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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2018
You are about to be amazed by a collection of tales on ‘the transformation of people's fortunes and figurae into different shapes, and their restoration again into themselves in a mutual nexus (mutuo nexu)’ (Met. 1.1) – this is Apuleius’ opening statement and promise to his listeners in the very first lines of the Metamorphoses. In this article I read the first inserted tale (Met. 1.5–19) from a corporeal point of view. Modern researchers consider this tale programmatic for the whole novel, which in itself has a strong corporeal orientation as it tells the story of a human figura that becomes bestial; of changing bodies, tortured limbs, and beaten organs; and of lascivious and uncontrollable desires. My focus is particularly on the nocturnal scene at the inn (Met. 1.11–17), where I analyse the nature of the body and its representations’ literary and philosophical implications. I investigate the tension between rationality and sensuality; explore spatial and temporal dimensions; and discuss sexuality and birth. My main argument is that in the first tale the body has a crucial function in the perception of the characters’ world and self alike. Furtheremore, I suggest that the body and the ‘corporeal subjects’ (a term explored later in the article) are this tale's protagonists: the body produces its own narrative, whose plot advances in a chaotic and perplexed way through intensities, uncontrollable lust, flowing secretions, and sensual experience. I shall therefore suggest reading the scene through the body, and by asking what the the body does rather than merely what it means. I thus propose reading the mututo nexu which appears in the prologue in the context of the nexus of body and mind, of physical shapes and mental consciousness.
I wish to thank Wytse Keulen for reading a draft of this article and for his valuable suggestions, corrections and advice, which improved it immensely. All translations are my own.
1 Merleau-Ponty, M., Phenomenology of Perception (London and New York, 2009 [first published 1945]), 169Google Scholar.
2 Figuras fortunasque hominum in alias imagines conversas et in se rursus mutuo nexu refectas ut mireris.
3 On the programmatic nature of the first tale, see for example Winkler, J., Auctor & Actor. A Narratological Reading of Apuleius’ Golden Ass (Berkeley, CA, 1985), 27, 30Google Scholar; Tatum, J., ‘The Tales in Apuleius' Metamorphoses’, in Harrison, S. J. (ed.), Oxford Readings in the Roman Novel (Oxford and New York, 1999), 164–8Google Scholar; Keulen, W., ‘Comic Invention and Superstitious Frenzy in Apuleius' Metamorphoses: The Figure of Socrates as an Icon of Satirical Self-Exposure’, AJPh (2003), 107, 116Google Scholar.
4 For other readings of this phrase, see Winkler (n. 3), 188–94, who suggests that the term mutuo nexu mentioned in the prologue has a financial meaning; see also Harrison, S. J. and Winterbottom, M., ‘The Prologue to Apuleius' Metamorphoses: Text, Translation and Textual Commentary’, in Kahane, A. and Laird, A. (eds.), A Companion to the Prologue of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (Oxford and New York, 2001), 9–15 Google Scholar, who suggest that this phrase reflects the two-way traffic of the metamorphosis's movement.
5 Merleau-Ponty, M., The Primacy of Perception and Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History, and Politics (Evanston, IL, 1964), 3–6 Google Scholar, 21–6.
6 Merleau-Ponty (n. 1), 77 ff. See also 159–60, n. 6, and 192 ff.
7 Merleau-Ponty, M., Sense and Non-Sense (Evanston, IL, 1992), 28Google Scholar.
8 Met. 1.3. For a further discussion of ‘truth’ in the Metamorphoses, see Winkler (n. 3), 27–37.
9 Tu vero crassis auribus et obstinato corde respuis quae forsitan vere perhibeantur. Minus hercule calles pravissimis opinionibus ea putari mendacia quae vel auditu nova vel visu rudia vel certe supra captum cogitationis ardua videantur; quae si paulo accuratius exploraris, non modo compertu evidentia verum etiam factu facilia senties.
