THE IMAGE OF THE OTHER IN «METAMORPHOSES» BY APULEIUS

Abstract

The paper considers two worlds – "ours" and "theirs" in the work of Apuleius (2rd century AD). He was a Latin-language prose writer, but had a provincial background. The main objective of article is an analysis of the image the Other in Apuleius' "Metamorphoses". The research methodology is based on the principles of imagology an interdisciplinary direction that explores the image of the the Other. Studying the representations of barbarians in ancient culture helps to understand the society that forms these stereotypes. There were several semantic traditions of usage of the term "barbarian" in ancient culture. The Greeks used the term for those who did not speak Greek and who is perceived as primitive. The results show that Apuleius used these two semantic traditions to determine "barbarian". More often the word barbarian is used in a negative sense, which is explained by the satirical genre of the novel "Metamorphoses" by Apuleius. Apuleius also uses images of exotic countries and different cults. Ethiopia and India symbolize the distant and obscure lands where the known world ends. In the Metamorphoses there are images of followers of the cult of the Syrian goddess, the one god and Isis. The first two are presented as disgusting. Isis, on the other hand, is eulogized. This is the reason why Apuleius was long considered a follower of the cult of this goddess. That all changed with the publication of Winkler's work «Auctor and Actor. A Narratological Reading of Apuleius’s The Golden Ass». This paper has clearly shown that studying the image of the barbarian has perspectives. The following articles should compare the image of the barbarian in other works of Apuleius. This will also help to better understand Apuleius' identity.