Apuleius: Prose Set Texts

Question 1

Translate the following passage:

iuvenis ego Mileto profectus ad spectaculum Olympicum, cum haec etiam loca provinciae clarae vistare cuperem, peragrata tota Thessalia Larissam perveni.

Answer 1

When I was a young man, I set out from Miletus for the Olympic games and, having travelled through the whole of Thessaly, since I also wanted to visit this area of the same province, I reached Larissa.

Question 2

Translate the following passage:

ac dum urbem pererrans tenuato viatico paupertati meae fomenta quaero, medio in foro senem conspicio.

Answer 2

And while I wandered through the city seeking remedies for my poverty, as my travelling allowance was diminished, I caught sight of an old man in the middle of the forum.

Question 3

Translate the following passage:

insistebat lapidem magnaque voce praedicabat, si quis mortuum custodire vellet, magnum pretium accepturum esse.

Answer 3

He was standing on a stone and proclaimed in a loud voice that if anyone was willing to guard a dead man, he would recieve a great reward.

Question 4

Translate the following passage:

et cuidam praetereunti “qui hoc”, inquam “audio? hic mortui solent aufugere?”

Answer 4

And I said to someone passing by “What’s this I hear? Do dead men make a habit of running away here?”

Question 5

Translate the following passage:

“tace,” respondit ille. “nam puer et satis peregrinus es. mertitoque nescis in Thessalia te esse, ubi sagae ora mortuorum semper demorsicant, quae sunt illis artis magicae supplementa.”

Answer 5

“Be quiet,” he replied. “For you are a boy and quite a stranger, and naturally you do not know that you are in Thessaly, where witches are always biting pieces out of the faces of the dead, which are supplements for their magic art”

Question 6

Translate the following passage:

contra ego, “quali custodela,” inquam, “opus est?” “iam primum” respondit ille, “totam noctem eximie vigilandum est apertis et inconivis oculis semper in cadaver intentis, nec acies usquam devertenda est, cum illae pessimae sage latenter arrepant, forma in quodvis animal conversa.

Answer 6

In reply I said, “What guarding is necessary?” He replied, “Now first of all, you must keep exceptionally awake the whole night with your eyes open and sleepless always directed at the corpse nor should you turn your gaze away anywhere, since those very evil witches creep up secretly, having changed their shape into any type of animal.

Question 7

Translate the following passage:

nam et aves et canes et mures, immo vero etiam muscas induunt.”

Answer 7

For they take the form of both birds and dogs and mice, indeed even flies.”

Question 8

Translate the following passage:

his cognitis animum meum commasculo et statim accedens senem “clamare” inquam “iam desine. adest custos paratus.”

Answer 8

When I learned these things, I strengthened my resolve and, immediately approaching the old man, I said, “Now stop shouting. A guard is at hand, prepared.”

Question 9

Translate the following passage:

vix finieram, et statum me perducit ad domum quandam, ubi demonstrat matronam flebilem fuscis vestimentis contectam.

Answer 9

Scarcely had I finished, and he immediately led me to a certain house, where he pointed out a weeping woman wrapped in dark garments.

Question 10

Translate the following passage:

illa surrexit et ad cubiculum me induxit. ibi corpus splendentibus linteis coopertum manu revelavit. ubi singula anxie demonstravit, exiit.

Answer 10

She rose and lead me into a bedroom. There with her hand she anxiously uncovered a body covered with shining white sheets. When she had anxiously shown the features one by one, she went out.

Question 11

Translate the following passage:

sic desolatus ad cadaveris solacium, perfrictis oculis et paratis ad vigiliam. dum animum meum permulcebam cantationibus, usque ad mediam noctem pervigilabam

Answer 11

Left alone thus to console the corpse, I rubbed my eyes and prepared them for my sleepless watch. While I calmed down my mind with songs, I kept awake until midnight.

Question 12

Translate the following passage:

tum autem mihi formido cumulatior cum repente introrepens mustela contra me constitit oculosque in me fixit. tanta fiducia in tantulo animali mihi turbavit animum.

