The Golden Ass · Chapter
XXXI explained
Lucius, still in ass form, is beaten by the mother of the slain boy, who blames him for her son's death and tortures him with a firebrand until he defends himself by defecating on her.
What happens
Lucius, still in ass form, is beaten by the mother of the slain boy, who blames him for her son's death and tortures him with a firebrand until he defends himself by defecating on her.
Themes in this chapter
Violence and Cruelty
The mother's brutal beating and burning of Lucius, and his retaliatory act, exemplify the theme of violence and cruelty.
Fortune and Suffering
Lucius's undeserved suffering as an ass, punished for events beyond his control, highlights the capriciousness of fortune.
Characters to notice
- Lucius
Narrator and protagonist, currently an ass, subjected to cruel beating and burning by the boy's mother.
Key passages
“I all arrayed her face and eyes with my dirty dung, whereby (what with the stink thereof, and what with the filthiness that fell in her eyes) she was well-nigh blinded: so I enforced the quean to leave off, otherwise I had died as Meleager did by the stick, which his mad mother Althaea cast into the fire.”
I covered her face and eyes with my dung, nearly blinding her with the stench and filth, forcing her to stop; otherwise I would have died like Meleager, killed by the brand his mother Althaea threw into the fire.
Lucius uses a mythological analogy to describe his desperate defense against the mother's torture.