This chapter shows that Ovid's epic Metamorphoses was a key intertext for Apuleius' homonymous novel, which used both its material on metamorphosis and its narrative techniques, in some cases suitably adapted for the different and lower literary environment of prose fiction. It also demonstrates that Ovid's erotic poetry provided important elements for the parts of Apuleius' novel concerned with love and sex, and that Apuleius' Ovidian repertoire extended as far as the exile poetry. The two authors and their texts share much in literary and tonal character.
