How The Golden Ass drew on The Symposium
A documented line of influence: Apuleius demonstrably engaged Plato’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Symposium
Plato · c. 385 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Golden Ass
Apuleius · c. 170
Ancient RomeRelevance
7/10
On The Golden Ass’s page
- The Cupid and Psyche story isn't just a fairy tale — it's Plato's philosophy of love dressed as one
- Apuleius, a trained Platonist, builds Cupid's double nature on the Symposium's two Venuses, Heavenly and Common
- Read Plato on the ascent of eros first and Psyche's trials read as the soul's journey toward divine love, not just a girl chasing a god
On The Symposium’s page
- Apuleius was a card-carrying Platonist — he literally wrote a treatise On Plato and His Doctrine — and it shows in his fiction
- The Cupid and Psyche tale at the heart of the Golden Ass is built on Plato's two-Eros doctrine: Cupid's dual nature maps onto the Heavenly and Common Venus of Pausanias and Diotima
- Apuleius paraphrases the Symposium to point the allegory — the soul (Psyche) in love is Platonic philosophy turned into story