Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T13:09:37.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Elegiac Ass: The Concept of Servitivm Amoris in Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

Judith Hindermann
Judith Hindermann*
Affiliation:
Universität Basel
Get access

Extract

Seruitium amoris, the notion of love as slavery, is a frequent theme in Roman elegy. It inverts Roman reality in representing a free Roman citizen dominated by a woman, evidently from a lower social class. The elegiac amator (‘lover’) elevates his beloved puella (‘girl’) and treats her as a slave would treat his mistress (domina), obeying her orders and yielding to her wishes and moods. Although it has been widely observed that Lucius, the protagonist of Apuleius' Metamorphoses, acts like a slave towards his beloved, the slave girl Fotis, the idea of elegiac seruitium amoris has not been analysed systematically as an explanation of this strange relationship, and affinities between the Metamorphoses and Roman elegy have even been denied altogether. To date, most investigations have focused not on the mode but on the consequences of Lucius' servile behaviour, culminating in his transformation into an ass and a series of painful adventures brought to an end by the intervention of the goddess Isis.

My discussion will argue that in presenting Lucius and Fotis as an elegiac couple, Apuleius adds yet another form of love to the broad spectrum of relationships between the sexes that he presents in the Metamorphoses. It will also contend that by introducing the theme of seruitium amoris, he helps his audience interpret the complex and richly described relationship between protagonist and slave, a key theme throughout the work.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , 2009 , pp. 75 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Cf. the diachronic investigations of Lyne, R.O.A.M., ‘Seruitium amoris’, CQ n.s. 29 (1979), 117–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar and of Murgatroyd, P., ‘Seruitium amoris and the Roman Elegists’, Latomus 40 (1981), 589–606Google Scholar.

2. James, P., Unity in Diversity: A Study of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses with Particular Reference to the Narrator’s Art of Transformation and the Metamorphosis Motif in the Tale of Cupid and Psyche (Hildesheim/Zürich/New York 1987Google Scholar) accords the most emphasis to the importance of elegiac seruitium amoris in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses. She calls Lucius’ behaviour towards Fotis an ‘ardent and effusive courtship, exhibiting all the features of seruitium amoris’ and Fotis ‘the recipient of a number of elegiac flatteries’ (52). Furthermore, she assumes that Lucius ‘in his manufactured infatuation with Fotis…deliberately reversed their social roles and took the seruitium amoris pose to great lengths’ (243f.). Sandy, G., ‘Semites Voluptates in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, Phoenix 28 (1974), 234–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar, also judges Roman elegy the model for Lucius’ ‘exaggerated profession of his love and enslavement’ (238), but sees him more as a slave of magic than of sexual lust. Schmidt, V., ‘Apuleius Met. 3,15f.: Die Einweihung in die falschen Mysterien’, Mnem. 35 (1982), 269–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 278, rejects the possibility that the idea of seruitium amoris is present in the novel because Fotis also calls herself a slave to Lucius.

3. Thessaliam—nam et illic originis maternae nostrae fundamenta a Plutarcho Mo inclito ac mox Sexto philosopho nepote eius prodita gloria<m> nobis faciunt (‘to Thessaly—for that’s where my family’s roots are, going back on my mother’s side to the famous Plutarch and later his nephew the philosopher Sextus, which I’m very proud of, Met. 1.2). The Latin text is here and throughout taken from Helm’s third edition (Leipzig 1931); the translations are my own.

4. etiam de ista corporis speciosa habitudine deque hoc uirginali prorsus uerecundia, generosa stirpe proditum et recte conicerem (‘I would have guessed—and rightly—your belonging to a good family also from your attractive personal appearance and from your maidenly shyness’, Met. 1.23); en…sanctissimae Saluiae matris generosa probitas (‘you show the good manners of your most venerable mother Salvia’, Met. 2.2).

5. discede…quam procul a meo foculo, discede (‘go away…go away as far from my little oven as you can’, Met. 2.7); caue (‘be cautious’, Met. 2.10); bono animo esto…abi ergo ac te compara (‘be confident…go away now and prepare yourself’, Met. 2.10).

6. proeliare…et fortiter proeliare…derige et grassare nauiter et occide moriturus (‘fight…and fight bravely…straighten up, give it all you’ve got and kill me as if you were about to die’, Met. 2.17).

7. The word nutus is similarly employed for Mercury (Met. 10.30), the emperor (Met. 7.7) and Isis’ priest (Met. 11.14). In Met. 2.30 and 3.12 nutibus describes the behaviour of the curious community and in Met. 10.17 Lucius’ gesture as a ‘trained’ ass.

8. Met. 2.17; 3.22.

9. Holzberg, N., ‘Ovids erotische Lehrgedichte und die romische Liebeselegie’, WS n.f. 15 (1981), 185–204Google Scholar, at 198–204.

10. Wildberger, J., Ovids Schule der ‘elegischen’ Liebe: Erotodidaxe und Psychagogie in der Ars Amatoria (Frankfurt a. M./Berlin/Bern 1998), 214–32Google Scholar.

