In his Metamorphoses, better known as The Golden Ass, the Numidian Roman Apuleius in the second century told the story of the unfortunate Lucius, who in a magical experiment is accidentally transformed into an ass. Thanks to the goddess Isis, he regains his human form in the end. He is initiated into her mysteries and becomes one of her mystai. This inspired the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher to design an analytical drawing of the 'Great Mother of the Gods' in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652-1654).