Shakespeare wrote his acclaimed comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream more than a thousand years after Apuleius's novel The Golden Ass . Although separated by thousands of years and different in terms of plot and setting, these works share the common theme of a confused and vulnerable man finding direction by relying on a supernatural woman. One of the many subplots of A Midsummer Night's Dream is the story of Bottom, a comic character determined to be taken seriously in his production of Pyramus and Thisbe. When Bottom becomes embroiled in a feud between the King and Queen of the Fairies, the commanders of the enchanted forest where Bottom and his players train, the "clever and cunning sprite" Puck turns his head into a donkey and leads him to be captivated by a one-night stand with the queen, Titania. (2.1.33) Apuleius's protagonist, Lucius, undergoes a similar transformation, after his mistress's slave accidentally bewitches him into a donkey, leaving him without even the ability to speak. Although Lucius' transformation lasts longer and is more severe, he and Bottom both undergo similar experiences resulting from their animal forms. Lucius's suffering ultimately leads him to salvation through devotion to the cult of Isis, and Bottom's affair with Titania gives him clarity and insight into a similar divine beauty. In the end, both idiotic characters are saved through their surrender to the goddesses. Bottom and Lucius begin their respective romances as laughingstocks. At the start of the third act, as soon as Bottom assembles his troupe of misfit actors into words, the comic relief begins at his own expense as he tenderly worries that his portrayal of the deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe, as well as of the lion, be then convi...... middle of paper ......o they restore Bottom and Lucius, two supplicants who win greatly and recover from their donkey humiliation by assuming a passive role in their supplication.Works CitedApuleius. Metamorphoses. An Apuleius reader. Ed. Ellen D. Finkelpearl. Mundelein, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2012. Print.---. The Golden Donkey. Trans. Sarah Ruden. London: Yale University Press, 2011. Print.---. The Golden Donkey. Trans. W. Adlington. Ed. TE Page, E. Capps, WHD Rouse. London: William Heinemann, 1928. Print. Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. ed. David L. Stevenson. New York: Signet ……….Classic, 1998. Print.Witt, RE Isis in the Ancient World. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.Print.NB All translations are my own unless otherwise noted.