Petronius as Massa?: Reading Virgil in Petronius' Satyricon
Susan Gorman, CTCWeb Assistant Editor
Introduction
The Satyricon must have been a lengthy work that wandered from education to epic, from shipwrecks to outrageously lavish banquets. Unfortunately, not much of the original text remains. There are a few substantial episodes left, such as Trimalchio’s dinner party or the parody-epic of the “Bellum Civile”, but these are only small parts compared to the bulk that has been lost. The main character is Encolpius, a sort of anti-hero. Plagued by Priapus, the god of fertility, for some unknown (or unavailable because of lost text) offense, Encolpius is a man on a mission to fight his impotence. The dinner party of Trimalchio, a freedman, is perhaps the most well known episode from the Satyricon. This extravagant and ridiculous banquet, a parody of Plato’s Symposium, is pure luxury. Trimalchio is written to encompass many extremes; he is interested in philosophy and literature, but confused as to the details. He brags; he shows off his wealth and his wife. He showcases himself and his life story in a series of paintings on the wall. Encolpius and his friends attempt to duck out of the party early, when it adjourns to the steam room, but they become lost in the maze of Trimalchio’s house, a parody of katabasis scenes from the Homeric and Virgilian epics, and are forced to head back to the group. The dinner party breaks up after Trimalchio reads his will aloud to his dinner guests, describing his tomb and declaring his epitaph, upon which the dinner party begins to wail and play the trumpet so loudly that the fire brigade breaks in and Encolpius, and his two friends can slip away.
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