<P> The prologue establishes an audience and a speaker, who defines himself by location, education, and occupation . The narrator journeys to Thessaly on business . On the way, he runs into Aristomenes and an unnamed traveler . The unnamed traveler refuses to believe Aristomenes' story . The narrator scolds the unnamed traveler and tells a short story about a sword swallower . He promises Aristomenes a free lunch if he will retell his tale . The narrator believes Aristomenes' tale and becomes more eager to learn about magic . The narrator arrives at Hypata, where he stays with Milo, a family friend and miser, and his wife Pamphile . Photis, Milo's servant, takes the narrator to the baths, after which the narrator goes to the marketplace . There, he buys some fish and runs into his old friend Pytheas, who is now a magistrate . Pytheas reveals the narrator's name as Lucius . Pytheas says that Lucius overpaid for the fish and humiliates the fish - monger by trampling on the fish . Lucius returns to Milo's house, hungry and empty - handed . Milo asks Lucius about his life, his friends, and his wanderings . Lucius goes to sleep hungry . </P> <P> The next morning, Lucius meets his aunt Byrrhena in the town, and she warns him that Milo's wife is an evil witch who will kill Lucius . Lucius, however, is interested in becoming a witch himself . He then returns to Milo's house, where he repeatedly makes love to the slave - girl Fotis (also spelled Photis). The next day, Lucius goes to his aunt's home for dinner, and there meets Thelyphron, who relates his tale of how witches cut off his nose and ears . After the meal, Lucius drunkenly returns to Milo's house in the dark, where he encounters three robbers, whom he soon slays before retiring to bed . </P> <P> The next morning, Lucius is abruptly awoken and arrested for the murder of the three men . He is taken to court where he is laughed at constantly and witnesses are brought against him . They are just about to announce his guilt when the widow demands to bring out the dead bodies; but when the three bodies of the murdered men are revealed, they turn out to be puffed - up wineskins . It then turns out that it was a prank played by the town upon Lucius, to celebrate their annual Festival of Laughter . Later that day, Lucius and Photis watch Milo's wife perform her witchcraft and transform herself into a bird . Attempting to copy her, Lucius accidentally turns himself into an ass, at which point Photis tells him that the only way for him to return to his human state is to eat a rose . She puts him in the stable for the night and promises to bring him roses in the morning, but during the night Milo's house is raided by a band of thieves, who steal Lucius the ass, load him up with their plunder, and leave with him . </P> <P> On a break in his journey with the bandits, Lucius the ass trots over to a garden to munch on what seem to be roses (but are actually poisonous rose - laurels) when he is beaten by the gardener and chased by dogs . The thieves reclaim him and he is forced to go along with them; they talk about how their leader Thrasileon has been killed while dressed as a bear . The thieves then kidnap a young woman, Charite, who is housed in a cave with Lucius the ass . Charite starts crying, so an elderly woman who is in league with the thieves begins to tell her the story of Cupid and Psyche . </P>

According to photis what will transform lucius back into a human