The Golden Asse

A young man dabbling in Thessalian witchcraft is turned into a donkey and passes from owner to owner — bandits, a baker's wife, a market gardener — hearing everything humans say in front of an animal, until a goddess takes pity. Apuleius was himself tried for using magic to win a rich widow, and won the case; the tale of Cupid and Psyche sits at the centre of the only Latin novel to survive entire.