The mythology of the divine in P. Beroaldo's Commentaries on Book 11 of Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Abstract

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.