10 See additional discussion on this verb later in the article.
11 Keulen, W., Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses. Book I (Groningen, 2007), 125Google Scholar.
12 See also Winkler (n. 3), 30.
13 Gowers, E., ‘Apuleius and Persius’, in Kahane, Ahuvia and Laird, Andrew (eds.), A Companion to the Prologue of Apuleius' Metamorphoses (Oxford, 2001), 77Google Scholar.
14 Ibid ., 81–2.
15 E.g., Sext. Emp. Pyr. 1.10; Chrysippus, Stoic. 2.39.
16 Ego vero, inquam, nihil impossibile arbitror… Nam et mihi et tibi et cunctis hominibus multa usu venire mira et paene infecta, quae tamen ignaro relata fidem perdant. See also: Met. 1.1: ut mireris; Met. 1.11: mira…memoras.
17 Husserl, E., Ideas. General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (London, 1931)Google Scholar, Idea 1, ch. 32. See also Husserl, E., Cartesian Meditations. An Introduction to Phenomenology (Lexington, KY, 1997 [first published 1950])Google Scholar.
18 Merleau-Ponty (n. 1), xiv–xv.
19 See also Winkler's discussion on curiositas: Winkler (n. 3), 27 ff.
20 Keulen (n. 3), 112.
21 Faciem suam…prae pudore obtexit ita ut ab umbilico pube tenus cetera corporis renudaret (‘He covered his face, already flushed with shame, such that he exposed all his body from his navel to his pubis; Met. 1.6). For self-exposure as a comic theatrical gesture, see Keulen (n. 3), 114–15.
22 On the relations between phenomenology and sexuality, see later in the article. For corporeal motives in magic, see Flint, V. and Ankarloo, B., Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Volume II, Ancient Greece and Rome (London, 1999)Google Scholar, 168 ff., 183, 201 ff.
23 Iniecto non scrupulo sed lancea. Keulen (n. 11), 238, points out that lanceam inicere has a metaphorical note that refers to the imagery of ‘words as weapons’.
24 Merleau-Ponty (n. 1), 112–70: ‘The Spatiality of One's Own Body and Motility’.
25 See ibid., 165 ff.
26 Tunc ego sensi naturalitus quosdam affectus in contrarium provenire. nam ut lacrimae saepicule de gaudio prodeunt, ita et in illo nimio pavore risum nequivi continere.
27 For various uses of sentire, see, for example, Lucr. 1.298: varios rerum odores (‘various smells of things’); Lucr. 1.496: calorem et frigus (‘warm and cold’); but also Plaut. Men. 3.2.16: sentio errare (‘I realize that she is wrong’); Cic. Fin. 2.3.6: voluptatem hanc esse sentiunt omnes (‘everyone realizes that pleasure is…’). For affectus, see Celsus, Med. 3.18: supersunt alii corporis adfectus (‘there are other corporeal affections’); but also Ov. Tr. 4.3.32: affectum quem te mentis habere velim (‘[I cannot say] what feeling I wish that you have’); Ov. Tr. 5.2.8: affectusque animi, qui fuit ante, manet (‘my state of mind remains as before’).
28 For various uses of accipere, see, for example, Enn. Ap. Non. 85.1: cette manus vestras measque accipite (‘take your hands and mine’); Plaut. Amph. 2.2.132: ex tua accepi manu pateram (‘I received the bowl from your hand’); Verg. Aen. 4.530–1: oculisve aut pectore noctem accipit (‘[she did not] receive the night with her heart or eyes’ – i.e. she did not sleep). It is also interesting that this verb can be both active (taking things, perceiving) and passive (being the recipient of something, e.g. Verg. Aen. 3.243: nec vulnera accipiunt tergo [‘they were not wounded in their back’]).
29 Keulen (n. 11), 265, notes that, before Apuleius, palpitare was used almost exclusively for throbbing or pounding of body parts.
30 Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia (London, 2011 [first published 1980]), 3–28 Google Scholar.
