Roles and Performances in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses

203 Pages·2001·15.69 MB·English

by  Stavros Frangoulidis (auth.)

Roles and Performances in Apuleius' Metamorphoses
DRAMA
Beitrage zum antiken Drama
und seiner Rezeption
Herausgegeben von
F. De Martino - J. A. Lopez Ferez -
G. Mastromarco - B. Seidensticker
N. W. Slater - A. H. Sommerstein -
R. Stillers - P. Thiercy -
B. Zimmermann
Stavros Frangoulidis
Roles an Performances
in Apuleius'
Metamorphoses
Verlag 1. B. Metzler
Stuttgart . Weimar
Die Deutsche Bibliothek -CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Frangoulidis, Stavros:
Roles and Performances in ApuIeius' MetamorphoseslStavros Frangoulidis.
-Stuttgart ; Weimar: Metzler, 2001
(Drama: Beiheft; 16)
(M-&-P-Schriftenreihe für Wissenschaft und Forschung)
ISBN 978-3-476-45284-9
ISBN 978-3-476-02841-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-476-02841-9
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CONTENTS
Aclmowledgements .................................... ... ...................................................................... vii
Introduction. ............................ ................. .......................... ................. ...................................... ... . 1
Chapter I -Unwittingly Successful Performances:
The Triumph of Magic ...... .. .......... 15
1. From Friend to Unwitting Enemy: Aristomenes'
Tale of Socrates ..................................................................................... ............. _ ............................ 16
2. Mutilation as Emasculation: Thelyphron's
Tale ofThelyphron ............... .............................. .. ................................................ 35
3. The Laughter festival as a Community Integration Rite .......... 49
Chapter II -Fatally Successful Performances .................................. .. ........... 69
1. The New Recruit's Tale ofPlotina ............................. 70
2. A Faithful Wife's Revenge: The Servant's
Tale of Charite ........... .............................. 82
Chapter III -Unsuccessful Performances ......................................................... 105
1. The Ass as Helper? The Ass' Tale of the Miller's Wife ..................... 105
2. The Tale of the Stepmother as a Variant of
Thelyphron's Tale .. .. ....... 119
Chapter IV -Man and Animal ....................... . .............................................................. . ....... 129
1. 'Theater' and 'Spectacle:' The Robber's Tale
of Thrasyleon ................................................................................................................................. 129
2. Thiasos and Venus in the Corinthian Theater ... ... ...... 147
Chapter V - Successful Performances:
Lucius' Spiritual Joumey ........ .......................... ... .... 163
Bibliography....... ........_... ...... ..... ......... ........_ 177
General Index ................................... ... .................................................................................. 191
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study offers an analysis of selected embedded tales and
longer narrative sequences in Apuleius' Metamorphoses from the
perspective of 'roles' and 'performances' as deftned by the
Greimasian discourse model. Chapters I.1, II.2, III.1 and IV.1 are
revised versions of articles in CJ 95 (1999) 375-391, AJP 120
(1999) 601-619, Scholia 9 (2000) 66-78, and Drama 8 (1999) 113-
135 respectively. I would like to thank the editors of these journals:
J.
Peter E. Knox, Philip A. Stadter, William Dominik and
Bernhard Zimmermann for granting me permission to reuse those
earlier works. The illustration of Isis Pelagia on the cover is from a
fragmentary lamp found in Sarapieion C at Delos (Inv. No. B
2984, photo by EFA , E. Serafts). I wish to thank the Ecole
frans:aise d'Athenes and its Director Prof. Roland Etienne for their
permission to use the photograph. In this study, I do not examine
the tale of Cupid and Psyche, which I have already discussed in the
Appendix of my earlier monograph, Handlung und Nebenhandlung.
Theater, Metatheater und Gattungsbewusstsein in der riimischen Komiidie
(Stuttgart: Metzler 1997) 145-177.
Heartfelt thanks are due to S.N. Philippides for the extensive
discussions, which originally inspired the theoretical approach of
this work, and for his subsequent tireless encouragement. I would
