Unwittingly Successful Performances: The Triumph of Magic

Abstract

In this chapter I discuss instances of unintentional performances in three narrative sequences: (1) The Tale of Aristomenes (1.5–19), (2) The Tale of Thelyphron (2.21–30), and (3) the narrative of the Laughter festival (3.1–12) and Lucius’ ensuing transformation into an ass (3.13–27). All these three sequences are carefully positioned in the narrative. In the first tale, the sub-narrator Aristomenes tells of how his friend Socrates falls victim to magic. In the second tale, the sub-narrator Thelyphron relates the story of his own mutilation by witches. Thirdly, the Laughter festival narrative involves the primary narrator Lucius falling prey to magic. Moreover, most of the main characters in these sequences are victims both of passion and magic. Lucius fails to comprehend the dangers that lurk in magic, let alone learn anything from his horrible experience in the Laughter festival, which is in itself a consequence of his own accidental contact with sorcery. Instead, he has already made a conscious decision to involve himself in an affair with a slave, the witch Fotis; following the Laughter festival he pursues magic with the same misguided zeal as before and is changed into an ass as a result. His metamorphosis into an animal marks the beginning of his woeful adventures within the novel; these only end with Isis’ intervention in the final book, when she delivers him from magic and restores him to human form.