UDK 821.124’04–95.09Beroaldo F.:821.124’02–3.09Apuleius L. THE MYTHOLOgY OF THE DIVINE IN P. BEROALDO’S COMMENTaRiES ON BOOK 11 OF APULEIUS’ METaMORPHOSES

The article investigates Beroaldo’s approach to the theological themes of Book 11 of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses focusing on his interpretation of the figure of Isis, represented by Apuleius as the Moon goddess of many names. A symbol of Nature, Fortune and Fate, at the same time changeable and motionless, Isis is no less than the transcendent deity ruling the universe. In Beroaldo’s commentaries, Antiquity not only coexists with Christianity but actually stimulates it, and their symbiosis is an edifying model proposed by Beroaldo to the audience of his readers and students. Key wordes: Beroaldo, Apuleius’ Metamorphoses. 1. OMNESDEIETDEAE AD UNUM DEUM REFERUNTUR: POLYTHEISM AS THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SINGLE DEITY. The question that we will try to answer here is: How is Beroaldo’s personal approach to the subject of Book 11 to be reconciled with the religious attitude of a professor and scholar faithful to Christian monotheism?When we speak of pagan polytheism, we should observe that a giant step towards monotheism had been made by Antiquity itself, partly in the philosophical domain with the Neo-Platonic monism in particular, and partly with the historical and cultural changes that had been at work since Hellenism. This period had been marked by a significant widening of geographical, political and cultural horizons of Greek Antiquity,which experienced, among other things, the addition of various religious cults, mostly from the Orient. Many of those cults claimed that they possessedthe secret of universal Truth, and that the divinity they worshipped was no less than the ultimate manifestation of all others. One of these was the ancient cult of the goddess Isis, to whom the long Egyptian tradition had always attributed the powers and characteristics of other gods.1No wonder, then, if the Isisof the Metamorphoses reveals herself to Lucius as “the supreme divinity, ..., the uniform manifestation of all gods and goddesses (deorumdearumquefacies), ..., whose single godhead is 1 Griffiths, The Isis-Book, 144.

venerated all over the earth under manifold forms, varying rites, and changing names" (Met.11.5; transl.by J. Lindsay).In these words, Beroaldorecognizes the expression of universal monotheism:"Here it is clearly shown that all gods and goddesses eventually return into one; he is the Maker of all things, who is venerated under different names of gods and goddesses, in poetic fictions as well as in philosophic arguments."(ad11.5: deorumdearumquefacies) Similar conclusions are drawn on various other occasions (ad  11.6: subterraneosemirotundoand ad 11.29: deismagnis), which are usually accompanied by quotations from famous authors, pagan as well as Christian; in this particular case,Beroaldo could not have lent his words more credit than by quoting St. Augustine (Civ.Dei 7.28-29), who believes that all the names of the gods and heavenly bodies are various expressions of the existence of one single God.
