Roses Symbol Analysis

Roses represent comfort, knowledge, and beauty—the opposite of life as a donkey. After Lucius gets turned into a donkey by the ointment of the witch Pamphile, the maid Photis advises him that the only cure for his condition is to eat from a rose. Though Lucius suffers many hardships as a donkey, then, roses are the hope that keeps him going. At a couple points in his journey, Lucius comes tantalizingly close to eating a rose, but he is stopped at the last minute. In one case, he comes across a plant that looks like a rose, only to realize just in time that in fact it’s just a poisonous lookalike—suggesting that the world contains counterfeit beauty, and one must persevere in order to find the real thing. Lucius, like many of the characters in The Golden Ass, is sometimes even tempted by suicide, but it is the promise of eventually getting to eat a rose that keeps him going for just a little bit longer. Ultimately, Lucius is able to eat a rose and turn back into a human with the help of the goddess Isis. In this case, the rose represents the rewards of loyalty to the gods. Such rewards have costs, however: in exchange for finally getting turned back into a human, Lucius must devote his life to the cult of Isis, as well as to the cult of her husband, the god Osiris. In spite of the difficulties, however, Lucius gladly accepts this responsibility, showing how the rewards of loyalty to the gods—symbolized by the beauty and comfort of roses—outweigh the burden of devotion.