recounted by various of the characters who figure in the main narrative. The longest of these, the tale of Cupid
and Psyche, occupies about a fifth of the entire work.
Finally, after a vision of the goddess Isis, the narrator Lucius is restored to his human shape. The last scenes of
the novel provide one of the most remarkable accounts of religious experience to come down from classical
paganism. It has often been thought that we see here the influence of Christian spirituality; on this supposition
Apuleius was fighting Christianity but doing his best to steal the rival religion's clothes. The last book also
presents the interpreter of Apuleius with his most teasing problem; no entirely satisfactory explanation has yet
been given, and perhaps none is possible. How are we to reconcile the tone of the conclusion, with Lucius as an
adept of the goddess, vowed to celibacy and simplicity of life, with the huge gusto with which the rest of the
story is told? Lucius repeatedly tells us that he is 'curiosus' ('inquisitive'), or 'sititor ... nouitatis', ('a thirster after
novelty'); for this inquisitiveness he is punished and ultimately redeemed, but until the last book the whole
atmosphere and style of the narrative encourages us to rejoice and share in this thirst for adventure and
experience.