Text, Translation and Commentary on Apuleius, Metamorphoses Book I

阿普列乌斯的《变形记》是我们的第一部也是唯一一部完整的拉丁小说，从公元二世纪起直到今天，它一直激励着艺术家和作家。它影响了莎士比亚的《仲夏夜之梦》，最近由彼得·奥斯瓦尔德在2002年为地球仪剧院改编，作为他们丘比特和赛琪季节的一部分。在时间和审美观上相距甚远的艺术家们，如卡诺瓦和现代图画小说家马纳拉，都对它着迷。然而，这个关于一个年轻人因为不受约束的好奇心而被魔法变成屁股的故事，直到最近才更多地进入学术研究的中心。它以前被忽视，因为它经常性露骨和神奇的内容。构成小说的十一本书中的第一本为行动设置了场景。它介绍了主人公的性格，他对魔法的兴趣和他的轻信，但也是小说的重要主题，如从人变成野兽。它还包含一个有趣的序言，独特地阐述了作者的新写作风格。它有意隐藏的比它揭示的多，它本身就在读者中创造了一种好奇心，这种好奇心被阿普列乌斯使用了一个令人惊讶的现代概念，一个不可靠的第一人称叙述者。因此，小说的第一部包含了小说整体的主要主题，但只是一个缩影，并暗示小说的读者有同样的性格缺陷，这也是驱使小说性格的原因：好奇心。这本书的重要性是显而易见的，因为在过去的九年里，有两篇评论专门讨论这本书。第一个（Ruebel 2000）旨在为中级拉丁语学习者提供帮助，第二个（Keulen 2007）是针对古典学者的一个非常集中的受众群体。我自己的评论将找到它的位置旁边和这两个评论之间，通过键的评论到一个可读的翻译文本的设想，由出版商的系列已经委托我写它。无论是一个新的拉丁文本和现代英语翻译是必不可少的阿里斯和菲利普斯评论系列，我的意图是向古典文学之外的更广泛的学者读者开放《变形记》的文本和意义，同时也对古典主义者自己有用。因此，导言不仅集中于阿普勒在公元二世纪文学环境中的性格和作用，而且也集中于《变形记》故事在文学和艺术中的来世，直到现代。这将使我看到这部小说对我们的文化的广泛影响，从中世纪到今天。这本书还将包含一个新编辑的拉丁文面对面的英文翻译。拉丁文本本身将基于对拉丁文本现存变体手稿的传统学术分析，以及以前学者和编辑的工作。这对于为评论和翻译提供坚实的基础至关重要。编辑拉丁文本是古典学术的一个基本要素，因为从古代到中世纪传递给我们的文本由于手工复制拉丁文本的性质而受到影响。作为一名编辑，我的任务是根据我对手稿传统的研究，以及其他古典主义者的学术著作，重建一个语法正确的文本，其中传递的文本是可疑的。我的英文翻译是为了尽可能接近拉丁原文，但不是一个语法婴儿。我想特别指出《变形记》的文学结构，以及阿普勒厄斯的修辞，通常是华丽的风格。该项目的评论部分集中在解释文本的典故，意义和文体特点，这将使我能够更少地关注语言问题，而是关注文学主题，典故和对Apuleius的影响以及Apuleius对后来作家的影响。

Apuleius' Metamorphoses, our first and only complete Latin novel, has inspired artists and authors from the second century AD onwards until today. It influenced e.g. Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and was recently dramatised by Peter Oswald for the Globe Theatre in 2002 as part of their Cupid and Psyche season. Artists as far apart in time and aesthetic outlook as Canova and the modern graphic novelist Manara are fascinated by it. This story of a young man-turned-ass by magic because of his unfettered curiosity has, however, only recently moved more into the centre of academic research. It was neglected before because of its often sexually explicit and magical content. The first book out of the eleven which form the novel sets the scene for the action. It introduces the protagonist's character, his interest in magic and his gullibility, but also important themes of the novel such as metamorphosis from man into beast. It also contains an intriguing prologue which uniquely sets out the author's new style of writing. It intentionally hides more than it reveals and itself creates a sense of curiosity in the reader, a curiosity which is acerbated by Apuleius' use of the surprisingly modern concept of an unreliable first person narrator. The first book of the novel thus contains the main themes of the novel as a whole, but in miniature, and implicates the reader of the novel in the same character fault that drives its character: curiosity. The importance of this book is clear from the fact that two commentaries have been devoted to it in the last nine years. The first one (Ruebel 2000) is intended as an aid for intermediate Latin learners, the second one (Keulen 2007) is directed at a very focused audience group of classical scholars. My own commentary would find its place next to and between these two commentaries, by keying the commentary to a readable translation of the text as envisaged by the publishers of the series which has commissioned me to write it. Both a new Latin text and a modern English translation are essential to the Aris & Phillips commentary series, and my intention is to open up the text and meaning of the Metamorphoses to a wider readership of scholars outside the discipline of classics as well as being of use to classicists themselves. Accordingly, the introduction will concentrate not only on the character and role of Apuleius in the literary environment of the second century AD, but also on the afterlife of the story of the Metamorphoses in literature and art up to modern times. This will allow me to look at the wide ranging influence of this novel on our culture through the Middle Ages up to today. The book will also contain a newly edited Latin text face to face with the English translation. The Latin text itself will be based on traditional scholarly analysis of the extant variant manuscript readings of the Latin text and the work of previous scholars and editors. This is essential for giving the commentary and translation a solid basis. Editing a Latin text is an essential element of classical scholarship, since the texts transmitted to us from antiquity through the Middle Ages suffered because of the nature of copying Latin texts by hand. My task as an editor will be to reconstruct a text that is grammatically correct, based on my study of the manuscript tradition as well as on the scholarly conjectures of other classicists where the transmitted text is dubious. My English translation is intended to be as close as possible to the Latin original, but not a grammatical crib. I want to bring out especially the literary texture of the Metamorphoses and the rhetorical, often flowery style of Apuleius. The commentary part of the project with its concentration on explaining the text's allusions, meaning and stylistic peculiarities will allow me to concentrate less on linguistic questions, but on literarythemes, allusions and influences on Apuleius as well as Apuleius' influence on subsequent writers.