The Metamorphosis or Golden Ass of Apuleius

Thomas Taylor’s books are highly sought after because of his remarkable ability to translate seeming obscure texts into understandable gems of light. Apuleius, the celebrated author of the following works, is undoubtedly the greatest of the ancient Latin Platonists. He is not to be classed among the chief of the disciples of Plato, yet he will always maintain a very distinguished rank among those who have delivered to us the more accessible parts of that philosophy with consummate eloquence. The most important parts of the Metamorphosis, I feel, are the fable of Cupid and Psyche, and the eleventh book, in which Apuleius gives an account of his being initiated in the mysteries of Isis and Osiris. I call these the most important parts, because in the former, it appears to me, the very ancient dogma of the pre-existence of the human soul, its lapse from the intelligible world to the earth, and its return from thence to its pristine state of felicity, are most accurately and beautifully adumbrated.