Wishing to do the same, Lucius begs Photis to transform him, but she accidentally turns him into an ass, at which point Photis tells him that the only way for him to return to his human state is to eat a fresh rose. Later that day, Lucius and Photis watch Milo's wife perform her witchcraft and transform herself into a bird. It turns out that it was a prank played by the town upon Lucius, to celebrate their annual Festival of Laughter.
They are just about to announce his guilt when the widow demands to bring out the dead bodies but when the three bodies of the murdered men are revealed, they turn out to be puffed-up wineskins. He is taken to court where he is laughed at constantly and witnesses are brought against him. The next morning, Lucius is abruptly awoken and arrested for the murder of the three men. Lucius spies Milo's wife transforming into a vulture. After the meal, Lucius drunkenly returns to Milo's house in the dark, where he encounters three robbers, whom he soon slays before retiring to bed. The next day, Lucius goes to his aunt's home for dinner, and there meets Thelyphron, who relates his tale about how witches cut off his nose and ears. He then returns to Milo's house, where he makes love to Photis. Lucius, however, is interested in becoming a witch himself. The next morning, Lucius meets up with his aunt Byrrhena in the town, and she brings him home and warns him that Milo's wife is an evil witch who wants to kill Lucius. Milo asks Lucius about his life, his friends, and his wanderings, which Lucius grows bored with. Lucius returns to Milo's house, hungry and empty-handed. Pytheas says that Lucius overpaid for the fish and humiliates the fish-monger by trampling on the fish. Pytheas reveals the narrator's name as Lucius. There, he buys some fish and runs into his old friend Pytheas, who is now a market official. Photis, a serving girl in Milo's household, takes the narrator to the baths, after which the narrator goes to the marketplace. The narrator arrives at Hypata, where he stays with Milo, a friend and miser, and his wife Pamphile. The narrator believes Aristomenes' tale and becomes more eager to learn about magic.
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He promises Aristomenes a free lunch if he will retell his tale. The narrator insults the unnamed traveler and tells a short story about a sword swallower. The unnamed traveler refuses to believe Aristomenes' story. On the way, he runs into Aristomenes and an unnamed traveler. The narrator journeys to Thessaly on business. The prologue establishes an audience and a speaker, who defines himself by location, education, occupation, and his kinship with the philosophers Plutarch and Sextus of Chaeronea. This surviving Greek text appears to be an abridgement or epitome of Lucius of Patrae's text. This Greek text by Lucius of Patrae has been lost, but there is Lucius or the Ass ( Λούκιος ἢ ὄνος, Loukios ē onos), a similar tale of disputed authorship, traditionally attributed to the writer Lucian, a contemporary of Apuleius. Apuleius adapted the story from a Greek original of which the author's name is said to be an otherwise unknown "Lucius of Patrae", also the name of the lead character and narrator. It has variously been considered by scholars as a youthful work preceding Apuleius' Apology of 158–159, or as the climax of his literary career, and perhaps as late as the 170s or 180s. The date of composition of the Metamorphoses is uncertain.
Lucius takes human form, in a 1345 illustration of the Metamorphoses (ms.