Satyricon

Satyricon (or Satyrica) is a Latin novel, believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript text of the Satyricon calls him Titus Petronius.

The surviving text, a mixture of prose and poetry, details the misadventures of the narrator, Encolpius, and his lover, a handsome sixteen year old boy named Giton. Throughout the novel, Encolpius has a hard time keeping his lover faithful to him as he is constantly being enticed away by others. Encolpius' friend Ascyltus (who seems to have previously been in a relationship with Encolpius) is another major character but he disappears from the narrative half way through the surviving text. It is a rare example of a Roman novel, the only other surviving example (quite different in style and plot) being Metamorphoses written by Lucius Apuleius. It is also extremely important evidence for the reconstruction of what everyday life must have been like for the lower classes during the early Roman Empire.

The original title is P.A. Satiricon libri. The initials correspond to the author, Petronius Arbiter.

The text survived the Middle Ages, albeit hidden from the public eye due to the subject matter and its pagan origins. It was not until 1664 that the first edition that included Trimalchio’s party was available for the general public thanks to the efforts of Pierre Petit. Soon after the Satyricon was translated to several languages and became one of the bestsellers of Western literature.

Synopsis
The work is narrated by its central figure, Encolpius, who professes to narrate his adventures and describe all that he saw and heard, whilst allowing various other personages to exhibit their peculiarities and express their opinions dramatically. The surviving sections of the novel begin with Encolpius travelling with a companion named Ascyltos. Encolpius' lover, a boy named Giton, is apparently at Encolpius' lodging when the story begins. (Giton is constantly referred to as "brother" throughout the novel, thereby indicating that they were in a relationship.)

Chapters 1-26
In the first passage preserved, Encolpius is in a portico of a Greek town, in Campania. He delivers a lecture on the false taste in literature, which he blames on the prevailing system of declamatory education (1-2). This is replied to by a rival declaimer, Agamemnon, who shifts the blame from the teachers to the parents (3-5). Encolpius discovers that his companion Ascyltos has left him and escapes from Agamemnon when a group of students come by (6).

Encolpius locates Ascyltos (7-8) and then Giton (8), who claims that Ascyltos made a sexual attempt on him (9). After some conflict (9-11), the three go to the market, where they are involved in a dispute over stolen property (12-15). Returning to their lodgings, they are confronted by Quartilla, a devotee of Priapus, who condemns their attempts to pry into the cult's secrets (16-18). The companions are overpowered by Quartilla and her maids, who overpower and sexually torture them (19-21), then provide them with dinner and engage them in further sexual activity (21-26).


Chapters 26-78 (Trimalchio's dinner)
A day or two after the beginning of the extant story, Encolpius and companions are present with Agamemnon at a dinner given by a freedman of enormous wealth, Trimalchio, who entertains with ostentatious and grotesque extravagance a number of men of his own rank but less prosperous. After preliminaries in the baths and halls (26-30), including their first encounter with the host, they enter the dining room. Trimalchio makes a striking entrance, and various extravagant courses are served while Trimalchio flaunts his wealth and his pretence of learning (31-41). Trimalchio's departure to the toilet allows space for conversation among the freedmen guests (41-46). We listen to their ordinary talk about their neighbours, about the weather, about the hard times, about the public games, about the education of their children. We recognize in an extravagant form the same kind of vulgarity and pretension which the satirist of all times delights to expose in the illiterate and ostentatious millionaires of the age. After Trimalchio's return (47), the succession of courses is resumed, many of them disguised as other kinds of food. Stories are told about a werewolf (61-62) and witches (63). A stonemason called Habinnas arrives with his wife Scintilla (65), who compares jewellery with Trimalchio's wife Fortunata (67). Trimalchio describes his will and instructs Habinnas on the monument to be constructed after his death (71). Encolpius and his companions, by now wearied and disgusted, try to leave as the other guests proceed to the baths, but are prevented by a porter (72). They escape only after Trimalchio attempts to act out his funeral results and the vigiles, mistaking the sound of horns for a signal that a fire has broken out, burst into the residence (78).


Chapters 79-99
Encolpius returns with his companions to the inn but, having drunk too much wine, passes out while Ascyltos takes advantage of the situation and seduces Giton (79). On the next day, Encolpius wakes to find his lover and Ascyltos in bed together naked. Encolpius quarrels with Ascyltos and the two agree to part, but Encolpius is shocked when Giton decides to stay with Ascyltos (80). After two or three days spent in separate lodgings sulking and brooding on his revenge, Encolpius sets out with a sword to take his revenge, but is disarmed by a soldier he encounters in the street (81-82).

After entering a picture gallery, he meets with an old poet, Eumolpus. The two exchange complaints about their misfortunes (83-84), and Eumolpus tells how, when he pursued an affair with a boy in Pergamon while employed as his tutor, the youth got the better of him (85-87). After talking about the decay of art and the inferiority of the painters and writers of the age to the old masters (88), Eumolpus illustrates a picture of the capture of Troy by some verses on that theme (89). This ends in those who are walking in the adjoining colonnade driving Eumolpus out with stones (90). Encolpius invites Eumolpus to dinner. As he returns home, Encolpius encounters Giton who begs him to take him back as his lover. Encolpius finally forgives him (91). Eumolpus arrives from the baths and reveals that a man there (evidently Ascyltos) was looking for someone called Giton (92). Encolpius decides not to reveal Giton's identity, but he and the poet fall into rivalry over the boy (93-94). This leads to a fight between Eumolpus and the other residents of the insula (95-96), which is broken up by the manager Bargates. Then Ascyltos arrives with a municipal slave to search for Giton, who hides under a bed at Encolpius' request (97). Eumolpus threatens to reveal him but, for reasons unclear in the extant text, he ends up reconciled to Encolpius and Giton, with the three planning to leave by ship along with Eumolpus' hired servant, later named as Corax (98-99).


