The Art of Drawing the Penis

Petronius and Apuleius Essay Encolpius in the Satyricon and Lucius in Metamorphoses are each put in the role of outsiders on the fringes of society and are enabled to act as observers and commentators. Although they are viewed as outcasts and deal with the same types of scenarios, Encolpius and Lucius live in two completely different worlds. Encolpius and Lucius respond to their societies and the people they encounter in their own individual ways. Firstly, discussing Encolpius and his background will begin our knowledge on how he and Lucius differ. Encolpius in the Satyricon lives in a world where he is constantly tempted by sex. The former gladiator and newly arriving student is involved in a sexual relationship with his sixteen-year old lover and slave-boy, Giton. Throughout the novel, Encolpius struggles with staying faithful to his lover. Encolpius is enticed more than once throughout the novel by some sort of sexual pleasure that leads to him being unfaithful to Giton. On top of being a faithless lover, Encolpius has a criminal background. The book speaks of him stealing and even murdering a man. Being unfaithful and having a criminal background shows a little bit of the type of person Encolpius was. Secondly, we will review Lucius and his background in Metamorphoses. Lucius, a man of good birth and a mentor, starts out his journey on the way to Thessaly where he hears a hard-to-believe tale that intrigues his curiosity about magic and myths. Throughout the first half of The Golden Ass, Lucius learns about a few literal and metaphorical tales that sparks his interests on the magic happening within Thessaly. He learns that the wife of the family he is staying with is a witch and tries to turn himself into a bird as he saw her do. Instead of turning into a bird, his curiously led him into changing into an ass. The novel continues with Lucius going on many journeys as an ass and learning and hearing even more stories relating to magic. After all of his