also like to thank several colleagues and friends who read versions
of the book and made helpful comments: Yannis Tzifopoulos,
S.N. Philippides, Michael Paschalis, John L. Penwill, David
Konstan, David George, SJ. Harrison, Alfred Vincent, Sophia
Papaioannou, Christos Tsagalis, Nic Panagopoulos and Ben Petre.
vii
Roles and Performances in Apuleius' Metamorphoses
I also wish to express my thanks to those colleagues and friends
who supplied me with copies of their work or with other relevant
material: Maaike Zimmerman, Sophia Papaioannou, Maria Sarinaki
and Dimitris Kritsotakis. Manolis Skountakis has carefully checked
all the Latin quotations. I am grateful to Professor Dr. Bernhard
Zimmermann, editor-in-charge, for the renewed opportunity to
publish my work in the monograph series of Drama, as well as for
his astute suggestions, his hospitality and his encouragement.
The text of Apuleius' Metamorphoses is quoted from Helm's
Teubner edition (1992), unless otherwise indicated. All Latin
translations of Apuleius are from Hanson's Loeb edition (1989).
Rethymno, April 2001
viii
INTRODUCTION
Apuleius' Metamorphoses relates the story of Lucius' change
into an ass through magic; his sorrowful adventures as he is sold to
various masters and his travels through different communities; his
restoration, both physically and spiritually, through Isis' help and,
fmally, his initiations into the rites of Isis and her brother/consort
Osiris.
The narrative of the Metamorphoses incorporates various
descriptions and sequences which refer to theatrical and dramatic
performances. Several scholars have drawn attention to
amphitheater performances and/or pantomimes. Niall W. Slater
discusses various amphitheater performances in the novel and
suggests that the notion of spectacle has negative connotations in
the narrative.1 On the other hand, Maaike Zimmerman focuses on
theatrical aspects in the ekphrasis of the Judgment of Paris, the
pantomime, in the final sequence of Lucius' asinine adventures
before his restoration to human form (Book 10).2
The novel has not so far been assessed from the perspective
of 'roles' and 'performances' on the discourse leveI.3 Such a reading
is warranted by the fact that most major characters in the novel
constantly change roles. This behavior constitutes an important
Slater 2000, 110-11.
2 Zimmerman 1993.
Winkler 1985, 87, argues that Tlepolemus "assumes seven different
identities or characterizations, the last of which reveals that the first three were
outright lies and the rest were tricks calculated to destroy the band and rescue
the maiden."
1
Roles and Performances in Apuleius' Metamorphoses
aspect of the theme of 'metamorphosis' within the narrative, as
both the novel's tide and prologue make clear. Moreover, role
shifting points to role-mirroring, which exposes multiformity
associated with a world of appearances. The underlying premise of
this study is that the narrative of the Metamorphoses revolves around
a series of transformations of a simple basic unit. In the last book,
however, the goddess Isis allows Lucius to leave the world of
appearances and enter a world that is essentially uniform, thus
providing a stark contrast with what has preceded. Since the
goddess of many names admits of only one identity for herself, her
anamorphosis of Lucius further helps to characterize his earlier
adventures as belonging to a realm of bewildering deceptions.
Furthermore, throughout the narrative several characters
construct schemes and/or assume disguises. The enactment of
these involves an assumption and performance of roles.4 Quasi
comic schemes and/or disguises are also seen in the genre of
Greek New Comedy and Roman Comedy, and thus help to define
the Metamorphoses as comic novel.
I am in debt to Greimasian narrative theory for my analysis
of the novel from the perspective of 'roles' and 'performances.'5
Although the theory was originally developed for narratives, it has
4 For an analysis of the tale of Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche as a New
Comedy plot see Frangoulidis 1997, 145-77.
5 The only available and most illuminating presentation of Greimas' theory
in English is that by Philippides 1994. (Greimas and Courtes 1982, presents the
theory in dictionary form, subdivided into entries.) A brief discussion also
appears in Elam 1980, 126-131. Otherwise, the reader is left to reconstruct
Greimas' theory from his application in Maupassant (Greimas 1988).
2