Previous
Proserpina
The stepmother is involved in a terrible crime that Lucius overhears (as a donkey) while under the ownership of the soldier. She lusts after her stepson who rejects her. After this rejection, she schemes to get revenge on him, but she accidentally poisons her biological son instead. As it turns out, however, the “poison” she received was only a sedative, so her biological son is still alive. Caught in a crime, the stepmother is exiled.
Get the entire The Golden Ass LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Stepmother Character Timeline in The Golden Ass
The timeline below shows where the character The Stepmother appears in The Golden Ass. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 10
In the story of the crime, there is an unfaithful stepmother who begins to lust after her stepson. She tries to hide her extreme lust by...
(full context)
The stepmother secures poison to give her stepson, but her biological son drinks some by accident and...
(full context)
...the doctor had suspected the poison might be used for murder, so he sold the stepmother’s enslaved servant a sleeping potion instead. Everyone goes to the biological son’s tomb and finds...
(full context)
