Dress, Appearance and Perception in Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Abstract

This thesis consists of a literary investigation into the link between physical appearance and perception in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius of Madaura, a novel written in Latin in the middle of the second century A.D. Applying a broadly Platonist analytical methodology to the Metamorphoses, I aim to show how Apuleius’ philosophical education, influenced by the literary climate of the time in which he lived and wrote, known as the Second Sophistic, appropriated the function of physical appearance (including clothing) in the novel, directing it towards an allegorical end. The hypothesis is that a character’s physical appearance ultimately reveals the truth about him, howsoever hard he may strive to conceal his identity through disguise. Clothing is the garment of the soul and reflects personal identity. Perception is instrumental in accessing true character; however, only those characters that have the correct perception are able to do so. The working model for perception in the novel is Socratic and can be sourced in Apuleius’ philosophical works, heavily influenced by the ideas of Plato. By applying this Socratic notion of perception to the characters in the Metamorphoses we are empowered to gauge their perceptive faculties. The reader’s perception, too, is activated by Apuleius’ narrative strategy and his use of literary allusion for the purposes of character creation and interpretation. This purpose accounts for the high level of allusive material in the novel of many kinds: poetic, embracing Greek and Latin epic, Roman satire and love elegy; and prose, including physiognomy, philosophy, historiography and declamation and motifs commonly occurring in the Greek romance and Latin prose traditions. The allegorical function of dress and appearance as reflecting soul-types is present all throughout the novel but looks towards the final book where philosophical allegory appears in the guise of Isiac religion. Book 11 submits the question of personal identity to knowledge of a higher being: knowing oneself and others, the preoccupation of the first ten books of the Metamorphoses, is prerequisite to knowing the Platonic God, and is only achieved through the correct training of the perceptive faculties.