ANCIENT HORROR STORY ABOUT A WEREWOLF IN PETRONIUS’ NOVEL “SATYRICON” AND FEDERICO FELLINI’S FILM “A MARRIAGE AGENCY”

Abstract

The article makes an assumption about a probable reference to Petronius’ Satyricon, occurring in Federico Fellini’s novel A Marriage Agency (Un’agenzia matrimoniale), which is part of the anthology film Love in the City (L’amore in città, 1953) made by a group of Italian film directors. Many a time did the Italian film maker admit that he had discovered Petronius as early as his years at the lyceum in Rimini. The author of the article adduces arguments testifying to a possible influence Petronius may have had on Fellini; he draws parallels between the ancient horror-story told by a freedman, Niceros, at the feast held by Trimalchio (Sat. 61–62) and the modern story created by Federico Fellini. These parallels in the stories about werewolves (versipellis), found in Petronius’ Satyricon and in Fellini’s A Marriage Agency, are credible coincidences. Fellini chose the tale about a werewolf, which may have been inspired by Petronius’ novel that had had a great influence on him in his green years. And the horror-story about a lycanthrope told by Niceros is undoubtedly one of the most memorable ones at the cena Trimalchionis. If the assumption in the article is true, then the story A Marriage Agency is Fellini’s yet another film that, along with Satyricon, features the Petronius subject, and, what is most important, this happened half a decade before his ‘historiographic’ masterpiece.