence of Gnostic, and more specifically Valentinian parallels to the tale of Cupid and Psyche. See Edwards M.J. (1992), The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 94, 87-92. 52. See Sapota T. (1999), The Magic and Religion in the Works of Lucius Apuleius of Madaura, Eos 86, 345.

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Meroe and Panthea that are recounted in the tales of Aristomenes function as a distorted, sinister reflection of the Egyptian goddess' true magic. The speaking name of Panthia, in particular, strongly suggests her antagonistic relation to Isis, in whom, according to the eleventh book's aretalogy, all the various forms of divinity are absorbed53. On this assessment of the sorceresses' function, most recently defended by Frangoulidis54, the witches can also be grouped, along with Apuleius' contemporary Christians, among the various adversaries of Isis, comprehensively symbolized by the lapsed Lucius' asinine form. This is made all the more probable by the fact that the Isiac cult was considered by Plutarch to be singularly unaffected by curiositas, the moral defect repeatedly regarded in the Metamorphoses as responsible for Lucius' calamities55.

Moreover, strange though it may sound, Christianity in antiquity was regularly associated by its detractors with magic. This accusation had its roots in the time of Christianity's founder. According to the account of the Gospels, the deeds that earned Jesus his reputation as a charismatic healer were imputed by his opponents to his alleged collaboration with evil spirits56. These rumor persisted after his death and its claim was adopted by many who were unfavorably disposed towards the religious community he left behind. Celsus, a contemporary of Apuleius, is perhaps the first pagan intellectual to explicitly call Jesus a magician. According to Origen's monumental response to the True Account, a work dedicated by the middle-Platonist philosopher to the refutation of the new creed, Celsus, instead of denying Jesus' miraculous powers, credited them to the magical arts he had allegedly been acquainted with during his sojourn in Egypt. In addition to this, Celsus claimed to know of many prominent members of the Christian community who possessed grimoires used for exclusively malevolent purposes57. As would only be expected, opinions like those of Celsus were
53. See Met.11.30: deorum dearumque facies uniformis...multiformi specie, ritu vario, nomine multiiugo totus veneratur orbis...Inde primigenii Phryges Pessinuntiam deum matrem, hinc autocthones Attici Cecropeiam Mineruam, illinc fluctuantes Cyprii Paphiam Venerem, Cretes sagittiferi Dictynnam Dianam, Siculi trilingues Stygiam Proserpinam, Eleusinii uetusti Actaeam Cererem, Iunonem alii, Bellonam alii, Hecatam isti, Rhamnusiam illi, et qui nascentis dei Solis inchoantibus inlustrantur radiis Aethiopes utrique priscaque doctrina pollentes Aegyptii caerimoniis me propriis percolentes appellant uero nomine reginam Isidem. See also Sapota T. (1999), 343: Isis appears as Panthea (although the author does not draw any connection with the first book's witch). 54. See Frangoulidis S. (2008), Witches, Isis and Narrative: Approaches to magic in Apuleius' Metamorphoses (Trends in Classics v.2), esp. 5-6. Contrast Henderson's opinion that the real distinction is not one between white and black magic, but between his own scholarly, bookish magic and the vulgar magic of the ordinary folk (see Henderson I. A. (2009), Apuleius of Madauros, in Levine A., Allison D., Crossan J. D. (eds.), The Historical Jesus in Context, 197) 55. See Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 352B: ' (the goddess' ministers) . Christianity, on the other hand, was frequently called superstitious by its opponents. See Pliny, Epistulae 10.96: superstitio prava et immodica, Suetonius, Nero, 16: superstitio nova et malefica. 56. See Mark 3.22: , . See also Tertullian, Apologeticus 21: Quem igitur hominem solummodo praesumpserant de humilitate, sequebatur uti magum aestimarent de potestate. On the charge of witchcraft against Jesus, see McKnight S., Modica J. B. (2008), Who Do My Opponents Say That I Am: an examination of the accusation against the historical Jesus, 27-49. 57. See Origen, Contra Celsum 1.38: , , , .