The text of Apuleius, however, is more complex.The figure of the goddess of many names appears several times in Book 11.The reginacaeli, to whom miserable Lucius, turned into an ass, turns for help, is the Moon, rising from the sea at that very moment.Lucius calls her Ceres, Venus, Diana and Proserpina (11.2); in her answer, she reveals herself as the goddess of many names (among those already mentioned, she also appears under the names of Pessinuntia, Minerva, Hecate, Bellona and Rhamnusia);but her real name is Isis (11.5).There is a long religious tradition relating these cults to each other,2 to which Beroaldo pays the serious attention of a professor of the history of religions. 3According to this tradition, Isis is related to the moon and Osiris to the sun (ad 11.5: reginamIsidem and ad 11.27: numinisreligionisque); they represent the couple of the Great Gods (di magni) symbolizing the two principles, male and female.The connection of Isis with the moon goddess is specifically Greek, since the Egyptian tradition usually represents her with the attributes of the sun. 4 In this dualistic concept of the universe, an important role was played by the Middle Platonic philosophy, for it was itself heavily influenced by the Greek Pythagoreanism on the one hand and the Persian dualism (of the good and the evil principle) on the other.Plutarch is very explicit about the two antagonistic forces, one of which leads us towards what is right, while the other subjects us to the natural changes of the universe.These changes happen according to the law of Nature, which governs the terrestrial world together with the lunar one (De Is. etOsir.369c-d). 5Isis' relation to the female principle is found in Apuleius' text as well: Lucius mentions her "female light" (11.2), and there is also a connection with the cult of the Great Mother of the gods (11.5).Most importantly, however, Isis is repeatedly referred to as the principle -often pointedly female -of all things: "the Mother (mater) of the Stars,…, the Mistress (domina) of the Universe, (11.7) and of the elements (11.5);" sometimes with the neutral form parens (parent): rerumnaturaeparens (11.5), temporumparens (11.7).Beroaldo never tries to avoid this theological dualism: "The philosophers say there are only one God and one Goddess; they give the same name to the Moon, the same to Ceres, the same to Iuno and the same to Proserpina"(ad 11.2: Ceres alma); instead, he traces it to still other sources, in this case Varro: "M.Varro and Augustine report that there are two gods and two principles of all things, which are heaven and earth.All deities and names are one with them."(ad  11.2: reginacoeli)In his work The Divine Antiquities (frr.263 and 286), Varro actually relates the female terrestrial principle (terra) to the goddess Earth (Tellus), who can take also the names of other feminine deities, of whom one is Proserpina.He does not mention the moon, but its relation to the terrestrial world will be discussed later.Another passage from Varro, however, does identify the supreme deities of heaven and earthwith the Egyptian couple Serapis-Isis, who has a Latin counterpart in the couple Saturnus-Ops (On the Latin Language (5.57) quoted by Beroaldo in ad 11.29: deismagnis).These are the Great Gods (di magni), representing the two origins of all things.According to Varro, this concept does not at all attack the opinion of his ancestors, who believed in the existence of several goddesses, "because it is possible that something is at the same time one thing and having within itself several other things" (Divine Antiquities, fr.268).Beroaldo fully agrees with these words, concluding that "names are many, God is one".

THE ANDROGYNOUS ARCHETYPE OF THE TRANSCENDENT DEITY
The duality of the male and female principles represents another challenge to the monotheistic concept of the universe.Explaining the meaning of the "female light" of Lucius' goddess, Beroaldo first relates the ancient opinion that "the light and the star of the Sun are masculine, while those of the Moon are feminine"(ad 11.2: lucefoeminea).This apportionment of roles is expected, but the next lines bring a new conception of it:"It is particularly observed that anyone who thinks that the Moon should be called by a feminine name and considered female is addicted to women and their slave; on the other hand, anyone who believes the moon to be a masculine deity is the master of his wife and tolerates no feminine intrigues.And so with the Egyptians, although they refer to the Moon as to a goddess and female, the Moon is mystically called a god.The Parthians also worshipped the Moon as a god of male gender.And there is a reason for that, for the ancients believed that all the gods were arsenotheleis, that is, malefemales, as if the deities participated in both genders."He then relates some examples of the word deuspoetically used of a goddess, although the reasons may be purely formal (metrical).He proceeds: "I have already related, by the authority of Philocorus, thatthe sacrifices offered to the Moon, which was believed to be Venus as well, were performed by men dressed as women and women dressed as men, since this deity was considered to be masculine as well as feminine.The divine Jerome relates that neither gender nor species should be observed in the things that are divine, for in our language the Holy Spirit is masculine, in Greek it is neutrum, and in Hebrew feminine."This passage from Beroaldo's text is worth relating verbatim, since it contains many characteristics of his general approach to the text (philological, ethnological, psychological and philosophical).First there is the unexpected psychological analysis of the two human conceptions of the Moon's gender.It probably aims to amuse the reader, but it acquires considerable credibility from the general belief in the influence of the moon on the human body and disposition.A more serious testimony follows, arguing that the Egyptian mysteries treat the Moon as a male deity, as does the Parthian religious tradition.But the core of the argument lies in Beroaldo'sassertion that the gods of the ancients were all worshipped as entities participating in both genders (masculofoemini).
