# XVIII explained — The Golden Ass

> Chapter companion for The Golden Ass by Apuleius.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_golden_ass_se/chapters/xviii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_golden_ass_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_golden_ass_se/chapters