Satyricon Research Articles

Waga rzeźnikiem. Co w tym śmiesznego? Astrologiczny humor w Uczcie Trymalchiona Petroniusza

The astrological references in Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis (Trimalchio’ Dinner) serve an important function in establishing the comic mood. They appear as a theme in the menu, are used in a humorous way to describe human characters, and contribute to the suspense of the final scene. A critical examination of the astrological descriptions reveals inconsistencies with the ancient astrological system. This may indicate that the author intentionally used this stylistic device to create the impression of a broken and damaged world.

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

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.

A distributional analysis of vowel quantity in a corpus of Latin texts

Abstract The paper examines the relationship between vowel quantity, syllable structure and lexical stress in Latin through a quantitative analysis carried out on a corpus of literary texts taken from Cicero’s Epistulae ad familiares and Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis. Each word of the corpus was split into syllables and phonemes. Then, the corpus was annotated with phonological and prosodic information pertaining to vowel length, syllable structure, stress and word length. Finally, the data collected were analyzed at different levels. The results are discussed in light of the findings of a previous analysis carried out on dictionary entries, confirming a close correlation between syllable structure and lexical stress, since the great majority of stressed syllables are heavy both in the literary corpus and in the dictionary. Moreover, long vowels are more frequently found in open and stressed syllables, particularly in paroxytones. The data suggest that the process leading to the loss of vowel quantity was already active (at least in some strata of Roman society) in the Latin of the Classical age, since a prosodic template similar to that occurring in many Romance developments emerges even in literary Latin texts.

PURPLE WOOL: THE IMPERIAL TEXTURE OF TRIMALCHIO'S DOMESTIC JURISDICTION

AbstractThis article offers a new interpretation of the theme of servile ‘crime and punishment’ in the Cena Trimalchionis. Focussing on scenes that directly involve the dinner host, it argues that the domestic justice system that they flesh out adds nuance to the satirical bite of the episode. An initial overview of the instances of ‘crime and punishment’ involving enslaved characters demonstrates how these scenes parade not just Trimalchio's wealth but his masterly power overreaching that of private domini. While previous scholarship understood Trimalchio's questionable chastisements as indicative of this parvenu's pretensions, this article shows that they cumulatively develop an image of a jumbled execution of justice—brought to life through the presence of state functionaries, judicial infrastructures and penalties normally executed by the state. The climax of this image is hidden in plain sight, in a hitherto underappreciated scene involving purple wool (54.3–5), discussion of which proves in conclusion that the instances of servile ‘crime and punishment’ craftily build a subplot that plays on the freedman's imperial authority. The imperial matrix already recognized in several dimensions of the Cena in earlier scholarship unmistakably characterizes Trimalchio's domestic jurisdiction too; arbitrary and unfair, it offers biting comment on the state of Roman justice during the Principate with the progressive channelling of justice through the sole authority of the emperor. In sum, the servile ‘crime and punishment’ theme works as a fierce attack on the imperial government, encouraging broader reconsideration of the target of Petronius’ satirical pen.

A New Emendation for matavitatau in Petronius’ Satyricon

Abstract In this paper I propose an emendation for a long-standing textual problem in the Satyricon. In the Cena Trimalchionis one of the freedmen, Niceros, recounts a bizarre story, culminating in a frightening encounter between him and a werewolf. In a desperate attempt to escape peril, Niceros draws his sword to repel horrific shadows and utters a sequence of eleven letters which has puzzled scholars for more than a century: matavitatau (Petron. Sat. 62.2). I propose a correction which hypothesizes the presence of a verb and an interjection, namely gladium strinxi et matavi – tatae! – umbras cecidi. I support my proposal by analyzing the intersections between literary genres and poetic texts in the Satyricon. After analyzing the meanings and nuances of tatae, I argue that the presence of such an exclamation is perfectly suitable for the situation of fear and danger that Niceros is experiencing. I suggest that Homer’s Odyssey and Vergil’s Aeneid offer decisive indications to make the presence of an interjection plausible. Niceros’ dreadful encounter with the werewolf recalls epic models, namely the descent of Odysseus and Aeneas into the Underworld. Finally, I suggest that Petronius portrays Niceros as a mythomaniac narrator who fails to appropriate the conventions of Latin and Greek epic poetry.