Here we find the androgynous archetype which is attested in the ancient cosmologies (such as Orphic6 ); in the times of Apuleius, however, it was omnipresent in the Gnostic scriptures, which often feature androgynous pairs of the Eons, entities descended from the Pleroma (Fullness).It is not uncommon that the female pole of these entities is given its form by the male one (Irenaeus, Adv.haer.1.1.1).The androgynous archetype is sometimes present at the very beginning of creation, as in the Gnostic tractate on the TrimorphicProtennoia, where the Primal Thought presents itself as an androgynous entity, the Father and the Mother, encompassing all things (NHC XIII 1.45).A similar notion is found in the Middle Platonic philosophical allegories: Plutarch, for example, gives a very clear explanation of the mystical concept of the Moon as an androgynous deity:"At the time of the new moon in the month of Phamenoth they celebrate a festival to which they give the name of 'Osiris's coming to the Moon,' and this marks the beginning of the spring.Thus they make the power of Osiris to be fixed in the Moon, and say that Isis, since she is generation,is associated with him.For this reason they also call the Moon the mother of the world, and they think that she has a nature both male and female, as she is receptive and made pregnant by the Sun, but she herself in turn emits and disseminates into the air generative principles."(DeIs. etOsir.368d; transl.by F.C. Babbitt) The androgynous archetype symbolizes the coincidence of the opposites which are implied in its duality; at the same time it symbolizes the transcendence of their antagonism, reestablishing the monistic conception of the universe.This is why it is congenial to Beroaldo, who tries to understand it by using what he repeatedly terms a mystical intuition (mysticusintellectus).In one of, according to Beroaldo, most beautiful prayers addressed to Lucius' patroness, he asserts that she "lights the Sun" (11.25).Since the lunar deity acquired many of its attributes from the fact that it is the moon which receives the light from the sun, Beroaldo admits some incorrectness of Lucius' assertion: his words could not be applied to the Moon unless they are understood mysticointellectu: "It is therefore necessary to restore all these things to the God who is above this world; he is the parent of all, bestowing blessings, supremely good, the greatest, unspeakable and unnameable.And it does not matter whether he is of masculine or of feminine gender, since it is the majestic power, and not the gender, that we should be looking for in the things that are divine."(ad11.25: luminassolem) Beroaldo himself is deliberately inconsistent in naming Lucius' deity, for he calls it indiscriminately "Nature, mother of all", as well as "the supreme God and Maker" (parentemrerumnaturam ac opificemdeumsummum).

NECNATURA SINE DEOEST: NECDEUS SINE NATURA. THE CONCEPT OF DIVINE NATURE AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE STOIC PANTHEISM.