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not restricted to the educated elite of the Empire. On the contrary, they reflected a popular association of the new faith's founder with magic, which is amply demonstrated by the large numbers of magical amulets and defixion tablets that bear Jesus' name. A portion of this material is in fact of Christian provenance, something which shows that Celsus' charges may not have been entirely fabricated58. After all, early Christian art did not hesitate to depict Jesus performing his miracles with a magician's wand at hand59. In this context, a further point to be taken into account is the fact that the second century also witnessed the rise of a popular heresy, Montanism, throughout the Empire, not least in Apuleius' native Africa. As Wypustek has convincingly argued, Montanism's particular emphasis on ecstatic inspiration made Christianity appear even more dangerously akin to magical practices60. I believe that Montanism is also important for the present argument for providing an impressive parallel to the Hypata witches' magical exploits. As a matter of fact, the terms with which Aristomenes' fellow-traveler expresses his skepticism about his companion's tales had long ago been read as an ironical allusion to the New Testament's talk of such miraculous events as the stilling of the storm, the solar eclipse that supposedly occurred during the crucifixion, and the disturbance of the celestial motions featuring in the Apocalypse61. However, I think that the most impressive analogy is to be found in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, an early Christian document that bears easily discernible traces of Montanist influence62. According to this martyrological account, the childbirth of Felicitas, who risked to be spared a martyr's death because of her pregnancy, was miraculously precipitated thanks to the prayers of her follow prisoners. This detail shows that, in certain quarters at least, Christians were thought to be capable of performing feats of the same uterine magic that allowed a sorceress like Meroe to postpone ad infinitum the deliverance of a woman she was insulted by63. Finally, the thesis that malevolent magic in the Metamorphoses constitutes an allusion to contemporary Christianity would be in keeping with the evolution of Roman perceptions of magic, which, since the promulgation of the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficiis, had developed to include deviant religious behavior in general64. We hardly
58. Smith M. (1978), Jesus the Magician, 61-62, asserts that two of the oldest representations of the Crucifixion are carved on a pair of jasper magical gems. For a defixion tablet that invokes Jesus' name, found near Carthage, see Wypustek A., o.c. 283. Seth is similarly present in artifacts of this kind, including material of Gnostic provenance. See Layton B., o.c.. 500. For an impressive collection of early Christian incantatory texts, see Meyer M. W., Smith. R. (1999), Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power. 59. See Jensen R. B. (2000), Understanding Early Christian Art, 120-124. 60. See Wypustek A. (1997), "Magic, Montanism, Perpetua, and the Severan Persecution", Vigiliae Christianae 51, 277. 61. See Hermann L. (1953), L'ne d'or et le christianisme, Latomus 12, 188. 62. See Butler R. (2006), The New Prophecy and New Visions: Evidence of Montanism in The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas (Patristic Monograph Series v.18). 63. See Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis 15: coniuncto tamen unito gemitu ad Dominum orationem fuderunt...ita enixa est puellam, Met.1.9: iam octo annorum onere misella illa uelut elephantum paritura distenditur. For the concept of uterine magic, see Aubert J. (1989), Threatened Wombs: Aspects of the Uterine Magic, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 30, 421-449. 64. See Rives J. B. (2003), Magic in Roman Law: The Reconstruction of a Crime, Classical Antiquity 22, 313-339.

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need to remark that no behavior could appear more deviant than Christian rejection of traditional pagan polytheism.

