There is little of Apuleius’s own invention in the work on which his fame principally rests. The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass (which latter title seems not to be the author’s own, but to have been bestowed in compliment), was founded on a narrative in the Metamorphoses of Lucius of Patrae, a work extant in the time of Photius. From Photius’s account (impugned however by Wieland and P. L. Courier), this book would seem to have consisted of a collection of marvellous stories, related in an inartistic fashion, and in perfect good faith. The literary capabilities of this particular narrative attracted the attention of Apuleius’s contemporary, Lucian, who proceeded to work it up in his own manner, adhering, as Photius seems to indicate, very closely to the original, but giving it a comic and satiric turn. Apuleius followed this rifacimento, making it, however, the groundwork of an elaborate romance, interspersed with numerous episodes, of which the beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche is the most celebrated, and altering the denouement to suit the religious revival of which he was an apostle. There is no reason to conclude with Warburton, that he wrote in direct antagonism to Christianity ; or with Thomas Taylor, that “his intention was to show that the man who gives himself to a voluptuous life becomes a beast.” The book is, nevertheless, a remarkable illustration of the contemporary reaction against a period of scepticism, of the general appetite for miracle and magic, and of the influx of Oriental and Egyptian ideas into the old theology. It is also composed with a well-marked literary aim, defined by Kretzschmann as the emulation of the Greek sophists, and the transplantation of their tours deforce into the Latin language. Nothing, indeed, is more characteristic of Apuleius than his versatility, unless that it be his ostentation and self-confidence in the display of it. The dignified, the ludicrous, the voluptuous, the horrible, succeed each other with bewildering rapidity; fancy and feeling are everywhere apparent, but not less so affectation, meretricious ornament, and that effort to say everything finely which prevents anything being said well. The Latinity has a strong African colouring, and is crammed with obsolete words, agreeably to the taste of the time. Few books accordingly suffer less by translation. When these defects are mitigated or overlooked, the Golden Ass will be pronounced a most successful work, original in treatment though not in invention, invaluable as an illustration of ancient manners, and full of entertainment from beginning to end. The most famous and poetically beautiful portion is the episode of Cupid and Psyche, adapted from a popular legend of which traces are found in most fairy mythologies, which explains the seeming incongruity of its being placed in the mouth of an old hag. As observed by Friedländer, this discriminating recognition of the beauty of a wild flower of folk lore is as much to the credit of Apuleius’s taste and feeling as the invention of it could have been to his imagination. The allegorical purport he has infused into it is his own, and entirely in the spirit of the Platonic philosophy. Don Quixote’s adventure with the wineskins, and Gil Bias’s captivity among the robbers, are palpably borrowed from Apuleius; and several of his humorous episodes, probably current as popular stories long before his time, reappear in Boccaccio.

Of Apuleius’s other writings, the Apology has been already mentioned. The Florida are a collection of excerpts from his declamations, ingenious but highly affected, and in general perfect examples of the sophistical art. of saying nothing with emphasis. The pleasing little tract On the God of Socrates expounds the Platonic doctrine of beneficent daemons. Two books on Plato treat of his life, and his physical and ethical philosophy; a third, treating of logic, is generally considered spurious. Apuleius informs us that he had also composed numerous poems in almost all possible styles, and several works on natural history, some in Greek. In the preparation of these he seems to have attended more closely to actual anatomical research than was customary with ancient naturalists.

The character of Apuleius, as delineated by himself, is attractive; he appears vehement and passionate, but devoid of rancour; enterprising, munificent, genial, and an enthusiast for the beautiful and good. His vanity and love of display are conspicuous, but are extenuated by a genuine thirst for knowledge, and a surprising versatility of attainments. His place in letters is accidentally more important than his genius strictly entitles him to hold. He is the only extant example in Latin literature of an accomplished sophist in the good sense of the term. The loss of other ancient romances has secured him a peculiar influence on modem fiction; while his chronological position in a transitional period renders him at once the evening star of the Platonic, and the morning star of the Neoplatonic philosophy.

The most complete edition of Apuleius is Oudendorp’s (Lugd. Bat. 1786-1823); the best modem edition is Hildebrand’s (Leipsic, 1842). The translations and imitations of the Golden Ass in modern languages are innumerable, The episode of Psyche has afforded the subject of a drama to Thomas Heywood, and of narrative poems to Shakerley Marmion, and Mrs Tighe. There are good English versions by Sir G. Head, and in Bohn’s Classical Library. The style oi Apuleius has been thoroughly investigated by L. Kretzschmann, Da Latinitate L. Apulei Madaurensis (Kegimonti, 1865).