W.H. Keulen – författare

This new monograph on Apuleius' Isis Book not only brings together the striking diversity of opinions that continues to enliven the discussion about Book Eleven, but also sets new trends in reading the narrative in its literary, religious, archaeological and cultural context. Through a variety of approaches, including religious studies (ancient mystery cult), textual criticism, literary analysis, Greek philosophy, and archaeology, the volume sheds new light on important aspects of Book XI, such as the relation with Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride; aspects of Lucius’ multifarious physical self-presentation as an Isiac convert; aspects of style and language (wordplay), textual problems in relation to problems of interpretation; the role of Providence and Platonic philosophy, and numerous metaliterary and intertextual aspects.

After more than three decades since the publication of Gwyn Griffiths’ 1975 commentary, which concentrated mainly on Egyptological aspects and represents an outdated, positivistic approach to the literary evidence on Isis, this new commentary presents a new and thorough assessment of Apuleius’ Isis Book, elucidating and interpreting the narrative in its literary, religious, archaeological and cultural context. Reflecting the recent innovative approach to the interaction of literature and religion (Literarisierung von Religion) and the important developments in the research on the Second Sophistic (e.g. ‘Self-fashioning’; Cultural Identity), the volume offers a new, detailed interpretation of the Isis Book in the easy-to-use form of a fully-fledged commentary, including Latin Text and monographic Introduction.