The results of the preceding discussion may be summed up as follows: it is perfectly possible that a person of Apuleius' interests could have come in contact with Christianity and feel the need to employ his literary talents against its expansion. The baker's wife episode is an obvious instance of anti-Christian polemics in his chief work, while some of the Metamorphoses' key subjects also lend themselves to a similar interpretation. In this case, at least one aim of this many-faceted novel would lie in promoting a philosophically elaborated version of Isiac cult as an antidote to the new religion's rapid diffusion. This interpretation would derive considerable support from the morale drawn towards the novel's end. There, the Egyptian priest who administers to Lucius the salutary rose petals grasps the opportunity provided by the protagonist's restoration to humanity to admonish the irreligiosi to witness the goddess' power and abandon their error65. Since atheism was, as we have already seen, a standard accusation against Apuleius' contemporary Christians, we would be justified to consider them as the most likely target of the priest's exhortation. Nevertheless, since the value of a conjecture is commensurate to its explanatory power, it is important to ask whether we can identify a problem that cannot be solved except by invoking the Metamoprhoses' suggested anti-Christian agenda. I believe that I have identified such a problem in the episode involving the priests of the Syria Dea.

The difficulty lies in the fact that the extremely negative portrayal of the Syria Deas cult is hardly compatible with the celebration of the henotheistic character of Isiac religion. As has already been noted, according to the eleventh book's aretalogy the entire spectrum of pagan cults comprises all different, yet equally rightful ways of worshiping the true form of divinity identified with Isis. The fact that Atargatis is not explicitly enumerated among the list of Isis' variants does nothing to mitigate this paradox, given Cybele's inclusion therein. Regardless of whether these two goddesses shared a common historical origin in the Anatolian cult of Kubaba66, their own cults had since the Hellenistic era grown to become practically indistinguishable from each other. Like her Phrygian counterpart, Atargatis was also represented in the middle of a lion pair, while her devotees led a mendicant wandering life identical to that of the Magna Mater's Galli. The most salient feature the two cults shared in common, however, was the practice of ritual castration. Apuleius himself seems

65. See Metamorphoses 11.15: videant inreligiosi, uideant et errorem suum recognoscant. 66. See Laroche E. (1960), Koubaba, desse anatolienne, et le problme des origines de Cyble, in Eissfeldt O. (ed.), lments orientaux dans la religion grecque ancienne, 113-128.

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to conflate Cybele with the Dea Syria in designating as Phrygian the priestly band's ecstatic songs67.

How then is this contradiction to be accounted for? I believe that, once again, it is against some peculiar aspects of early Christianity that the author's fierce attack on the eunuch priests is truly directed. One of the most important factors that would allow the priests to function as surrogates of the author's religious rivals has to do with the fact that, as numerous ancient sources attest, the practice of castration for religious purposes was not uncommon among early Christians. As a matter of fact, this phenomenon had by the fourth century become so widespread that church authorities were obliged to take specific measures against it68. However, in Apuleius' time castration was often favorably looked upon and even recommended by some eminent members of the Church as a sign of continence and purity. Justin, for instance, relates the history of a young man who petitioned the Roman governor of Alexandria for a permission to have his gonads excised in an effort to disprove the charges of promiscuous sexual behavior that, as we saw above, were commonly leveled against Christians. Although the official did not grant his request, since such an act would contravene Roman legislation, the early apologist applauds the adolescent's resolution and does not hesitate to hold it up as an example of Christian chastity, echoing an opinion shared by many among his coreligionists69. My suggestion is that Apuleius, having already decried the alleged immorality of his contemporary Christians in the baker's wife episode, turns now his attention to the measures they took in an effort to debunk such accusations, considering them as equally hypocritical pretexts of their viciousness70. The two episodes are structurally similar: both of them are collections of negative topoi against religious creeds openly denounced as mendacious fabrications71. Furthermore, this interpretation of the priests' function in the novel would also be supported by the fact that later authors, who did not share in Justin's enthusiasm, condemned the practice of castration by Christians as directly inherited from Atargatis' cult72. Celsus, too, had mockingly
67. See Metamorphoses 8.30: cantusque Phrygii mulcentibus modulis excitus. This is another example of the numerous similarities between the two cults, on which see Lightfoot, J. L. (2002), Sacred eunuchism in the cult of the Syrian goddess, in Tougher S. (ed.), Eunuchs in antiquity and beyond, 71-86, esp. 77. 68. See Constitutiones Apostolicae, 8.47: , . 69. For discussions of early Christian attitudes towards castration, see Caner D. F. (1997), The practice and prohibition of self-castration in early Christianity, Vigiliae Christianae 51, 396-415, Stevenson W. (2002), Eunuchs and early Christianity, in Tougher S. (ed.), Eunuchs in antiquity and beyond, 123-142, and Kuefler M. (2001), The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity, 245-282. 70. The priests use their religion to cover their extreme licentiousness, exactly like the baker's wife does. When their depravity is revealed, it is contrasted with their professed chastity. See Metamorphoses, 8.29: sacerdotum purissimam...castimoniam. 71. Compare Metamorphoses 9.14: confictis observationibus vacuis with 8.28: conficto mendacio. 72. See Basil the Great, De virginitate 62: , ' (sc. ), ' . Caner D. F. (1977), 403, n.32, believes that by