Chapters 100-124
The next scene preserved takes place on board ship, where Encolpius belatedly discovers that the captain is an old enemy, Lichas of Tarentum. Also on board is a woman called Tryphaena, by whom Giton does not want to be discovered (100-101). Despite their attempt to disguise themselves as Eumolpus' slaves (103), Encolpius and Giton are identified (105). Encolpius speaks in their defence (107), but it is only after fighting breaks out (108) that peace is agreed (109). To maintain good feelings, Eumolpus tells the story of a widow of Ephesus. At first she planned to starve herself to death in her husband's tomb, but she was seduced by a soldier guarding crucified corpses, and when one of these was stolen she offered the corpse of her husband as a replacement (110-112).

The ship is wrecked in a storm (114). Encolpius, Giton and Eumolpus get to shore safely (as apparently does Corax), but Lichas is washed ashore drowned (115). The companions learn they are in the neighbourhood of Crotona, and that the inhabitants are notorious legacy-hunters (116). Eumolpus proposes taking advantage of this, and it is agreed that he will pose as a childless, sickly man of wealth, and the others as his slaves (117). As they travel to the city, Eumolpus lectures on the need for elevated content in poetry (118), which he illustrates with a poem of almost 300 lines (included in full in the text) on the Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey (119-124). When they arrive in Crotona, the legacy-hunters prove hospitable.


Chapters 125-141
When the text resumes, the companions have apparently been in Crotona for some time (125). A maid named Chrysis flirts with Encolpius and brings to him her beautiful mistress Circe, who asks him for sex. However, his attempts are prevented by impotence (126-128). Circe and Encolpius exchange letters, and he seeks a cure by sleeping without Giton (129-130). When he next meets Circe, she brings with her an elderly enchantress called Proselenos, who attempts a magical cure (131). Nonetheless, he apparently fails again to make love, as Circe has Chrysis and him flogged (132).

Encolpius is tempted to sever the offending organ, but prays to Priapus at his temple for healing (133). Proselenos and the priestess Oenothea arrive. Oenothea, who is also a sorceress, claims she can provide the cure desired by Encolpius and begins cooking (134-135). While the women are temporarily absent, Encolpius is attacked by the temple's sacred geese and kills one of them. Oenothea is horrified, but Encolpius pacifies her with an offer of money (136-137). The women apply various irritants to him, and after a break in the text he is fleeing from them. From now on, the text becomes very fragmentary, but in the following chapters, Chrysis herself is in love with Encolpius (138-139).

An aging legacy-huntress called Philomela places her son and daughter with Eumolpus, ostensibly for education. Eumolpus makes love to the daughter, although because of his pretence of ill health he requires the help of Corax. Encolpius is somehow cured of his impotence (140). He warns Eumolpus that, because the wealth he claims to have has not appeared, the patience of the legacy-hunters is running out. Eumolpus' will is read to the legacy-hunters, who apparently now believe he is dead, and they learn they can inherit only if they consume his body. In the final passage preserved, one of them expresses his willingness to do so, citing historical examples of cannibalism (141).


Reconstruction of lost sections
Although interrupted by frequent gaps, 141 sections of consecutive narrative have been preserved. These can be compiled into the length of a longer novella. Speculation as to the size of the original puts it somewhere on the order of a work of thousands of pages, and reference points for length range from Tom Jones to In Search of Lost Time.

Statements in the extant narrative allows the reconstruction of some events that must have taken place earlier in the work. Encolpius and Giton have had contact with Lichas and Tryphaena. Both seem to have been lovers of Tryphaena (113) at a cost to her reputation (106). Lichas' identification of Encolpius by examining his groin (105) implies that they have also had sexual relations. Lichas' wife has been seduced (106) and his ship robbed (113). Encolpius states at one point, "I escaped the law, cheated the arena, killed a host" (81). The second of these claims can be connected with an insult by Ascyltos (9), which may indicate that Encolpius escaped from fighting as a gladiator because the arena collapsed, although the text at that point is uncertain.[1]

A number of fragments of Petronius' work are preserved in other authors. Servius cites Petronius as his source for a custom at Massilia of allowing a poor man, during times of plague, to volunteer to serve as a scapegoat, receiving support for a year at public expense and then being expelled.[2] Sidonius Apollinaris refers to "Arbiter", by which he apparently means Petronius' narrator Encolpius, as a worshipper of the "sacred stake" of Priapus in the gardens of Massilia.[3] It has been proposed that Encolpius' wanderings in the Satyricon began after he offered himself as the scapegoat and was ritually expelled.[4] Other fragments may relate to a trial scene.[5]

Also, among the poems ascribed to Petronius is an oracle predicting travels to the Danube and to Egypt. Edward Courtney notes that the prominence of Egypt in the ancient Greek novels might make it plausible for Petronius to have set an episode there, but expresses some doubt about the oracle's relevance to Encolpius' travels, "since we have no reason to suppose that Encolpius reached the Danube or the far north, and we cannot suggest any reason why he should have."[6]