11. E.g. Wlosok, A., ‘Zur Einheit der Metamorphosen des Apuleius’, Philologus 113 (1969), 68–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 78; Penwill, J.L., ‘Slavish Pleasures and Profitless Curiosity: Fall and Redemption in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, Ramus 4 (1975), 49–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 71; Schmidt (n.2 above); de Smet, R., ‘The Erotic Adventure of Lucius and Fotis in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, Latomus 46 (1987), 613–23Google Scholar; Alpers, K., ‘Innere Beziehungen und Kontraste als hermeneutische Zeichen in den Metamorphosen des Apuleius von Madaura’, WJA n.f. 6a (1980), 197–207Google Scholar, at 199–201; Krabbe, J.K., The Metamorphoses of Apuleius (New York/Bern/Frankfurt a.M./Paris 1989), 84–86Google Scholar; Sandy (n.2 above); Kenney, E.J., Apuleius: Cupid and Psyche (Cambridge 1990), 11Google Scholar; Münstermann, H., Apuleius Metamorphosen Uterarischer Vorlagen: Untersuchung dreier Episoden des Romans unter Berücksichtigung der Philosophie und Theologie des Apuleius (Stuttgart/Leipzig 1995), 16–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 44f. van Mal-Maeder, D.Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses, livre II: texte, introduction et commentate (Groningen 2001), 410Google Scholar, argues against this sharp division between the first ten and the eleventh book and interprets the Isis-book not in opposition, but in continuation to the rest of the novel.

12. Festugière, A.-J., Personal Religion among the Greeks (Berkeley/Los Angeles 1954Google Scholar); Egelhaaf-Gaiser, U., Kulträume im römischen Alltag: das Isishuch des Apuleius und der Ort von Religion im kaiserzeitlichen Rom (Stuttgart 2000Google Scholar); Merkelbach, R., Isis regina—Zeus Sarapis: die griechisch-ägyptische Religion nach den Quellen dargestellt (Stuttgart/Leipzig 1995Google Scholar).

13. Merkelbach (n.12 above), 300; Turcan, R., Les cultes orientaux dans le monde romain (Paris 1989), 112Google Scholar; Witt, R.E., Isis in the Graeco-Roman World (Ithaca NY 1971), 135Google Scholar.

14. Cf. van Mal-Maeder, D., ‘Lector, intende: laetaberis: The Enigma of the Last Book of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, GCN 8 (1997), 87–118Google Scholar, at lOOf.

15. Cf. Bömer, F., Untersuchungen iiber die Religion der Sklaven in Griechenland und Rom, Erster Teil (Wiesbaden 1957), 390f.Google Scholar; ZweiterTeil (Wiesbaden 1960), 89f.; 128; 133–41.

16. See Gwyn Griffiths, J., Apuleius of Madauros: The Isis Book (Metamorphoses, Book XI) (Leiden 1975), 254fGoogle Scholar.

17. Cf. e.g. Ov. Am. 1.9, 2.12; Ars 2.233–36; Prop. 2.1.47, 2.7.15–18; Spies, A., Militat omnis amans: ein Beitrag zur Bildersprache der antiken Erotik (Diss. Tubingen 1930Google Scholar).

18. For the development of the metaphors of military service in early Christianity see von Harnack, A., Militia Christi: die christliche Religion und der Soldateneid in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Darmstadt 1963Google Scholar); Wlosok, A., ‘Römischer Religions- und Gottesbegriff in heidnischer und christlicher Zeit’, in E. Heck, E. Schmidt and A. Ernst (eds.), Res humanae - res diuinae. Kleine Schriften (Heidelberg 1990), 15–34Google Scholar, at 29f. For the Christian notion of ‘slavery of God’ cf. Rom. 1.1; 6.22; Gal. 5.1; Luke 1.38; Mt. 11.29 and Versnel, H., Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion I. Ter Unus: Isis, Dionysos, Hermes: Three Studies in Henotheism (Leiden 1990), 90fGoogle Scholar.

19. E.g. Penwill, J.L., ‘Ambages Reciprocae: Reviewing Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, Ramus 19 (1990), 1–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who writes that Lucius ‘in a very real sense…has merely substituted one mistress for another’ (12). Versnel (n.18 above) notices an ‘amatory ring’ (91) in Lucius’ voluntary submission. See also G. Schmeling and Montiglio, S., ‘Riding the Waves of Passion: An Exploration of an Image of Appetites in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, in W.H. Keulen, R.R. Nauta and S. Panayotakis (eds.), Lectiones Scrupulosae (Groningen 2006), 28–41Google Scholar.

20. Egelhaaf-Gaiser (n.12 above), 442f.

21. For Lucius’ uoluptas with Fotis cf. Met. 2.10; 2.17.

22. Cf. Egelhaaf-Gaiser (n.12 above), 160.

23. Cf. e.g. the situation of Philolaches in Plautus’ Mostellaria and the advice of the procuresses in Prop. 4.5 and Ov. Am. 1.8.

24. Cf. Tib. 1.6.85L; Prop. 1.12.20,2.6.41f., 2.25.9L.; Wildberger (n.10 above), 262–64 and 322–29.

25. Festugière (n.12 above), 80.

26. This article is an expanded version of a paper I gave at ICAN IV, the fourth International Conference on the Ancient Novel, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 21–26 July 2008.