<em>Quis ille? Saturninus sum</em>. L’enigma della <em>prosapia</em> nel prologo delle <em>Metamorfosi</em> di Apuleio

Abstract

The prologue of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses is a kind of ‘enigmatic’ exercise for readers. My paper offers a new interpretation of such a problematic incipit, which has often been the subject of too generic readings, despite the evidence of a very specific lexical choice by the author. Through a philological and anthropological analysis, I aim to show the presence, in the novel, of references to the semantic world connected with the god Saturn, which also contribute to a better definition of the ambiguous identity of the narrator.