Answer 12

Then, however, my fear became more intensifed when suddenly a weasel creeping in stopped opposite me and fixed its eyes upon me. Such great confidence in so small of an animal disturbed my mind.

Question 13

Translate the following passage:

denique sic illi “abi” inquam “scelesta bestia, antequam meam vim celeriter experiaris! abi!” mustela terga vertit et e cubiculo protinus exit.

Answer 13

Finally I said to the weasel as follows: “Go away, wicked beast, before you quickly feel experience my force! Go away!” The weasel turned, retreated and immediately left the bedroom.

Question 14

Translate the following passage

sine mora somnus tam profundus me repente demergit, ut ne deus quidem Delphicus ipse facile discernere posset ex duobus nobis iacentibus, quis esset magis mortuus.

Answer 14

Without delay, such a deep deep suddenly overwhelmed me that not even the god of Delphi himself could have easily distinguished out of the two of us lying (there) was the more dead.

Question 15

Translate the following passage:

tandem prima luce expergitus et magno pavore perterritus cadaver accurro, et admoto lumine revelatoque eius vultu, omnia diligenter inspicio: nihil deest. ecce uxor misera flens introrumpit: cadavere inspecto reddit sine mora praemium.

Answer 15

At last awakened at dawn and terrified by great fear, I ran up to the corpse, and having moved a lamp near it and uncovered its face, I examined everything carefully; nothing was missing. Behold, the wretched wife, weeping, burst in. Having examined the corpse, she gave me a reward without delay.

Question 16

Translate the following passage:

‘per fidem vestram’ inquit ‘cives, per pietatem publicam, perempto civi subsistite et extremum facinus istius feminae nefariae scelestaeque severiter vindicate. haec enim nec ullus alius miserum iuvenem, sororis meae filium, in adulteri gratiam et ob praedam hereditariam exstinxit veneno.’

Answer 16

‘By your good faith, citizens’ he said, ‘by your public duty, help a murdered citizen and avenge with severity the vilest crime of that impious and wicked woman. For this woman, and no other, by the means of poison, destroyed a poor young man, my sister’s son, to win the favour of her adulterous lover and for the sake of inherited profit.’

Question 17

Translate the following passage:

illa, lacrimis effusis quamque sanctissime poterat adiurans cunctos deos, tantum scelus abnuebat. ergo senex ille: “veritatis arbitrium in divinam providentiam ponamus.

Answer 17

That woman, pouring forth tears and swearing by all the gods as solemnly as she could, denied so great a crime. So the old man said: ‘Let us place the judgement of the truth in divine providence.

Question 18

Translate the following passage:

Zatchlas adest Aegyptius propheta notissimus, qui mihi promisit se pro magno praemio spiritum istius cadaveris paulisper ab inferis reducturum esse corpusque animaturum.’

Answer 18

Zatchlas is here, a very famous Egyptian prophet, who, in return for a great reward, has promised me that he will bring back the spirit of that poor corpse from the dead for a short time and bring his body back to life.’

Question 19

Translate the following passage:

inmitto me turbae et pone ipsum lectulum lapidem insistens omnia curiosis spectabam. iam tumore pectus cadaveris extolli, iam spiritu corpus impleri.

Answer 19

I pushed myself into the crowd and, standing on a stone behind the bier itself, watched everything with curious eyes. Now the corpse’s breast began to raise itself with swelling, now the body was filled with the breath of life.

Question 20

Translate the following passage:

et surgit cadaver et profatur: “cur, oro, me post Lethaea pocula iam Stygiis paludibus innatantem ad momentariae vitae officia reducitis? desine iam, precor, desine, ac me in meam quietem permitte.”

Answer 20

And the corpse got up and spoke out: ‘I beg you, why do you bring me back to the functions of a fleeting life, when I was already floating on the Stygian marshes after drinking the waters of the Lethe? Stop now, I pray, stop, and let me go to my rest.”

Question 21

Translate the following passage:

haec vox de corpore audita est, sed propheta aliquanto commotior ‘quin narras’ inquit “populo omnia de morte tua?’