When she first appears to Lucius, Isis claims to be, among other things, the natural mother of all life (rerumnaturaparens; 11.5).Beroaldo corroborates this title with a lengthy quotation from Seneca: "'Nature,' says my opponent, 'gives me all this.' Do you not perceive when you say this that you merely speak of God under another name?For what is nature but God and divine reason, which pervades the universe and all its parts?You may address the author of our world by as many different titles as you please; (…) Therefore, most ungrateful of mortals, it is in vain that you declare yourself indebted, not to God, but to nature, because there can be no God without nature, nor any nature without God; they are both the same thing, differing only in their functions."(De ben.4.7-8; transl.by A. Stewart)Beroaldo introduces this quotation with the assertion that "nature, by which everything comes into existence, received its name from 'giving birth' (a nascendo), which is believed to be none other than god" (ad 11.5: rerumnaturaparens).The concept of divine Nature adopted here byBeroaldo emerged when the process of generation (physisin Greek) began to merge with the invisible force presiding over this generation.It consequently led to a personification and deification of nature, which received a deep impact from the Stoic concept of nature as a divine art stemming from the supreme Craftsman -the Demiurge; a concept which the Stoics in their turn had inherited from Platonism.Although identified inStoicism with Zeus, it continued to appear as a goddess, to whom many prayers and hymns were dedicated, invoking her as "principle and origin of all things, Ancient mother of the world, Night, darkness and silence."(From a hymn to Nature, written by a freedman of the emperor Hadrian, Mesomedes, 2 nd Cent.) or as »Nature, mother goddess of all things, mother of innumerable ruses, heavenly ancient fecund divinity, queen, who tames all and is never tamed, who governs all and sees all."(From an Orphic Hymn to Nature, 2 nd Cent.) 7 The connection of divine Nature with Isis is probably also a consequence of the Stoic figure of Isis Panthea, who played an important part in forming the Greco-Roman figure of Aphrodite-Venus, symbolizing the force which supervises the generation of the world; the Apuleian invocation of Isis the Moon does, in fact, bear many resemblances to Lucretius' hymn to Venus introducing his poem On Nature.It has been observed that the representation of Isis as the creative principle assigns her functions beyond her presumable role in the early Egyptian tradition, although she does sometimes appear there as the ancient Mother of the gods. 8Maybe the best illustration of her powers is found in Plutarch, who defines her as the female principle of Nature (Ibid.372e), literally "the feminine of nature" (to tesphyseosthely), which implicitly confirms that the concept of nature was essentially androgynous, for it also involved Osiris "coming to the Moon"(see above De Is. et Osir.368d).Beroaldo seems to adopt this notion, for he concludes the passage from Seneca with the observation "that we call the god or this goddess who we were speaking about by many names, although it does not matter whether we refer to nature with feminine or masculine names, since all the gods, as I have briefly explained before, are masculofoemini".
The problem is that the transcending element of the androgynous archetype becomes somewhat lost in the symbolism of Nature bearing positively feminine traits.In the Egyptian religion the role of Nature was assumed by the goddess Neith of the city of Sais.Her figure blended very early with that of Isis, while in the Greek tradition her attributes were transferred to the ancient Arthemis of Ephesus.St. Jerome reports that she was not worshipped as the virgin patroness of the hunt, but as the deity with many breasts (polymaston) who nourishes all living things.9Macrobius offers a similar description of Isis (Sat.1.20.18).The 16 th century thinkers were well aware of the intertwining of the two goddess figures,and showed great interest in the process.The image of the Arthemis of Ephesus was a favourite motif of the Renaissance decorative arts, where it appears as an allegory of Nature: she is portrayed as a woman wearing a crown and a veil, and the lower part of her body is covered with a cloth adorned with animal images.These attributes allude to the prolific force of the feminine deity, symbolizing growth and birth.The feminine essence of Nature is emphasized also by Egyptian iconography, which connected its deity with the image of the vulture.This attribute is likewise brought up by Beroaldo, which is particularly interesting as this bird only begins to appear in allegorical representations in the late 16 th and early 17 th centuries.10"Some of the most famous authors report that in the sacred, and consequently unknowable Egyptian letters, the vulture bears the meaning of the word 'nature'; this is due to the physical records which mention that there are no males to be found among these birds."(ad 11.24: par-tim… animalium) The bird, then, which does not need a male partner to reproduce is an appropriate symbol of Nature's fertility and proneness to generation.

NATURE, FORTUNE AND FATE
The concept of nature is etymologically connected with the notion of change, which originates in a lack of stability: physis denotes the act of generation, of birth, and, consequently, of the eternal beginning involving the eternal ending.This ambiguity is beautifully encompassed in a well-known aphorism of Heraclitus,who said that "nature loves to hide" (DK 22 B 123).These words have lately prompted interpretations that follow a less obvious, though no less correct meaning of the verb krypto. 11Its meaning 'to cover (with earth)' was closely related to the notion of death, and Heraclitus' sentence can also be understood as: "What causes generation (physis) tends to cause death," or: "What comes into generation tends to die."Hadot argues that this interpretation agrees perfectly with Heraclitus' idea of a permanent generation and ending, which are present in the constitution of every single thing as the two antagonistic forces.Everything consists of the two opposite poles which tend to destroy each other; and yet they coexist, creating by this very coexistence the necessary conditions for the existence of the thing in which they are both comprehended.The message is that of a deep identification of life and death.
