Lucius Apuleius A Journey in Search of Identity

Abstract

This article offers a comprehensive reexamination of The Golden Ass: Being the Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius by Apuleius as a profoundly hybrid and genre-defying narrative that integrates literary innovation with philosophical, religious, and cultural inquiry. The study foregrounds the novel’s autobiographical and “ego-narrative” dimension, emphasizing the deliberate overlap between the author and the protagonist, Lucius, whereby the boundaries between narrator and character become fluid. Through this narrative strategy, Apuleius constructs a text that simultaneously performs fiction and gestures toward experiential authenticity. Central to the analysis is the motif of metamorphosis as an ethical and ontological paradigm. The novel thus articulates a profound meditation on human fallibility, the tension between bodily desire and rational illumination, and the possibility of spiritual regeneration.