The Golden Ass
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The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as The Golden Ass, is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety.
Title page from John Price's Latin edition of Apuleius' novel Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass (Gouda, Netherlands, 1650)
Lucius takes human form, in a 1345 illustration of the Metamorphoses (ms. Vat. Lat. 2194, Vatican Library).
Lucius spies Milo's wife transforming into a vulture. Illustration by Jean de Bosschère
Charitë embraces Tlepolemus while Lucius looks on. From an illustration by Jean de Bosschère
Mysteries of Isis
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The mysteries of Isis were religious initiation rites performed in the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis in the Greco-Roman world. They were modeled on other mystery rites, particularly the Eleusinian
A ceremony worshipping the sarcophagus of Osiris, depicted in a fresco in the Temple of Isis at Pompeii from the first century CE. The death of Osiris was a prominent motif in the cult of Isis. The sarcophagus's appearance here may refer to the emphasis on Osiris and the afterlife found in the mysteries dedicated to Isis.
Roman statue of Isis, second century CE
Priestess of Isis holding a situla (bronze jug) or a cista (ritual basket), second century CE
Remains of a temple of Isis on the shore at Cenchreae, Corinth, Greece