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APULEIUS, METAMORPHOSES 11.23.5

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Elia R. Rudoni
Elia R. Rudoni*
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
*
er2598@columbia.edu
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Extract

quaeras forsitan satis anxie, studiose lector, quid deinde dictum, quid factum. dicerem, si dicere liceret; cognosceres, si liceret audire. sed parem noxam contraherent et aures et lingua[e] < … > illae temerariae curiositatis.

In spite of the reader's curiosity, the narrator will not break the secrecy of Isis’ mysteries. Precisely an act of curiositas had brought about Lucius’ transformation into an ass; at the end of the novel he demonstrates that he has learnt his lesson.

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Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , December 2016 , pp. 812 - 815
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2016 

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References

1 This is the text of Met. 11.23.5 as in M. Zimmerman, Apulei Metamorphoseon Libri XI (Oxford, 2012), but without the supplement <illicitae intemperantiae ista> (on which see below).

2 As is well known, curiositas is one of the most prominent themes in Apuleius’ novel. See e.g. the recent Groningen commentary: W.H. Keulen et al., Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses Book XI (Leiden and Boston, 2015), 383–5 with further bibliography.

3 Some editors print the text of F unchanged (see now the list in Keulen [n. 2], ad loc.). They defend illae as either a nominative plural or an irregular form of genitive singular. But see the objections rightly raised by Nicolini, L., ‘Due proposte al testo delle Metamorfosi di Apuleio’, Philologus 154 (2010), 149–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 153, and Keulen (n. 2), ad loc.

4 J. Van der Vliet, Lucii Apulei Metamorphoseon libri XI (Leipzig, 1897); D.S. Robertson, Apulée. Les Metamorphoses, vol. 3 (Paris, 19562).

5 Nicolini (n. 3), 154; Zimmerman (n. 1); Keulen (n. 2).

6 Keulen (n. 2), 396.

7 Numerous instances, in a variety of nuances of meaning, can be found in TLL 2.28.10–17 (ancilla), 2.29.9–11 (ancillula), 6.269.1–12 (famula), 8.256.53–81 (mancipium), 8.1003.37–58 (minister), 8.1005.9–22 (ministra): cf. e.g. Sen. Dial. 7.13.5 uirtutem … uoluptati tradere ancillam; Sall. Cat. 1.1 pecora … uentri oboedientia; Liv. 24.25.9 irarum indulgentes ministri; Val. Max. 9.4.ext.1 pecuniae miserabile mancipium.

8 In Latin authors, cf. e.g. Sall. Cat. 1.2 animi imperio, corporis seruitio; Ov. Her. 18.24 dextra … sensus apta ministra mei, 21.114 lumina propositi facta ministra tui; Sen. Ep. 114.23 rex noster est animus; hoc incolumi cetera manent in officio, parent, obtemperant; Sen. Clem. 1.3.5 totum corpus animo deseruit … manus, pedes, oculi negotium illi gerunt; Tert. Resurr. 7 caro … ministra et famula animae. The examples may be multiplied.

9 The great majority of scholars regard the Apuleian authorship of De Platone and De mundo as either certain or very likely: e.g. C. Moreschini, Apuleio e il Platonismo (Firenze, 1978), 51–132, A. Marchetta, L'autenticità apuleiana del De Mundo (L'Aquila and Rome, 1991), S.J. Harrison, Apuleius. A Latin Sophist (Oxford, 2000), 174–209. A forthcoming CQ article by Justin Stover and Mike Kestemont, ‘Reassessing the Apuleian corpus: a computational approach to authenticity’, also endorses the authenticity of these two works.

10 ad is the standard emendation for the transmitted atque.

11 Here and in the following examples # means [period].

12 Cf. e.g. 1.5.1 <omni>uidentem, 2.2.8 <amus>sim, Petron. 34.3 <supel>lecticarius.