Abstract
Goatskins filled with laughter. The feast of the god Risus in Apuleius' « Metamorphoses ». In the Metamorphoses Apuleius based the feast of the god Risus on Greek and Roman models, though Risus cannot be completely assimilated with any specific Greek or Roman deity. What is original about this episode, as several specialists have confirmed, is its role in the economy of the narrative. In this essay the author puts forward a new hypothesis for interpretation : at Hypata, the Thessalonian city of magic, Risus was undoubtedly a great god, a "probaskanion" god. Moreover, the goatskin episode, the nucleus of the feast of the god Risus, would appear to originate from a Greek source : in Aristophanes' "Thesmorphorazusae" goatskins are sacrificed for the first time in comic theatre.
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