Cena Trimalcionis ve Eski Roma Mutfak Tarihindeki Yeri

In this study, we examined the novel, Satyricon which was written between 60-66 AD. by Petronius (Arbiter) Niger, who was responsible for the arrangement of the feasts of Emperor Nero. The section titled Cena Trimalchionis between 26-78. paragraphs, which describes an extremely ostentatious and extravagant dinner was also examined in the context of the socio-political realities of the period and the implicit criticism of the author. As the author's name mentioned in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against the emperor he was forced to commite suicide in the year of 66 AD., so the work is considered to have been written and completed at the latest in this year, but the date of publication is unclear. Only 146 paragraphs and some fragments of the novel have reached today, different opinions can be put forward about the length of the whole, but none of these ideas can be considered completely correct due to disconnection and deficiencies. In the 52-paragraph section called Cena Trimalchionis, a dinner with the main characters of the novel is also included, in this narrative, the presentations are showy, the dishes are exaggerated, the characters are ignorant and unappealing. Considering that the main characters get bored of the said dinner and try to escape, it is understood that the main subject of the novel is not based on food and taste. Nevertheless, the creation of an important character like Trimalchio and the introduction of food through this character gives the impression that the author prefers a narrative-intimate narrative with food. As a result of this study, it was understood that Petronius was written in order to criticize the unexamined palate tastes of Cena Trimalchionis of the period afterwards, and in the text, analogies and contrasts were used, and the real and surreal world perceptions were compared through the novel.

Res novae: Die „Cena Trimalchionis“ und der Kreislauf der Transgression

In the „Cena Trimalchionis“ Encolpius is continually faced with Trimalchio’s oddities (res novae, sat. 27, 2). The paper aims to highlight the occurrence of a ‚scheme of the res novae‘, a narrative pattern that repeats itself during the „Cena“ and in which the only variation is constituted by Encolpius’ reactions to Trimalchio’s jokes: while the host is never tired of testing his guests’ intelligence with (mostly gastronomic) enigmas, Encolpius moves from amazement to skepticism to the desire of competing with Trimalchio in foreseeing his plans. Encolpius’ suppositions mainly link Trimalchio’s stratagems to the world of the theatre and of the Saturnalia: following his footsteps modern critics often used the same references to explain Trimalchio’s eccentric ideas. The present essay will show that the point of view of the narrator, Encolpius, is not to be confused with the strategy of Trimalchio, who takes over the imaginary of the theatre and of the Saturnalia only to overthrow them in search of a totally new and ‚not foreseeable‘ transgression.

Candelabrus and Trimalchio: Embodied Histories of Roman Lampstands and their Slaves

This essay uses the term 'embodied' to define material things that engage people in a physical way and, in doing so, that prompt them to reflect on the bodily conditions of human existence, and on the social and cultural meanings of human practices. As both immediate physical experiences and culturally and socially shaped encounters, past interactions between humans and objects pose a twofold interpretive challenge to the historian of material culture, and thus call for an integrated phenomenological and hermeneutical approach. A case study from Roman antiquity concerns the embodied relationship between slaves and household artefacts, as illustrated by a key passage in Petronius's Cena Trimalchionis, in which the ex-slave Trimalchio recalls his manipulation of a light instrument (candelabrus) for personal physical use. This anecdote is supplemented by discussion of the series of ephebes from Pompeii, classicizing bronze statues made to be converted into domestic tray-bearers, and as such artworks that reflect the ongoing process of cultural domestication by their Roman users. Read in light of such material object at work, the anecdote is seen as an important testimony of Roman embodied practices.

