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Charite is the hostage of the thieves who sack Milo and kidnap Lucius (in donkey form). She has a fiancé (later revealed to be Tlepolemus). The thieves intend to keep Charite in order to extort money from her family. The old hag, who works with the thieves, tries to comfort Charite by telling her the story of Cupid and Psyche. Ultimately, Charite is rescued when her fiancé, Tlepolemus, infiltrates the thieves’ cave in disguise and kills them. Despite escaping, however, Tlepolemus eventually ends up dead, due to scheming by Thrasyllus. This causes Charite to kill herself on Tlepolemus’s sword out of despair. Charite’s story symbolizes the whims of Fate, as she finds herself in an unfortunate position, then gets miraculously rescued, only to meet even greater misfortune.
Charite (The Hostage) Quotes in The Golden Ass
The The Golden Ass quotes below are all either spoken by Charite (The Hostage) or refer to Charite (The Hostage). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 4 Quotes
In a certain city there lived a king and queen who had daughters three in number and illustrious in beauty. Though the two born first were quite gratifying enough to look at, praise and publicity on a mortal scale were held to be adequate for them. But the youngest girl’s gorgeousness was so extraordinary, so remarkable that the poverty of human speech prevented any proper description or even encomium.
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Book 7 Quotes
But she! As soon as she saw the young man and heard mention of a brothel and a pimp, she started to laugh and wiggle ecstatically, so I felt justified in condemning the entire sex… At that moment, the character of all women, as a class, was subject to a donkey’s censure.
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Book 8 Quotes
Leave off your troublesome weeping and your wailing so alien to my brave deeds. I have taken revenge on the gore-caked annihilator of my husband.
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Charite (The Hostage) Character Timeline in The Golden Ass
The timeline below shows where the character Charite (The Hostage) appears in The Golden Ass. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 4
...a stream to drink. The bandits come back looking uneasy and with a new pretty hostage, who is crying. The bandits are holding her hostage to extort her rich parents. The...
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In the hostage girl’s story, her cousin is a couple years older than her, and he is a...
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The old hag tells the young hostage to cheer up and promises to tell her a nice story to distract her. In...
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Book 6
...and they have a daughter called Pleasure. Thus ends the old hag’s story to the hostage.
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...tries to break free, but the old hag sees him and grabs him. The young hostage watches this, but instead of helping the older woman, she mounts Lucius. She asks the...
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Lucius struggles, but he can’t stop the hostage from leading them right back to the robbers. The robbers apprehend them and take them...
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Book 7
The bandits unanimously vote Haemus their leader. Eventually, he learns about the hostage and how she tried to escape on Lucius. Haemus says he hopes he doesn’t offend...
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The robbers agree with the plan to sell the hostage to a brothel. The girl herself seems pleased with the plan, which Lucius finds shameful....
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...possibly adds a sedative to their wine. Tlepolemus ties them all up and then takes Charite and Lucius back to their hometown, where Charite is greeted by her parents. Tlepolemus then...
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Charite and Tlepolemus get married. Charite continues to express gratitude towards Lucius and feeds him well....
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Book 8
A young man from a nearby town, who had been enslaved by Charite, appears and begins a story about how she and her family have all died.
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...family who nevertheless has a rough reputation and is named Thrasyllus. Thrasyllus is one of Charite’s suitors and is jealous when he finds out she’s engaged to Tlepolemus instead. When Thrasyllus...
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Charite is overcome with grief. She tries to kill herself with every method that doesn’t involve...
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One night, the ghost of Tlepolemus comes to visit Charite. He confirms that Thrasyllus assassinated him and tells her to run away from Thrasyllus. Charite...
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Charite tells Thrasyllus how he can sneak up to her bedroom. He does so, but a...
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