The Transformations of Lucius Apuleius of Madaura, more commonly known as The Golden Ass, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. Its style is racy, boisterous, and irreverent, as was the mode of professional storytellers of the time, but ultimately the story is a moral one. The Golden Ass recounts the often ludicrous adventures of Lucius, a young member of the Roman aristocracy who is obsessed with magic, and who is accidentally turned into an ass. In his new guise, he witnesses and shares the misery of the slaves and destitute freemen who, like Lucius, are reduced to little more that animals by the treatment of their wealthy owners. The book is the only surviving work of literature from the ancient Greco-Roman world that examines first-hand the conditions of the lower classes. Despite its serious subject matter, the tone is bawdy and sexually explicit, as Lucius spends time in the company of bandits and eunuch priests, witnesses adulterous wives, and is called upon to have intercourse with a beautiful woman.  It is also a work that examines the contemporary religions of the time. In the final chapters of the book, Lucius is eventually turned back into a man by the goddess Isis. Lucius is subsequently initiated in the mystery cults of Isis and Osiris, and dedicates his life to them. At this point the rowdy humor of the earlier segments of the novel is exchanged for equally powerful and beautiful prose. The Golden Ass is a precursor to the literary genre of the episodic picaresque novel, in which Voltaire, Defoe, and others have followed, and its entertaining mixture of magic, farce, religion, and mythology make for a compelling read. LE