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 center of the only Latin novel to survive entire. Fifty-six plates by painters including Panini and Apollonio di Giovanni carry the Roman world of temples, processions and imperial intrigue that surrounds Lucius on his travels.