The idea of life and death, beginning and termination, as well as of infinite transformation was intimately connected with the characteristics of the moon and its phases, which representedthe mutability of nature.Beroaldo points out this feature of the lunar deity more than once: first he praises Apuleius' expression incertalumina(11.2,'dim radiance'), which alludes to the waning light of the moon, depending on that of the sun; and later, when he refers to an attribute of the goddess of many names, to the corona multiformis (11.3), he says that "its mystical sense seems to refer to the multiple images of the moon, which never shines in the same form as the day before"(ad 11.3: corona multiformis).In the same way he interprets the many colours of her garments (ad 11.3:albocandorelucida).Consequently, this feature becomes characteristic of all the goddesses that were related to the moon: it also explains the name of Hecate (hecaton means 'hundred'), the goddess "of a hundred names".
In the passage quoted above (De Is. etOsir.369d), Plutarch mentions the variability of the terrestrial world, which includes the moon as well.Beroaldo also brings up the connection between the moon and the earth (ad 11.1: ipsiusregiprovidentia), following the sentence of FirmicusMaternus(Math.4.1.6):the dominance of the terrestrial world is attributed to the moon because of its vicinity, by which it works upon the living beings of the earth.This influence chiefly affects their bodily nature.In fact, according to Firmicus (and hence Beroaldo), the bodies of all terrestrial creatures weaken and strengthen together with the waning and waxing moon.That is why the lunar goddesses also preside over birth and life, and are at the same time queens of the dead (Proserpina, Isis).The law of nature according to which every beginning postulates an end involves two very different elements, which particularly seem to interest Beroaldo: the element of necessity and the one already mentioned, of instability.The first pertains to the nature of the law itself, the second to the nature of what this law regulates.Beroaldorelies on the authority of the Stoics, who "assign birth and death to Fate; what is between them, however, they subject to Fortune" (ad 11.6: ultra statutafato).In the passage quoted from Seneca, God is identified with Fate (fatum), but this is not the idea pursued by Beroaldo.He is more interested in what lies between and is, because of its variability, often unpredictable -Fortune.Beroaldo quotes Macrobius, who identifies the moon with fortune, "because it presides over bodies which are subject to random varieties" (ad 11.15: fortunae, sedvidentis).He moreover refers to the admonitions of Ambrosius, who uses the symbolic meaning of the ever-changing moon to observe that all human affairs must come to an end eventually.And he continues: "That is why people used to wear small signs of the moon sewn to their shoes -so they wouldn't take good fortune for granted."(ad 11.2: solisambagibus) But there is an important distinction that Beroaldo insists upon: the moon may be the symbol of capricious fortune, but Isis has the power to control it.There is no inconsistency in his distinction, if we consider the fact that the phases of the moon are no random phenomenon but adhere to an unequivocal law of nature.The fickleness of fortune must then primarily be attributed to human blindness, which fails to discern the natural order in it.A similar distinction is already acknowledged by Apuleius: to the blind Fortune that has tortured Lucius he opposes another, identified with Isis: she, too, is Fortune, but the open-eyed one (videns).Beroaldo's commentary explicitly relates Isis to the fortunavidens, bona et salutaris, whose antithesis is represented by the evil Fortune, mala fortuna.He develops this idea by asserting that the bona fortuna"is the rewarder of the good men and does not favorize and promote the bad ones, as does the blind fortune" (ad 11.15: fortunae, sedvidentis).According to Beroaldo, then, it is Lucius' universal deity that metes out justice and order.The notion of justice is likewise present in the text of Apuleius, where the goddess presents herself as Rhamnusia, that is, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution who punishes injustices (see Apuleius, 11.5).Commenting on this epithet, Beroaldo explicitly describes Isis as the premiatrixbonorum.The idea is supported by the Egyptian tradition, which represented Isis as the Lawgiver (Isis-Ma'at), 12 and the Aretalogy from Cyme shows her as the one who "gave and ordained laws for men, which no one is able to change" (4)and who is called"the Lawgiver" (52).The same text reveals another power of the goddess, for Isis concludes: "I overcome Fate.Fate harkens to me."