The impossible return home of Lucius in Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Abstract

In this paper I wish to analyze the impossible return home, namely that of Lucius in Book XI of Apuleius' Metamorphoses. Isis had decided that this would be so because she wished to wrest her new follower from the self-destructive passions he had developed in his home country, Corinth. She inspired him to leave his homeland and to make an initiatory voyage to Rome, where he would henceforth have to live as a perpetual exile among the priests of Isis (although he thereafter was safe from the evil passions he contracted in Corinth). I want to analyze this story. First of all, we will focus upon these passions which so beset Lucius in his homeland, then we will follow the voyage he took to Rome and finally we will see how he lives as an exile in Rome and, in conclusion, what are the benefits he obtains from his renunciation of a return to his homeland.