CASA ESSAY - SELF-SATIRE IN THE CENA TRIMALCHIONIS

The modern reader of the Cena Trimalchionis, seeing the episode grouped under the larger title Satyrica, could hardly be blamed for assuming a priori that Petronius had written a satirical work. Yet, in making this assumption, the reader overlooks a question central to the debate over the interpretation of Petronius' work: 'Can the Cena be read as a moralising or satirical work?'

Boyce, L 1991. The language of the freedmen in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis

Na uitleg en skryfplan is hierdie 'n gewone akademiese hoek-'n samevatting en verslag van die skrywer en andere se navorsing oor 'n aspek van 'n antieke literere werk met 'n besondere staanplek in die Latynse klassieke; dis met ander woorde nie in eerste instansie ontwerp as ' n handboek nie. Maar die bruikbaarheid daarvan as studieteks by die lees van Petronius in 'n nagraadse kursus (d. w. s. honneurs) is veral opvallend omdat dit subdissiplines in uiteenlopende afdelings van die kursus byeentrek om meer lig op die Cena te kry. Studente wat boonop kennis het van moderne Romaanse tale kan nog meer uit die boek haal

Odyssean Adventures in the Cena Trimalchionis

The Satyricon as a whole has long been recognized as deeply indebted to the Odyssey, both in its individual episodes and as an adventure narrative, and perhaps even as an extended parody of Homer's poem. However, the longest extant episode of the Satyricon, the Cena Trimalchionis, has traditionally been thought to contain only glancing references to the Odyssey. This article demonstrates the importance of the Odyssey as a primary intertext for the Cena Trimalchionis. While Plato's Symposium and Horace's Satire 2.8 are recognized influences on the Cena, Odysseus's visit to the Phaeacians and the account he gives there of his adventures are even more systematically and repeatedly alluded to, evoked, and reworked in the Cena. Petronius appropriates episodes from the adventures of Odysseus from his arrival on Scheria to his encounters with the Lotus-Eaters, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, and the Cyclops. These and other episodes are transmuted and incorporated into the world and experience of Trimalchio's dinner party in a variety of ways: as clever extended allusions, as epic reworked in folktale form, as contemporary events occurring in the midst of Trimalchio's dinner party. What emerges from this discussion is the recognition that the Cena Trimalchionis is much more integrated into the overall narrative and thematics of the rest of the Satyricon than heretofore appreciated.

