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The Golden Ass · Chapter

XVIII explained

Lucius, still in ass form, is taken to a village where he is set to pasture but cannot eat with the other animals.

What happens

Lucius, still in ass form, is taken to a village where he is set to pasture but cannot eat with the other animals. He jumps into a garden to feed on herbs and searches for roses to break the spell. Mistaking laurel roses for true roses, he is attacked by a gardener, whom he kicks down, then is chased by dogs and townspeople, caught, bound, and beaten nearly to death before escaping further harm by defecating on his attackers.

Themes in this chapter

  • Fortune and Suffering

    Lucius's relentless bad luck is highlighted as he mistakes poisonous laurel roses for the remedy and is brutally beaten.

  • Transformation and Identity

    Lucius's desperate quest for roses underscores his longing to shed his animal form and reclaim his human identity.

  • Deception and Appearance

    The beautiful but deadly laurel roses deceive Lucius, mirroring the theme of misleading appearances.

Characters to notice

  • Lucius

    Narrating as an ass, he desperately seeks roses to regain human form, suffers hunger, beating, and humiliation.

  • Milo

    His ass is mentioned as one of the animals that would not let Lucius feed with them.

Key passages

  • “I leaped into a garden which was behind the stable, and being well-nigh perished with hunger, although I could find nothing there but raw and green fallets, yet I filled my hungry guts therewithal abundantly”

    I jumped into a garden behind the stable, nearly starved, and though I found only raw green vegetables, I ate my fill.

    Lucius describes his desperate foraging for food while still in ass form.

  • “I saw afar-off a shadowed valley adjoining nigh unto a wood, where amongst diverse other herbs and pleasant verdures, me thought I saw bright flourishing roses of bright damask colour”

    I spotted a shady valley near a wood where, among various plants, I thought I saw bright damask roses.

    Lucius mistakes laurel roses for the true roses that could restore him.

  • “I lift up my legs and kicked him with my hinder heels, that I left him lying at the hillfoot well-nigh slain, and so I ran away”

    I kicked the gardener hard with my hind legs, leaving him nearly dead at the foot of the hill, and then I ran off.

    Lucius defends himself against the gardener's beating.

  • “I caught such a laske that I all besprinkled their faces with my liquid dung, and enforced them to leave off”

    I had such a bout of diarrhea that I sprayed their faces with liquid dung, forcing them to stop beating me.

    Lucius escapes further punishment by defecating on his attackers.

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