The Transformation of Lucius or the Golden Ass

Written in the second century CE, this Latin novel follows Lucius, a curious young man in Thessaly who, trying magic, is changed into an ass and stolen into a life of millers, priests, robbers, and soldiers. Nested tales include the long story of Cupid and Psyche, told among the other roadside episodes. After beatings and public spectacles he is restored through the rites of Isis at Cenchreae. The book is a comic-religious prose romance of metamorphosis, not a treatise on mystery cults alone.

Bound in cream vegetable parchment with a gilt and brown blocked design. Blue slipcase.