The Golden Ass · Chapter
XXVIII explained
Lucius, now an ass, is forced to haul wood from a high hill daily, tormented by a cruel boy who beats him relentlessly, loads him with excessive burdens, and even sets his load on fire.
What happens
Lucius, now an ass, is forced to haul wood from a high hill daily, tormented by a cruel boy who beats him relentlessly, loads him with excessive burdens, and even sets his load on fire. Lucius escapes the fire by plunging into a puddle, but the boy lies to the neighbors, claiming the ass deliberately jumped into the fire.
Themes in this chapter
Fortune and Suffering
Fortune continues to torment Lucius with new pains, yet also provides a chance escape from the fire, highlighting the capricious nature of fate.
Violence and Cruelty
The boy's relentless beatings, overloading, and setting the wood on fire exemplify extreme cruelty toward the helpless ass.
Characters to notice
- Lucius
As an ass, Lucius endures brutal treatment from a boy, including beatings, overloading, and a fire set on his back.
Key passages
“I was appointed to bring home wood every day from a high hill, and who should drive me thither and home again, but a boy that was the veriest hangman in all the world”
I was assigned to carry wood daily from a steep hill, and the boy who drove me was the cruelest tormentor imaginable.
Lucius describes his daily task and the boy's extreme cruelty.
“he stole a burning coal out of a man’s house of the next village, and put it into the middle of the rubble; the rubble and shrubs being very dry, did fall on a light fire and burned me on every side”
The boy stole a hot coal from a nearby house and placed it in the middle of the dry brush on my back, which quickly caught fire and burned me all over.
The boy's malicious act of setting the load on fire to torment Lucius.
“I espied a great hole full of rain water that fell the day before, thither I ran hastily and plunged myself therein, in such sort that I quenched the fire”
I spotted a large puddle left by yesterday's rain, ran to it, and plunged in, putting out the fire.
Lucius escapes the fire by rolling in a rainwater puddle.