A commentary on the Satyrica of Petronius

A commentary on the Satyrica of Petronius

Language, Satire, and Heteroglossia in the Cena Trimalchionis

Language, Satire, and Heteroglossia in the Cena Trimalchionis Max L. Goldman (bio) I. Introduction In the Cena Trimalchionis, the protagonist of the Satyrica, a poor but welleducated nebbish of uncertain social status, descends into the house of the fabulously wealthy and fabulously gauche Trimalchio for a theatrical dinner party. The nouveau riche at table was a favorite topic of the Roman satirists: Lucillius treated it at least twice and Horace followed with the dinner party of Nasidienus (Shero 1923). Although the Cena Trimalchionis recalls Sermones 2.8 in both structure and content, Petronius has done more than reproduce Horace’s treatment: aside from spectacular food and entertainments, the protagonist encounters a group of freedmen who, in contrast to his own urbane Latin, speak in a language characterized by solecisms, graecisms, clichés, and proverbs. The language of the Cena Trimalchionis has long been an area of research and controversy.1 Directly following the rediscovery of the Traguriensis, two scholars attacked its authenticity on the grounds of its poor Latinity. The specter of forgery was put to rest by Giovanni Lucio, who in 1670 explained that Petronius’s purpose was satiric: Petronius was ridiculing the freedmen’s Latinity, having his laugh with the learned and elegant guests.2 This view, which assimilates the educated guests to the author and reader, remained the default position on Petronius’s purpose in portraying the language of the freedmen. More recently, several critics have suggested that the educated characters at Trimalchio’s table, rather than standing in for the author and his audience, might in fact be a subject of his ridicule. Gottskálk Jensson (2004, 63), for example, states that Lucio’s view “obscures the fact that the jokes of the Cena Trimalchionis are told no less at the expense of the parasitic and clownish scholastici,” although he himself does not explain how these jokes work. Paul Veyne (1964, 301–12), who also sees the educated guests as targets of ridicule, suggests that when the narrator Encolpius expresses hostility towards the educated guests, he serves as [End Page 49] Petronius’s spokesman. In Veyne’s view, the author speaks through the voice of Encolpius, criticizing the educated characters and revealing their failure. Veyne, however, does not explain why Encolpius should channel the author’s voice only here. Petronius does, in fact, reveal the failure of the educated guests, but subtly and implicitly, while simultaneously hinting at the success of the uneducated. In the Cena, Petronius produces a complex, subtle, and entertaining exposé of contemporary society by placing two languages in conflict: the language of the uneducated freedmen and the language of rhetorically trained scholastici. In order to explain how this exposé works, I argue here that all the characters have roughly the same social status. Then, using Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia, I shall show how Petronius used the intertext of satire and created a narrator without a unified point of view. These techniques allowed him to bring into contact two socially specific language types in a way that illuminates both. II. Freedmen and Scholastici To appreciate Petronius’s exposé, it is necessary first to examine the social status of the educated characters and their relationship to the schola. Readers, such as Giovanni Lucio (Burman 1974 [1743]), have often approached the pretensions of the freedmen from the point of view of the author, that is, from the point of view of the Roman social elite. The educated characters are not part of this elite and should not be assimilated to them. Agamemnon, for instance, is a teacher of rhetoric but he should not be taken as a member of this elite. It is true that Suetonius’s biographical study of famous grammarians and rhetoric teachers shows that rhetoric teachers had more prestige than the grammarians: Suetonius’s grammatici are freedmen to a man; his rhetores tend to be freeborn and socially mobile.3 Nevertheless, these rhetores are famous teachers at Rome; Agamemnon teaches in Campagnia and his name suggests that he too is a freedman. As the umbrae of Agamemnon, that is, his uninvited, tagalong guests, Encolpius, Giton, and Ascyltos have even less prestige. Their legal status is more difficult to fix. The evidence...

Practicing Death in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis and Plato's Phaedo

While scholars have long recognized Petronius' ironic use and inversions of Plato's Symposium in his Cena Trimalchionis, this paper argues that Petronius has a further Platonic intertext, the Phaedo. There are two chief parallels: an ironic correspondence in the use of mythical imagery, namely Theseus' journey through the labyrinth, and the Cena's final scenes, which consciously echo the final scenes of Socrates' life as depicted in the Phaedo. Scholars have long recognized that Petronius uses a contrast with Plato's Symposium to underscore the pretensions, narrow outlook and lack of refinement of the freedmen in Trimalchio's milieu.1 Whereas in the Symposium Athens' highly educated elite discuss the nature of eros, Trimalchio's triclinium rarely wavers from the topics of money, food and death. One of the most vivid images of the Cena is the final one: Trimalchio lying dead in bed, slumped on cush ions, trumpets blaring, slaves moaning and, finally, firemen breaking in with axes (78.5-7). The dinner party, so dominated by the theme of death, thus reaches its fitting climax. In this context, Petronius owes a further debt to Plato's account of Socrates' final day and death in the Phaedo. I argue here that there are two chief parallels: first, an ironic correspondence in the use of mythical imagery, namely Theseus' journey through the labyrinth used as an image of a jour ney through death in life. Second, and more concretely, the Cena's final scenes?from the reading of Trimalchio's will to his mock death?consciously echo the final scenes of Socrates' life as depicted in the Phaedo. These contrasts and parallels further delineate the limbo-like lives of Trimalchio and his freedman companions. The Cena Trimalchionis is an elaborately structured and symmet rically balanced piece, in which a series of episodes return in reverse order only to begin again. As Bodel concludes: structural pat terning enables the narrator to shape the events he relates to reflect the experience of them at the time: Trimalchio's house was a trap from which there seemed no exit.... [a] labyrinthine experience of 1 Cameron (1969); Bodel (1999) 39-41; Courtney (2001) 103-4, 109-10,123; cf. n. 4, below. I wish to thank Jenny Strauss Clay, Ted Courtney, Stephanie McCarter, John Paul Russo and the anonymous readers of CJ for their helpful comments at various stages in the writing of this article, the final version of which was immensely im proved by the keen editorial eye of S. Douglas Olson. THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL 104.1 (2008) 43-58 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.138 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:33:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

