Seeing the truth: Some Remarks on Color(s) and Meaning in Apuleius' Golden Ass

Firstly, an overall survey on the presence of color terms in Apuleius’ novel is presented (adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc.). Secondly, some passages are analyzed, where the colors of Apuleius’ palette are exploited to create meaning and suggest interpretation: Lucius’ caesii eyes (II.2); the deceptive mineus color of rosae laureae (IV.2); color oxymora (VIII.30; IX,12; XI.3). In line with the Roman discourse on colors and with Apuleius’ own stylistic contrivance, color terms featuring in the novel, when they are subjected to attentive scrutiny by the scrupolosus lector, either hint at or unfold the ambiguity – and the possible failure – of visual perception in an unceasingly changing reality, and hence call the reader to go relentlessly beyond the surface of things and words, in order to grasp a deeper truth inside them.