Apuleius's Golden Ass Comparative Essay

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Right away in both of these sections of Apuleius’s Golden Ass we can notice a parallel between the tale of Cupid and Psyche, and the final book of the Golden Ass. First off in the tale of Psyche, we read how unhappy her father is at the fact that Psyche is still unmarried, a virgin, and still left at home saying she was “ill in body and sore at heart, hating that beauty of form the world found so pleasing”. Psyche’s father consults the Miletian oracle of Apollo at Didyma for advice on what to do with his daughter. Likewise at the end of the collection we see a similar scene when Lucius calls for divine aid from a goddess. Some of the names that he shouts out in earnest have a link to the god Apollo, such as Diana who is Apollo’s sister. He asks for their…show more content…
As we know, Lucius follows the goddess’s directions that she addresses to him in order for him to return to human form. Once this happens, Lucius is inducted into the order of Isis’ priests and continues to worship Isis even after he returns to his ancestral homeland of Rome. This servitude towards the gods parallels another part of the tale of Cupid and Psyche. After Psyche is instructed by her jealous sisters to seek the identity of her husband, Cupid, who has specifically told her never to seek his face, Psyche wakes and scars Cupid one night while he was sleeping. In an attempt at redemption, Psyche goes to the temple of Venus where she offers herself as a slave to the goddess. Just like with Lucius and Isis, Psyche must complete four difficult tasks that are handed down by Venus. Through these stories we notice a common theme, one of servitude to a divine entity in exchange for what the person truly wants in life after seeing the error of their ways. With Psyche, we notice that she is very gullible and will try to please others instead of doing what is right and what is decreed by the

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