PUGLIA Lucius (Lucius Apuleius)

(ca. 125 BC. - After 170 AD)
Born in Madavre (Numidia). Educated in Carthage and Athens, Apuleius was a practicing lawyer in Rome. Upon his return to Africa, married a rich widow, Emily Pudentilloy. Deceived in their expectations of the relatives of his wife accused him that he has conquered it with the help of magic. Exculpatory speech Apuleius in court preserved in the form of a book about magic, or Apology (Apologia, Pro se de magia). This work, like other works of Apuleius, reveals his interest in magic, as well as the influence neoplatonovskoy philosophy and Eastern mysticism, in particular the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis. In Apology, . under the name of Apuleius before we reached the following works: the teachings of Plato (De Platone et eius dogmate); the deity of Socrates (De deo Socratis); Florida (Florida) (excerpts from speeches) about the world (De mundo) (translation of the treatise of Pseudo - Aristotle), and the famous masterpiece, . Novel Metamorphosis, . or the golden donkey (Metamorphoseon sive de asino aureo libri),
. Reputation enjoyed by Apuleius from compatriots, was unusually high, he won two statues in their honor (in Madavre and Carthage) and was made a priest.
Metamorphoses, a novel in eleven books, the adventures of a Lucia from Corinth: the third book fessaliyanka Pamphilus and her maid Fotida, using magic to turn him into a donkey. In this guise Lutsiyu must undergo many troubles, sometimes he can barely escape. One can not help listening to the human conversation, he is dedicated to the many secrets. The middle part of Metamorphosis seems fragmented and incoherent, as filled with about twenty flowing freely one into another short story, which focused primarily on love affairs. Some modern readers of the novel tend to believe that these stories have an allegorical meaning and tells the story of the ascent of the soul to the final salvation. The researchers argue that the key to the whole allegory is able to give the story of Cupid and Psyche in the IV-VI books. Although this view is likely to give very serious interpretation problems, which set out to Apuleius, it is impossible to deny that the last pages of the Metamorphoses illuminated genuine mystical sense. With Isis Lucius regains human form, and then became a priest of the goddess.