Abstract:The Prologue of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses has long presented an interpretative challenge. Whether one is analyzing the Prologue in relation to its predecessors, intertexts, or generic meaning, the text is riddled with so much hermeneutic uncertainty that scholars have resorted to casting ballots to resolve issues. In this article, I argue that we should view the Prologue through a different lens—not as a “conundrum,” but rather as an “embedded choice” for readers. I suggest that Apuleius’ hermeneutic uncertainty functions as a kind of “Heracles at the Crossroads” narrative, offering readers the option to find philosophical meaning in his bawdy novel.

中文翻译：

---

选择你自己的冒险：阿普列乌斯变形记序言中苏格拉底的εἰκών

摘要：《阿普列乌斯变形记》的序言长期以来一直是一个解释性的挑战。无论是根据其前身、互文还是一般意义来分析序言，文本都充满了解释学上的不确定性，以至于学者们不得不通过投票来解决问题。在这篇文章中，我认为我们应该从不同的角度看待序言——不是作为一个“难题”，而是作为读者的“嵌入式选择”。我认为阿普列乌斯的解释学不确定性是一种“十字路口的赫拉克勒斯”叙事，为读者提供了在他的淫秽小说中寻找哲学意义的选择。