📚 Year 11 Latin⏱️ Half Term Prep📖 Apuleius, Metamorphoses
Context: Thelyphron's Tale
This passage comes from Apuleius's Metamorphoses (also known as The Golden Ass), a second-century Roman novel. The narrator, Lucius, is attending a dinner party where guests are telling stories. An old man called Thelyphron has just begun recounting a terrifying experience from his youth.
Thelyphron explains that he once took a job guarding a corpse overnight—a practice in the ancient world to prevent witches from stealing body parts for their magical rituals. The widow of the deceased man warned him to stay awake at all costs, as witches (sagae) could shapeshift into animals to get past guards. She promised him payment if he kept the body intact until morning.
In this passage, you will read the bizarre and disturbing conclusion to Thelyphron's story, where the supernatural horror of witchcraft collides with dark comedy.
Your Task
Translation Instructions
Translate the story into English. Write your English translation on alternate lines to leave space for corrections and notes.
Use the vocabulary provided. Words highlighted in bold blue in the text can be clicked to see their meanings instantly, or scroll down to the vocabulary section.
For trickier sentences, break them down first:
Break up sentences at commas
Section off subordinate clauses
Identify main verbs and subjects
Look for connecting words (e.g. dum, postea, deinde)
Tip: This is a narrative with multiple time shifts. Pay close attention to tenses and temporal markers like postea (afterwards), statim (immediately), and deinde (then) to follow the sequence of events.
Latin Text
Line numbers are provided for reference. Remember to write your translation on alternate lines. Words in bold blue are defined in the vocabulary below.
1senex sic narravit: 'officium accepto statim ductus sum ad villam ubi 2cadaver iacebat. uxor mortui mihi cadaver ostendit; vultusinteger 3erat. me monuit ne etiam brevissime dormirem, ne vultus a sagis 4consumeretur. promisi me officium fideliter facturum esse. deinde 5uxor discessit, et solus eram. diu nihil vidi; facile vigiliam faciebam. 6tum mustellacubiculum intravit; quam celeriter fugavi. statim tamen 7sensi oculos graviores fieri; dormire coepi. prima luce surrexi; ad cadaver 8perterritus cucurri. vultus forte non consumptus erat. uxor advenit, 9cadaver spectavit, praemium mihi dedit. pecunia accepta gavisus sum. 10postea tamen, dum cadaver per forum ducitur, hoc miraculum accidit: 11cadavervivumfactum est! dixit se ab uxore interfectum esse; sagas non 12suum sed meum vultum consūmpsisse. vultum meum statim tetigi: nasus 13et aures nunc cerei erant et tactideciderunt! subito cognovi quid 14accidisset: mustellasaga fuerat et me dormire coegerat; deinde sagae 15nasum et aures consumpserant et eos effigiebuscereiscommutaverant. 16omnes me riserunt: stultissimus fueram!'
Vocabulary
All vocabulary is listed in order of appearance with line numbers for reference.