31 Ac dum in fimum deiectus obliquo aspectu, quid rei sit, grabatuli sollertia munitus opperior, video mulieres duas. <in>infimum (v); in sinum (Lips); in limum (Leo). In fimum, the option chosen by Rudolf Helm, Apulei Platonici Madaurensis Metamorphoseon libri XI, third edition (Leipzig, 1931), only stresses the corporeal aspect. In a typical phenomenological way, in which everything is part of the flesh of the world, the words grabatuli sollertia give a certain life to the object.
32 Humi prostratus grabatulo succubans iacet [Aristomenes, A.K.] et haec omnia conspicit. On vision and corporeality, see Merleau-Ponty, M., ‘Eye and Mind’, in Baldwin, T. (ed.), Maurice Merlau-Ponty. Basic Writings (London and New York, 2004), 294Google Scholar.
33 Praesecata gula vocem, immo vero stridorem incertum per vulnus effunderet.
34 Being made of animal skin, the utriculus has obvious corporeal reference. See Pliny's words: ‘Women have all the same [organs], and besides that they have a little leather sac joined to their bladder, hence it is called “uterus”’ (feminis eadem omnia praeterque vesicae iunctus utriculus, unde dictus uterus; Plin. NH. 11.209). Keulen (n. 11), 270–1, notes that Apuleius uses utriculus to impart a technical medical flavour.
35 Ecce Socrates integer, sanus, incolumis. Ubi vulnus, <ubi> spongia? ubi postremum cicatrix tam alta, tam recens?
36 For rational thinking and the logic model of modus ponens as ‘closed’, see Eco, U. et al. , Interpretation and Overinterpretation (Cambridge, 1992), 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Eco claims that, besides the ancient rationalism, the Romans (and the Greeks) developed contradictory principles of multiplicity, negations of identity, and continuous metamorphoses (ibid.).
37 See Merleau-Ponty, M., The Visible and the Invisible (Evanston, IL, 1968)Google Scholar, 130 ff.
38 Frangoulidis, S., ‘ Cui videbor veri similia dicere proferens vera? Aristomenes and the Witches in Apuleius' Tale of Aristomenes’, CJ (1999), 376Google Scholar, discusses some of the attempts to find a logical explanation for this episode: ‘Scholarly discussions of the tale have mostly concentrated on the way this incident does not make sense, either as an indication of Apuleius’ careless workmanship, or as a mark of the breakdown of the pattern of causality.’ In my view this represents a phenomenological literary depiction of a corporeal pre-reflective experience.
39 Toohey, P., Melancholy, Love, and Time. Boundaries of the Self in Ancient Literature (Ann Arbor, MI, 2004), 201CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 Ibid ., 206. See also Slater, N. W., ‘Spectator and Spectacle in Apuleius’, in Keulen, W., Panayotakis, S., and Zimmerman, M. (eds.), The Ancient Novel and Beyond (Leiden and Boston, MA, 1990), 54–5Google Scholar.
41 Merleau-Ponty (n. 1), 161–2, emphasis in original.
42 See Lucr. 4.916–17: ‘The beginning of sleep occurs when the power of the soul is divided between the organs of the body, and part of it bursts out’ (Principio somnus fit ubi est distracta per artus / vis animae partimque foras eiecta recessit).
43 Merleau-Ponty (n. 1), 193.
44 Ibid ., 178–201: ‘The Body in Its Sexual Being’.
45 Adams, J. N., The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (London, 1990), 89Google Scholar.
46 Et ollam et lectulum suave quatere novi. Cf. Ov. Am. 3.14.26: Spondaque lasciva mobilitate tremat (‘the bedstead should rock under the lusty thrusts’).
47 Cf. the sexual allusion of dirumpere in Met. 7.21. On the sexual allusion of violence, see Adams (n. 45), 149–51.
48 Cf. Catull. 88.7-8: ‘for there is no crime beyond which he could proceed, not even if lowering his head he swallowed himself’ (nam nihil est quicquam sceleris, quo prodeat ultra, non si demisso se ipse voret capite).
