Religious Dreamworld of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses: Recovering a Forgotten Hermeneutic (Editions SR)

193 Pages·1999·21.49 MB·English

by  James Gollnick

EDITIONS SR
Volume 25
The Religious
Dreamworld of Apuleius'
Metamorphoses:
Recovering a Forgotten
Hermeneutic
James Gollnick
Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/
Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses
by Wilfrid Laurier University Press
1999
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and
Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gollnick, James Timothy
The religious dreamworld of Apuleius' Metamorphoses : recovering
a forgotten heremeneutic
(Editions SR ; v. 25)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88920-300-8
1. Apuleius. Metamorphoses. 2. Dreams in literature. I. Canadian Corporation
for Studies in Religion. II. Title. III. Series.
PA6217.G64 1999 873.48'.01 C98-932452-4
© 1999 Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion /
Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses
Cover design by Leslie Macredie using a photograph of a Roman statue of Isis
(© The British Museum)
Θ
Printed in Canada
The Religious Dreamworld of Apuleius ' Metamorphoses has been produced from
camera-ready copy supplied by the author.
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Order from:
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Contents
Acknowledgments and Credits ν
Abbreviations vii
Foreword ix
Chapter
1. The Dreamworld as Hermeneutical Perspective 1
2. Literary Dreams and the Nature of the Metamorphoses ... 13
3. Dream Interpretation in the Second Century 31
4. Dreams in the Metamorphoses 53
5. The Eros and Psyche Myth: Psychological
Interpretations 81
6. The Eros and Psyche Myth: An Archetypal Dream 107
7. Lucius' Religious Experience 127
Conclusion 153
Selected Bibliography 155
Index 172
iii
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Acknowledgments and Credits
I
am grateful to Stephen Jones, Debbie Thurling-Gollnick, Herbert Richard-
son and Doreen Armbruster for their assistance in preparing this manu-
script.
Quotations from J. Winkler's Auctor and Actor: A Narratological Read-
ing of Apuleius' Golden Ass are reprinted by permission of the University of
California Press.
Quotations from J. Lindsay's translation of The Golden Ass are reprinted
by permission of the Indiana University Press.
Quotations from J. Griffiths' translation of The his Book. Metamor-
phoses 11 are reprinted by permission of E.J. Brill Publishers.
The cover photograph of the Isis statue is reprinted by permission of The
British Museum.
ν
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Abbreviations
AA Aspects of Apuleius ' Golden Ass
AC L'Antiquité Classique
AJP American Journal of Philology
AP Amor und Psyche
BAGB Bulletin de Γ Association G. Budé
CW Collected Works of C.G. Jung
GA The Golden Ass (translated by J. Lindsay)
GAA The Golden Ass (translated by Wm. Adlington)
G&R Greece and Rome
HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
IB The Isis Book (translated by J. Griffiths)
IL L'Information Littéraire
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
LCM Liverpool Classical Monthly
Met. The Metamorphoses
MPL Museum Philologum Londiniense
OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung
PCPS Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society
PLL Papers on Language and Literature
REA Revue des études anciennes
REL Revue des études latines
RPh Revue de Philologie
SE Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud
TAPA Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Associ-
ation
WJA Würzburger Jahrbücher fur die Altertumswissenschaft
ZAS Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft
ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
vii
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Foreword
T
his study of Apuleius' Metamorphoses seeks to add to an appreciation
of Apuleius the dreamer and the second-century dreamworld in which
he lived and wrote. It proposes (1) to show the importance of dreams and the
dreamworld to the Metamorphoses; (2) to view the dreamworld of this novel
as an accurate reflection of the second-century perspective on dreams, espe-
cially those affecting religious transformation; and (3) to offer historical
background on the current interest in the role of dreams in psychological and
spiritual transformation.
Interest in dreams has grown throughout the twentieth century starting
with the publication of Freud's monumental Interpretation of Dreams. The
important role of dreams in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as well as the
large-scale research effort in dream laboratories since the 1950s testify to this
interest, as does the growth of grass-roots dream work in the last two decades.
As Wendy Doniger and Kelly Bulkeley point out, one reason to study dreams
is to gain insights into the religious concerns of humankind.
Humans have been exploring their dreams for millennia, and these explorations
have most often been conducted in religious terms and contexts. Thus, if mod-
ern dream researchers aspire to a truly comprehensive understanding of dreams
and dreaming, they must draw upon the historical work of religious studies.1
This present study attempts to deepen our understanding of the religious roots
of dream interpretation and to offer some historical perspective.
The Metamorphoses is generally considered to be the book's original
name because it is the title found on extant manuscripts. The more familiar
title, The Golden Ass, has often been used in translations since the
Renaissance2 and is first found in Augustine's City of God (Book 18) where,
some critics say, Augustine used it as a sign of contempt for Apuleius, who
was an authority in the enemy (pagan) camp. Over the years, though, the
meaning of this title has been vigorously debated. James Tatum, for instance,
explains that asinus aureus (golden ass) is a colloquial, non-contemptuous
phrase meaning "the first-class ass" or "darling donkey."3 He also reminds
Notes to the Foreword are on p. xiii.
IX