(55-56) 13 It is a faculty twice alluded to in Apuleius' text, firstly when Isis promises to Lucius that, if he decides to devote his life to her, he shall discover "that it is within my power to prolong your life beyond the limit set to it by Fate" (11.6).The second instance is found in Lucius' final prayer: "You can untwine the hopelessly tangled threads of the Fates."(11.25)Here we discover another aspect of the bona Fortuna, who has power over the inexorable destiny.Beroaldo invokes the philosophical tradition which considers fate as the unmovable boundaries of life: "The opinion of philosophers is that the arrangement of Fate sets for every mortal the limits of life, which one is not allowed to pass over.The law of Fate is said to be insurmountable and unavoidable."(ad 11.6: ultra statutafato) In Greek mythology, these limits are represented as the threads woven by the three Parcae, whom Plato calls the daughters of Necessity (ananke; see ad 11.25: fatorum… licia).The notion of necessity isprobably whatgives a negative colouring to Beroaldo's concept of fate, for the latter does not involve only the necessity of death, but also that of the evil Fortune mentioned above.And it is Isis who can "change for the better and twist back the threads of the Fates, and if they prepare something dire for mortals, she can transform it, by her divine will, into felicity"(ibid.).The pessimistic notion of necessity originatesin the Platonic connection of this concept with matter (hyle) and consequently with evil.Since Beroaldo avoids philosophical argumentation on principle, this origin is open to speculation, but the allusion to Plato and Plotinus certainly lends plausibility to the conjecture.

CONCLUSION
Although one of the fundamental studies insists on Beroaldo's philological and scholarly approach to the theological themes of Apuleius' Book 11, 14 the present article has sought to illuminate another aspect of his writing, which is, according to some schol-ars, characteristic of his personal teaching and writing method.I believe that Beroaldo did not renounce this method even -or perhaps we should say particularly -when treating fundamental theological questions, which he considered a challenge, not only as an erudite and lettered man, but also as a teacher.It should be remembered that his commentaries faithfully reflect his elaborated teaching methods, aimed to satisfy the crowd of listeners who flocked to his lectures from all parts of Europe.When discussing theological themes, Beroaldo is not content with enumerating various sources and interpretations of different cults, yet he manages, whilereviewing them all,to remain discreetly faithful to his own Christian monotheism -discreetly because he never feels the need to reject or even attack pagan polytheism and anthropomorphism.The age of apologists had passed and they had done their work.The most illustrative is the case when Beroaldo quotes St. Augustine together with Varroas a source on the existence of two principal deities, heaven and earth (see above, p. 3): "M.Varro and St. Augustin report…" The truth is that it is Varro who reports it and St. Augustine who tries to confute his assertions.Yet Beroaldo omits to mention that, because it would spoil the substantial harmony of his commentary: he does not feel the need to fight old battles already won by others.Maybe the greatest attraction of his writing lies in his ability, typical of his time, to accept the past ideologies and to consider them not as a threat to the present one but as its enrichment.Lucius' final prayer to Isis could be, says Beroaldo, a model for every hymn or prayer dedicated to the Christian Virgin, for none of the existing texts can bear comparison to the elegance and erudition of Apuleius' words.It is true that Beroaldo primarily praises Apuleius' literary genius, but he is nevertheless moved by the religious piety of Lucius' verba sancta etpura (ad 11.25: tuquidem  sancta).Nor does he hesitate to call the Holy Virgin "our goddess" (dea nostra), for he is convinced that she would readily answer anyone who addressed such a prayer to her, as Isis answered Lucius.