The Satyrica Concluded

The Satyrica Concluded

Laughter and Derision in Petronius' "Satyrica"

Laughter and Derision in Petronius' "Satyrica"

Philology and Cuisine in De Re Coquinaria

THE TEXT OF APICIUS' DE RE COQUINARIA CONTAINS many disputed readings. Through bisociation, the use of one discipline to illuminate another, some of them can be resolved. To put it simply, the translation should fit the plate. Just as Homer, the poet of the Achaians, wrote a description of a Troy whose existence was proven by close textual read- ings and subsequent field work by Schliemann, so Apicius, the Roman artist of cuisine, left recipes whose language can be emended and whose tastes can be verified through practical experiment in the modern kitchen. The limits of a strictly philological approach to Apicius became apparent when, during my composition of The Roman Cookery of Apicius, the translation of a number of recipe titles was inconsistent with the technical information which followed. This was extraordinary because of Apicius' imperative, laconic style, whose formulae more resemble the ritualistic epithets of the annals of the Hittite kings than the informed, conversational prose of an Elizabeth David or an M. F. K. Fisher. In his text there is little question of subjectivity in the nomenclature, or puns or literary allusions to test the reader. Indeed, in all ten books of the Coquinaria and in the later and derivative Excerpts of Vinidarius only twice does Apicius emerge from anonymity, at 4.2.12 (ad mensam nemo agnoscet quid manducet), and at 1.9.1 (miraberis); and, in any case, I think these uncharacteristic asides are really the happy observations of a copyist. The third atypical remark which puzzles is a reference to a lost and presumably illustrated version of his book. The reference is tantaliz- ing and colloquial, the words perhaps of an editor: patellam aeneam qualem debes habere infra ostenditur (4.2.14). The Coquinaria is not written in the colloquial Latin of Petronius' Satyricon, with which it is probably contemporary. His text is spare to the point of postmodern bleakness; there is nothing, except some of the actual ingredients, of the decadence of the Cena Trimalchionis. It is a collection of lists and brief instructions, often formulaic, never personal. It follows, then, that what remains is the essential manual, stripped of nuance and personality through centuries of use and transmission, rather

"The Culture of Folk Humor" in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis

"The Culture of Folk Humor" in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis

Dividing the dinner: book divisions in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis

Dividing the dinner: book divisions in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis

Narrative and Event in Ancient Art

Introduction Peter J. Holliday 1. Narrative and the Narmer palette Whitney Davis 2. Sennacherib's Lachish narratives John Malcolm Russel 3. Some reflections on the rhetoric of Aegean and Egyption art Nanno Marinatos 4. Narrative and image in the attic vase paining: Ajax and Kassandra at the Trojan Palladion Joan Breton Connelly 5. Narration and allusion in the Hellenistic Baroque Andrew Stewart 6. Narrative structures in the Francois tomb Peter J. Holliday 7. Some new grounds for narrative: Marcus Antonius's base (the Ara Domitti Ahenobarbi) and republican biographies Ann Kuttner 8. Reading the Augustan city Diane Favro 9. The Gemma Augustea: ideology, rhetorical imagery, and the creation of a dynastic narrative John Pollini 10. The 'Cena Trimalchionis' and biographical narration in Roman Middle-Class art Jane Whitehead.