#metamorphoses

• Aesacus — A character in Greek and Roman mythology, son of King Priam of Troy and the nymph Alexirhoe, endowed with the prophetic gift of interpreting nocturnal dreams. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, driven by grief over the death of the nymph Hesperia, whom he loved, he threw himself into the sea waves and was transformed by the goddess Tethys into a diving bird (diver / cormorant).
• Aeson — A character in Greek mythology, legendary king of Iolcus in Thessaly, son of Cretheus and Tyro, and father of the hero Jason. According to the legend, his half-brother Pelias usurped his throne, forcing him into isolation, and later, in the famous account from Ovid's Metamorphoses, the sorceress Medea restored his youth through a complex magical structural rejuvenation ritual.
• Anaxarete — A female character in Greek mythology, a noble maiden from Cyprus (descended from Teucer) renowned for her excessive pride and cold heart. She cruelly rejected the pure love of the shepherd Iphis, driving him to hang himself in front of her gate. As a divine structural punishment, the goddess Aphrodite turned Anaxarete into a stone statue at the exact moment she looked detachedly upon the youth's funeral procession.
• Apuleius — A Roman writer, rhetorician, and Platonic philosopher (2nd century AD), originally from Madaura (North Africa), famous for his work 'Metamorphoses' or 'The Golden Ass' (Asinus aureus). This writing represents the only Latin novel preserved entirely to this day, being a masterpiece of world literature that combines picaresque satire, mystical realism, and magical elements.