Ancient Web: Benjamin Slade Read The Golden Ass as a Hyperlinked Classic

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

A Roman man turns into a donkey, learns entirely too much about his neighbors, and eventually finds religion. Benjamin Slade decided that story deserved a very long webpage.

Visit Slade's illustrated study of The Golden Ass

The page is headed The Golden Ass of Apuleius and credits B. Slade. It announces itself as a first version open to correction, then develops an ambitious, image-heavy study of the second-century novel also known as The Metamorphoses. Slade's neighboring Beowulf resources are another subject in this collection; this page is a distinct essay on Latin fiction, religion, and interpretation.

At the beginning, a dense network of links allows the reader to jump directly to magic, desire, labor, Cupid and Psyche, Platonic dualism, Isis, the language of Apuleius, and editions of the text.

A personal critical edition, not just a plot summary

Slade discusses the protagonist Lucius, whose transformation into an ass exposes him to the pleasures and cruelties of ordinary Roman life. One major section quotes a translation of the story's flour-mill episode to explore how the author depicts abused laborers, enslaved people, and animals.

Another follows the story of Cupid and Psyche and asks how that nested romance reflects Lucius's own trials. The closing sections examine the novel's religious climax, in which Lucius's relationship with Isis becomes central.

The page makes broad interpretive claims, from Apuleius's connections to Greek storytelling to parallels with later novelists and Hindu philosophy. Those are Slade's literary readings, which readers can evaluate against scholarship; the page does not establish every proposed influence as historical fact.

The artwork is part of the experience. Captions identify illustrations attributed to Percival Goodman, Jean de Bosschère, Burne-Jones, and other artists. Links lead outward to translated classical texts, related mythology, and other writers. Numerous old external addresses are themselves a snapshot of how humanities study moved across independently hosted resources.

The page does not provide a reliable original publishing date, and its old links are not proof that every referenced edition remains online. It qualifies as a surviving hand-built scholarly resource because the argument itself, headings, illustrations, and bibliographic pathway remain visible.

The old Web could let an enthusiast build a sprawling multimedia commentary without a publishing platform deciding how long an essay ought to be.

Explore the original discussion of The Golden Ass.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.