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compared Christians to the Galli, implying, according to Glancy, the corruption of masculinity among early Christians73. Indeed, the association of Jesus with Attis, the eunuch companion of Cybele and mythical ancestor of the Galli (and, in consequence, the Syria Dea's devotees), was in antiquity current not only among pagans but even among some Christian groups. Hippolytus, to mention just one example, informs us about a Gnostic Christian heresy, the Naasseni, who worshiped Jesus along with Attis74. If, as I have proposed, Apuleius used the episode of the Syria Deas priests as a veiled reference to Christianity, this would be another example of his relying on actual beliefs of early Christian sects in the Metamorphoses75.

Greeks here Basil refers to the Galli. 73. See Glancy J. A., Protocols of Masculinity in the Pastoral Epistles, in Moore S. D., Anderson J. C. (eds.) (2004), New Testament Masculinities, 259, on Origen, Contra Celsum 1.9: . 74. See Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium haeresium 5.6-11. For Gnostic interpretations of the Attis myth, see Lancellotti, G. M. (2002), Attis between myth and history, 119-142. Augustine, Tractatus im Ioannis Evangelium 7.6, refers to a priest of Cybele who identified himself as a Christian with a (Phrygian) cap (pilleatus Christianus). For the factors that might have suggested such an association of Jesus with Attis, see Fear A. T. , Cybele and Christ, in Lane E. N. (ed.), Cybele, Attis & Related Cults, 37-51 75. I am aware that my conjecture may appear somewhat risque. In its defense, I would like to point out that, thanks to it, an inconsistency that would otherwise undermine the novel's coherency is removed, or at least mitigated. Other scholars have been less fortunate in their attempt to interpret some episodes of the Metamorphoses as covert references to Christianity. For instance, Shanzer's suggestion that the escape of Charite on the transformed Lucius' back is an allusion to the Virgin's flight into Egypt, apart from being based on very slender evidence (the phrase virgo regia, which supposedly aims to evoke another famous virgin of kingly descent, Mary), is rather unnecessary, since the passage is explicitly identified as a parody of similar mythological episodes: Accedes antiquis et ipse miraculis, et iam credemus exemplo tuae ueritatis et Phrixum arieti supernatasse et Arionem delphinum gubernasse et Europam tauro supercubasse (etamorphoses 6.28). See Shanzer D. (1990), 'Asino vectore virgo regia fugiens captivitatem': Apuleius and the tradition of the Protevangelium Jacobi, Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 84, 221-229. I also find unconvincing Sick's hypothesis that the downplayed physicality of Psyche's sexual contact with Cupid is meant to parody Christian accounts of the virginal conception of Jesus. See Sick D. H. (2005), Apuleius, Christianity, and Virgin Birth, WS 118, 864-874. But how might a story that speaks of a sexual act, however sublimated that may be, be meant to evoke a story where absolutely no physical contact is involved?

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