49 Cf. Plaut. Aul. 304.
50 Cf. Ov. Am. 2.14.27; Sen. Controv. 2.5.4; Priap. 64.
51 For wounds as a sexual metaphor, see Adams (n. 45), 152. For the association of sanguinis (like urina in the following urination scene) with sperm, see Keulen (n. 11), 270.
52 For the metaphor of women as receptacles, see DuBois, P., Sowing the Body. Psychoanalysis and Ancient Representations of Women (Chicago, IL, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 71, 110 ff.
53 For the contrast between the closed, dry, and active male body and the fluid, soft, and open female, see, for example, Edwards, C., The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome (Cambridge and New York, 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
54 Cf. Pl. Ti. 69e–70c. Note Plato's depiction of the lungs as sponge (spōngos; 70c), as well as the description of the throat as a dividing line between the head and the chest, the divine and the mortal parts of the soul.
55 Two references are worth mentioning here: the first is Socrates’ explanation of Zeus's desire for Ganymede in physical terms as a flow of beauty that passes through the eyes (Pl. Phdr. 255c); the second is the use of Catamitus in a derogatory way in Cicero's Philipicae, a use that is also connected to sight: ‘Oh villain!…Did you disturb the city with nocturnal terror, and Italia with fear so many days for that reason, so that you might show yourself unexpectedly, you Ganymede, and that the woman might see you before she hoped to?’ (O hominem nequam!… Ergo, ut te Catamitum, nec opinato cum te ostendisses, praeter spem mulier adspiceret, idcirco urbem terrore nocturno, Italiam multorum dierum metu perturbasti?; Cic. Phil. 2.31.77).
56 Et porrecta dextera meque Panthiae suae demonstrato, ‘at hic bonus’ inquit ‘consiliator Aristomene… ‘immo’ ait ‘supersit hic saltem qui miselli huius corpus parvo contumulet humo’.
57 Quae me nimis quam humane tractare adorta cenae gratae atque gratuitae ac mox urigine percita cubili suo applicat. Et statim miser, ut cum illa adquievi, ab unico congressu annosam ac pestilentem contraho.
58 Humi proiectus, inanimis, nudus et frigidus et lotio perlutus.
59 For a reading of this urination as a rape scene, see Keulen (n. 11), 276. For urine as ejaculation in a sexual context, see Adams (n. 45), 245. For a semiotic interpretation of urination as the ‘abject’ in relation to Roman satire, see Larmour, D., ‘Holes in the Body: Sites of Abjection in Juvenal's Rome’, in Larmour, D. and Spencer, D. (eds.), The Sites of Rome. Time, Space, Memory (Oxford, 2007), 175–7Google Scholar.
60 Merleau-Ponty, M., The Prose of the World (Evanston, IL, 1973)Google Scholar, 18. See also the inability of the language to describe Psyche's corporeal beauty: at vero puellae iunioris tam praecipua tam praeclara pulchritudo nec exprimi ac ne sufficienter quidem laudari sermonis humani penuria poterat (‘but the beauty of the young girl was so extraordinary and distinguished that she could not be praised enough by the poor human language’; Met. 4.28).
61 Met. 1.1. For discussion on this beginning, see Harrison and Winterbottom (n. 4), 10–11; Keulen (n. 11), 64–5.
62 In this article I cannot develop a full discussion on the problem of Book 11. For this, see e.g. Frangoulidis, S., Witches, Isis and Narrative. Approaches to Magic in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (Berlin, 2008), 175–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Van Mal-Maeder, D., ‘ Lector, intende: laetaberis: The Enigma of the Last Book of Apuleius' Metamorphoses ’, in Hofmann, H. (ed.), Groningen Colloquia on the Novel 8 (Groningen, 1997), 87–118 Google Scholar.
63 Met. 11.3.
64 See Harrison's note on the name of the novel: Harrison, S., Apuleius. A Latin Sophist (Oxford, 2000), 210Google Scholar, n. 1.
65 Ibid., 6. On Apuleius’ background, see ibid., 1–10.