Answer 21

This utterance was heard from the corpse, but the prophet, considerably more excited, said ‘Why don’t you relate all the details about your death to the people?’

Question 22

Translate the following passage:

respondet ille de lectulo et imo cum gemitu populum sic adloquitur: ‘malis novae nuptae artibus peremptus et addictus noxio poculo, torum tepentem adultero reddidi. dabo vobis documenta veritatis perlucida, et quod prorsus alius nemo cognoverit vel ominaverit indicabo.’

Answer 22

He replied from the bier and with a deep groan addressed the peoples as follows: ‘Destroyed by the evil arts of my new bride and sentenced (to death) by the poisoned cup, I gave up the (still) warm bed to the adulterer. I will give you very clear proofs of the truth, and reveal what absolutely no one else has discovered or predicted.

Question 23

Translate the following passage:

tunc digito me demonstrans: “nam cum corporis mei custos hic sagacissimus exsertam vigiliam mihi teneret, sagae quaedam exuviis meis imminentes forma mutata apparuerunt.

Answer 23

Then pointing to me with his finger, he said, ‘For when this very shrewd guardian of my body was keeping his extensive watch over me, some witches standing threateningly over my remains appeared in changed form.

Question 24

Translate the following passage:

cum industriam sedulam eius fallere non potuissent, postremo iniecta somni nebula eum in profundam quietem sepeliverunt. tum me nomine excitare coeperunt neque prius desierunt quam dum hebetes artus mei et membra frigida ad artis magicae obsequia segniter nituntur.

Answer 24

When they were unable to deceive his unremitting diligence, they finally cast a cloud of sleep and buried him in deep slumber. Then they began to rouse me by name and did not stop until my sluggish joints and cold limbs slowly struggled to obey their magic art.

Question 25

Translate the following passage:

hic autem, qui vivus erat, et tantum sopore mortuus, idem mecum nomen forte habet. ad suum nomen igitur ignarus exsurgit, et, in exanimis umbrae modum ultro gradiens, ianuam adit.

Answer 25

Now this man, who was alive and only dead in sleep, by chance has the same name as I. Therefore, at the sound of his name he unknowingly rose up, and walking mechanically like a lifeless ghost, he approached the door.

Question 26

Translate the following passage:

‘quamquam fores cubiculi diligenter occlusae erant, per quoddam foramen prosectis naso prius ac mox auribus lanienam pro me passus est.

Answer 26

Although, the doors of the bedroom had been carefully locked, (the witches) through some whole or other first cut off his nose, and shortly afterwards his ears, and so he suffered butchery instead of me.

Question 27

Translate the following passage:

tum sagae ceram in modum prosectarum formatam aurium ei applicant nasumque similem prosecto comparant. et nunc stat miser hic, praemium non industriae sed lanienae consecutus.’

Answer 27

Then the witches attached to him wax shaped like the ears which had been cut off, and fitted on a nose similar to the one cut off. And now the poor man stands here, having obtained not the reward of his diligence, but the reward of butchery.’

Question 28

Translate the following passage:

hic dictis perterritus temptare formam incipio. manu nasum prehendo: sequitur. aures pertracto: deruunt.

Answer 28

Frightened by these words, I began to examine my appearance. I grasped my nose with my hand: it came off; I felt my ears: they fell off.

Question 29

Translate the following passage:

ac dum turba directis digitis et nutibus me denotat, inter pedes circumstantiam frigido sudore defluens effugio.

Answer 29

And while the crowd pointed me out with their fingers and nods directed (at me), dripping with cold sweat, I escaped between the feet of the bystanders.

Question 30

Translate the following passage:

nec postea sic debilis ac sic ridiculus ad patriam redire potui, sed capillis hinc inde deiectis aurium vulnera celavi, nasi vero dedecus linteolo isto decenter obtexi.

Answer 30

Nor could I have returned to my native land thereafter, so maimed and so ridiculous, but with my hair let down on both sides, I concealed the wounds to my ears, but I covered the shame of my nose decently with this pathetic linen patch.