A modernized version of Apuleius' The Golden Ass (rather than a translation of it), it is written in terza rima.
In the poem, the author meets a beautiful herdswoman surrounded by Circe's herd of beasts (Canto 2).
After spending a night of love with him, she explains the characteristics of the animals in her charge: the lions are the brave, the bears are the violent, the wolves are those forever dissatisfied, and so on (Canto 6).
In Canto 7 he is introduced to those who experience frustration: a cat that has allowed its prey to escape; an agitated dragon; a fox constantly on the look-out for traps; a dog that bays the moon; Aesop's lion in love that allowed himself to be deprived of his teeth and claws.
In the eighth and last canto he has a conversation with a pig that, like the Gryllus of Plutarch's Moralia,[1] does not want to be changed back and condemns human greed, cruelty and conceit.