Book XI
XLVII
How Apuleius by roses and prayer returned to his human shape.
When midnight came that I had slept my first sleep, I awaked with sudden fear, and saw the moon shining bright, as when she is at the full, and seeming as though she leaped out of the sea. Then thought I with myself, that was the most secret time, when the goddess Ceres had most puissance and force, considering that all human things be governed by her providence: and not only all beasts private and tame, but also all wild and savage beasts be under her protection. And considering that all bodies in the heavens, the earth and the seas, be by her increasing motions increased, and by her diminishing motions diminished: as weary of all my cruel fortune and calamity, I found good hope and sovereign remedy, though it were very late, to be delivered from all my misery, by invocation and prayer, to the excellent beauty of the goddess, whom I saw shining before mine eyes, wherefore shaking off mine assie and drowsy sleep, I arose with a joyful face, and moved by a great affection to purify myself, I plunged myself seven times into the water of the sea, which number of seven is convenable and agreeable to holy and divine things, as the worthy and sage philosopher Pythagoras hath declared. Then with a weeping countenance, I made this orison to the puissant goddess, saying: Oh blessed queen of heaven, whether thou be the dame Ceres which art the original and motherly nurse of all fruitful things in earth, who after the finding of thy daughter Proserpina, through the great joy which thou diddest presently conceive, madest barren and unfruitful ground to be plowed and sown, and now thou inhabitest in the land of Eleusis; or whether thou be the celestial Venus, who in the beginning of the world diddest couple together all kind of things with an engendered love, by an eternal propagation of human kind, art now worshipped within the temples of the isle Paphos, thou which art the sister of the god Phoebus, who nourishest so many people by the generation of beasts, and art now adored at the sacred places of Ephesus, thou which art horrible Proserpina, by reason of the deadly howlings which thou yieldest, that hast power to stop and put away the invasion of the hags and ghosts which appear unto men, and to keep them down in the closures of the earth: thou which art worshipped in diverse manners, and doest illuminate all the borders of the earth by thy feminine shape, thou which nourishest all the fruits of the world by thy vigor and force; with whatsoever name or fashion it is lawful to call upon thee, I pray thee, to end my great travail and misery, and deliver me from the wretched Fortune, which had so long time pursued me. Grant peace and rest if it please thee to my adversities, for I have endured too much labour and peril. Remove from me my shape of mine ass, and render to me my pristine estate, and if I have offended in any point of divine majesty, let me rather die then live, for I am full weary of my life. When I had ended this orison, and discovered my plaints to the goddess, I fortuned to fall asleep, and by and by appeared unto me a divine and venerable face, worshipped even of the gods themselves. Then by little and little I seemed to see the whole figure of her body, mounting out of the sea and standing before me, wherefore I purpose to describe her divine semblance, if the poverty of my human speech will suffer me, or her divine power give me eloquence thereto. First she had a great abundance of hair, dispersed and scattered about her neck, on the crown of her head she bare many garlands interlaced with flowers, in the middle of her forehead was a compass in fashion of a glass, or resembling the light of the moon, in one of her hands she bare serpents, in the other, blades of corn, her vestment was of fine silk yielding diverse colours, sometime yellow, sometime rosy, sometime flamy, and sometime (which troubled my spirit sore) dark and obscure, covered with a black robe in manner of a shield, and pleated in most subtle fashion at the skirts of her garments, the welts appeared comely, whereas here and there the stars glimpsed, and in the middle of them was placed the moon, which shone like a flame of fire, round about the robe was a coronet or garland made with flowers and fruits. In her right hand she had a timbrel of brass, which gave a pleasant sound, in her left hand she bare a cup of gold, out of the mouth whereof the serpent Aspis lifted up his head, with a swelling throat, her odoriferous feet were covered with shoes interlaced and wrought with victorious palm. Thus the divine shape breathing out the pleasant spice of fertile Arabia, disdained not with her divine voice to utter these words unto me: Behold Lucius I am come, thy weeping and prayers hath moved me to succor thee. I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of
