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Reading the Text
Click here for a prose translation of the whole of the Metamorphoses – readable but reasonably close to the Latin. Students should be particularly encouraged to read the rest of the Cupid and Psyche episode at least in English (4.28-6.24; the OCR specification includes 4.28-5.10 in English as part of the set text on which the 20-mark essay is set).
Click here for a fully hyperlinked text of the Metamorphoses on Perseus, which allows readers to obtain a grammatical analysis and full parsing of every word of the text, linked to an online edition of Lewis and Short’s Latin dictionary. Please note that the Latin text on Perseus may differ from the OCR specification text, which is the published Bloomsbury edition.
Click here for a free-to-download edition of Cupid and Psyche, which includes a running vocabulary on the same page as the Latin text, and brief grammatical notes, as well as a grammatical introduction. This could be used either for extension as a resource for more advanced students to read more of the story in Latin, or could be used as the basis for a class text printed for students. Please note that the Latin text may differ from the OCR specification text, which is the published Bloomsbury edition.
Interpreting the Text
Click here for a summary and analysis of Apuleius. Although this doesn’t seem a promising kind of website, its summary and analytical material on Apuleius is actually very useful; particularly useful are the list of characters in the Metamorphoses, as well as some of the summary and interpretation. Could be usefully utilised as a short-cut resource to give students greater depth of context for the essay question.
Click here for a digital humanities project created as part of a graduate seminar at the University of British Columbia; whilst the focus of the project doesn’t include our parts of the set text, it does contain good background information and presents an example of novel and creative ways to approach the text.
Broader Context
Click here and here for two similar resources, giving hyperlinked maps of the Roman empire; one allows you to map journeys across the empire (Orbis), the other takes a little bit of practice to use effectively, but even for a quick view gives an excellent geographical representation of the importance of various places in the Roman empire.
Click here for an essay giving some excellent background to the cult of Isis, hosted by the website of the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Click here for another useful website on the cult of Isis.
Click here for a website with pictures and description of the remains of the temple of Isis in Pompeii, including a great image of a winged Cupid.
Click here for background material on the Second Sophistic.
Click here for an illustration of the popular afterlife of the Cupid and Psyche story from the Louvre.
Click here for another work of art, this one from the Hermitage.
Click here for a review of an exhibition of works inspired by Cupid and Psyche in Rome.
