Context

The Golden Ass, or Metamorphoses, by Lucius Apuleius traces the spiritual evolution of an aspirant, also called Lucius, by the allegory of physical transformation from young man, to an ass, and back again as an Isiatic initiate. The stages of transformation and the progression from idle spectator, through active participant, to enlightened contemplation, are discussed in (Mangoubi 2001). The three stages (before, during, and after transformation) are under the guidance of the goddesses Diana, Epona, and Isis respectively.

The whole book is interesting, at several levels (like Shakespear, Apuleius can be playing bawdy jokes to the crowd and making clever references to literature or to metaphysical concepts, in the same work and at the same time). Besides having studied Platonic philosophy and latin oratory at universities in Carthage, Athens and in Rome, he was also an initiate of Isis and a priest of Aesculapius. [ There is a good illustrated commentary on it by Benjamin Slade.]

The particular portion of the book that I would like to discuss in detail is the second sentence of the 27th verse of book 3. Lucius has been turned into an ass or donkey, by his lover Fotis, using magic; he has also been told that the only way to turn back into a human is to eat roses, which will be provided the next morning by his lover. So he is standing in a stable, feeling sorry for himself; even his own horse will not share food with him. Suddenly, he spots a shrine to Epona in the stable; and (as everyone knew at that time, apparently) such shrines are often decorated with garlands of fresh roses.

Latin text

I have hilighted the second sentence.

Sic adfectus atque in solitudinem relegatus angulo stabuli concesseram. Dumque de insolentia collegarum meorum mecum cogito atque in alterum diem auxilio rosario Lucius denuo futurus equi perfidi vindictam meditor, respicio pilae mediae, quae stabuli trabes sustinebat, in ipso fere meditullio Eponae deae simulacrum residens aediculae, quod accurate corollis roseis equidem recentibus fuerat ornatum. Denique adgnito salutari praesidio pronus spei, quantum extensis prioribus pedibus adniti poteram, insurgo valide et cervice prolixa nimiumque porrectis labiis, quanto maxime nisu poteram, corollas adpetebam. Quod me pessima scilicet sorte conantem servulus meus, cui semper equi cura mandata fuerat, repente conspiciens indignatus exsurgit et: "Quo usque tandem" inquit "cantherium patiemur istum paulo ante cibariis iumentorum,nunc etiam simulacris deorum infestum? Quin iam ego istum sacrilegum debilem claudumque reddam"; et statim telum aliquod quaeritans temere fascem lignorum positum offendit, rimatusque frondosum fustem cunctis vastiorem non prius miserum me tundere desiit quam sonitu vehementi et largo strepitu percussis ianuis trepido etiam rumore viciniae conclamatis latronibus profugit territus.

Unfortunately we don't know exactly what the original text said, because all our current translations derive from a single manuscript of the 11th century.

English translations

This is the translation by Robert Graves:

As I stood in my lonely corner, banished from the society of my four-footed colleagues and deciding on a bitter revenge on them the next morning as soon as I had eaten my roses and become Lucius again, I noticed a little shrine of the Mare-headed Mother, the Goddess Epona, standing in a niche of the post that supported the main beam of the stable. It was wreathed with freshly gathered roses, the very antidote that I needed.

Bravely struggling past the cascade of dependent clauses, the use of the unusual term 'Mare headed Mother' was pounced on by Sulpicia Ulpius who wrote:

The one line in this quote that grabbed me was "Mare-headed Mother" - have any such literal depictions been found, or is she always in the forms you described earlier?

I replied that depictions of Epona are generally either a woman riding sidesaddle on a walking horse (the 'Gallic type') or a woman seated on a throne, flanked by two or more horses (the 'Imperial type'; see the thread on Religio Romana); there are no known instances of a mare-headed woman (along the lines of the human-animal fusions of Egyptian iconography). So, checking the translation seemed a necessary step.

I have since discovered that Demeter was sometimes described as the 'Mare headed Goddess' and wonder if Apuleius was more familiar with Demeter than with Epona and was filling in details by analogy, details which in fact were incorrect? Or perhaps, by using this form of words, he wanted to work a reference to Demeter into this section for those able to see it? Or maybe it doesn't mean 'mare headed' at all and it was Graves filling in this detail? The relevant Latin word seems to be meditullio. Unfortunately, that word is not in my dictionary.

There are other aspects of the translation that bear scrutiny too - the 'very antidote that I needed' apears to be extra explanatory material inserted by Graves to remind the reader. Also, where exactly is this shrine, and can we get an idea of its position and dimensions? Pilae can mean a post but also can mean a low pillar monument or a support for a statue, which would work here. It wouldn't support a crossbeam, but it would support a statue or a model temple. Cutting a niche into the main supporting post of a building does not seem structurally sound, and it must be a large building because the Epona statue is half way up the post and Lucius has to stand on his hind legs and stretch high up to reach it.

Unfortunately I was hard pressed to find alternative translations in English. There is one by William Adlington but that was translated in 1566 so the language is a little odd:

Then I being thus handled by them, and driven away, got me into a corner of the stable, where while I remembred their uncurtesie, and how on the morrow I should return to Lucius by the help of a Rose, when as I thought to revenge my self of myne owne horse, I fortuned to espy in the middle of a pillar sustaining the rafters of the stable the image of the goddesse Hippone, which was garnished and decked round about with faire and fresh roses: then in hope of present remedy, I leaped up with my fore feet as high as I could, stretching out my neck, and with my lips coveting to snatch some roses

Thats pretty vague; it 'corrects' the name to a more plausible Latin one, mentions no mare-heads or even model temples. Again its in the pillar rather than attached to it, or on top of it, or whatever.

Does anyone have the translation by P. G. Walsh?

Other translations

This is the translation into French by Pierre Grimal

[...] voici qu'en me retournant j'aperçus, à mi-hauteur du pilier qui soutenait les poutres de l'écurie et au milieu de celle-ci, une statue de la déesse Epona assise dans une chapelle que l'on avait soigneusement ornée avec des couronnes de roses toutes fraîches.

There is no mention here of a 'mare headed goddess'. The Epona shrine is stated to be half way up the pillar that supports the beams of the stable and 'in the middle of this' which seems superfluous (but perhaps someone with better French can comment on this apparent duplication). 'Seated' (assise) seems to have bee inserted into the translation, based on knowledge of the iconography. Again, the translation states that it is the little shrine which is dedicated with roses, not the statue itself.

Another translation, also in French, by B. Maroutaeff and J. Schumacher from an interesting site in Belgium:

j'aperçois, à moitié de la hauteur du pilier qui supportait la voûte de l'écurie, une niche qu'on y avait pratiquée, et où se trouvait l'image de la déesse Épone, parce avec des guirlandes de roses encore fraîches.

That site is fully hypertext enabled and one can search for occurences of forms. Here is the entry for meditullio, which tells us that this word occurs five times in the Metamorphoses (and hardly at all in other works). So I can forgive my dictionary for not listing this word.

Hmm this one is interesting

Namque in ipso aedis sacrae meditullio ante deae simulacrum constitutum tribunal

Its given a little more context and translation here. Again no mention of mare-headed. I believe Graves made it up.

References

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