The Works of Apuleius (Golden Ass, God of Socrates, Florida, On the Doctrines of Plato)

snoring aloud. Shutting the door, therefore, securing the bolts, and placing my bed close against the hinges, I shook it out and lay down upon it. At first, I lay awake for some time through fear, but I finally closed my eyes a little about the third watch.The beginning of this time would be midnight.

"I had just fallen asleep when suddenly the door was burst open with too great violence for one to believe it was merely robbers; the hinges were entirely broken and wrenched off, and it was thrown to the ground. The bedstead, too, which was small, missing one foot, and rotten, was knocked over with the force of the shock; it fell upon me, who had been rolled out and pitched onto the ground, completely covering and concealing me. Then I realized that certain emotions of the mind are naturally excited by contrary causes. For as tears very often proceed from joy, so, amid my extreme fear, I could not refrain from laughing to see myself turned from Aristomenes into a tortoise.A reference to his position under the overturned bedstead. And so, while prostrate on the floor, peeping askance to see what was the matter and completely covered by the bed, I saw two women of advanced age. One carried a lighted lamp, and the other a sponge and a drawn sword. Thus equipped, they planted themselves on either side of Socrates, who was fast asleep.

"She who carried the sword then addressed the other: 'This, sister Panthia, is my dear Endymion,Alluding to the myth of Diana and the shepherd Endymion on Mount Latmus. my Ganymede,Called 'Catamitus' in the original text. who by day and by night has laughed my youthful age to scorn. This is he who, despising my passion, not only defames me with abusive language but is preparing to fly—and I, forsooth, deserted through the craft of this Ulysses, just like another Calypso, am to be left to lament in eternal loneliness.'

"Then extending her right hand, and pointing me out to her friend Panthia: 'And there,' said she, 'is his worthy counselor Aristomenes, who was the proposer of this flight and who now, half-dead, is lying flat on the ground beneath the bedstead, looking at all that is going on, while he fancies that he is to relate disgraceful stories of me with impunity. I will take care, however, that some day—nay, this very instant—he shall repent of his recent chatter and his current curiosity.'"