Introduction

Contributors: (2023) Marcello Brownsberger, Madeline Dolack, Catherine Fleming, Avner Goldstein, Mary Grace Lewis, Andrew Lim, Spencer North, Adalyn Schommer. (2025) Andrei Chura, Esther Duncan, Pete Levangie, Kit Li, Zoey Liang, Jonathan Strout, Clara Taft, Christian Thomas.

This commentary is intended for Latin students encountering an advanced Latin text for the first time. This commentary covers Apuleius’s Metamorphoses 5.1-31, 6.7-9, a portion of the Cupid and Psȳchē story.

The Metamorphoses, written by Apuleius, a Roman-North African author of the late 2nd century CE, is a tale about a man whose encounter with magic leaves him transformed into a donkey, and his subsequent misadventures until he returns to human form. The Cupid and Psyche novella occurs between books 4 and 6 of this larger tale. While at first glance this novella differs from the larger Metamorphoses in tone, register, and plot, both narratives present similar themes. Both main characters (Lucius and Psȳchē) are unable to control their curiositas, and both are saved by the intervention of a deity.

The Cupid and Psȳchē bears thematic similarity to the larger Metamorphoses in its allusions to the “real world”. Fergus Millar, in his article “The World of the Golden Ass”, asserts the novella’s applicability as a source of social history (Millar 1981). Traditionally, many scholars of this text have considered the Cupid and Psȳchē to be a separate entity from the rest of the novel, mainly due to its fictional setting. Recently, however, some have drawn connections between Cupid and Psȳchē’s world and Apuleius’s. For example, in his article “Nuptiae Iure Civili Congruae: Apuleius’ Story of Cupid and Psȳchē and the Roman Law of Marriage”, Josiah Osgood argues that the Cupid and Psȳchē story contains allusions to the contemporary Roman legal world (Osgood 2006). These allusions provide enjoyment to the ancient reader and social history for the modern reader. 

The story also can be seen as a metaphor for the Platonic ascent of the soul (ψυχή) to the divine. Following the model of Plato’s Phaedrus, Cupid and Psȳchē attempts to teach complex ideas and moral truths through the substrate of a myth.

The authors of this commentary, two classes of advanced Latin students, used their own experience grappling with the text to determine the level of vocabulary to provide their readers. The 2023 class glossed vocabulary in three categories: 1) words which appear fewer than 50 times in extant Latin, 2) words or alternative spellings unique to Apuleius, and 3) other words which the authors believe will assist a reader of their commentary in a smooth and fluent translation. The 2025 class chose to focus on words whose frequency rank is above 4000, and to give words in their Apuleian spellings.

Works Cited

Ashdowne, R. K., Howlett, D. R., and Latham, R. E. (eds.) Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. British Academy: Oxford, 2018.

Ayer, M., ed., Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Carlisle: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2014. 

Berger, Adolf. “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 43, no. 2 (1953): 333–809.

Cromwell, Jennifer. “‘… Like He’s Somebody …’: Runaway Slaves in Roman Egypt.” Papyrus Stories, 2019.

“Fortuna.” in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2019.

Glare, P. G. W., ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 

Hornblower, S., Spawforth, A., & Edinow, E., eds., Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 

Kenney, E. J., ed., Apuleius: Cupid & Psȳchē. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. 

Lewis, C. T. & Short, C., eds., A Latin Dictionary, Founded on Andrews’ edition of Freund’s Latin dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879.*

McNeel, E. and Sabnis, S. 2022. “‘Eros you know the story’: Psyche in five women poets.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 29:307–332.

Millar, F., “The World of the Golden Ass.” Journal of Roman Studies 71: 63-75. 1981. 

Nisbet, R.G.M. and Hubbard, M., eds. A Commentary on Horace: Odes, Book I, Oxford, 1989.

Osgood, J., “Nuptiae Iure Civili Congruae: Apuleius’ Story of Cupid and Psȳchē and the Roman Law of Marriage.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 136: 415-41. 2006. 

Vallance, J. T. “Humours.” in Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-3174.

*Unless noted otherwise, all vocabulary entries in the commentary are based on this dictionary.