Satyricon of Petronius. antique erotic novel

Some medieval manuscripts contain extracts from a large narrative work, which is one of the most original monuments ancient literature. The manuscripts are given the title Saturae ("Satires") or, in the Greek style, Satyricon ("Satirical Tale" or perhaps "Satirical Tales"); in the literary tradition of modern times, the title “Satyricon” was established. Historical and everyday indications, the presence of literary polemics against the first books of Lucan’s poem, the entire set of data that can serve for the chronological dating of the Satyricon, forces us to attribute this work to recent years the reign of Nero or the beginning of the Flavian dynasty. The author in the manuscripts is named as one Petronius Arbiter; We find the same name in quotes from the Satyricon by late ancient authors.

This image of an effortlessly frank and cold-blooded contemptuous “arbiter of grace,” a kind of ancient “dandy,” is extremely suitable for the idea that one can form about the author of “Satyricon” based on the work itself. And since tradition gives Petronius, the author of the Satyricon, the nickname “Arbiter,” it should be considered quite probable that this author is the same person as Petronius, whom Tacitus talks about.

The Satyricon takes the form of a "menippean satura", a narrative in which prose alternates with verse, but in essence it goes far beyond the usual type of "menippean saturas". This - satirical novel“low”-everyday content. In ancient literature, this novel stands alone, and we do not know whether Petronius had predecessors. From a historical and literary point of view. connections, it seems very significant that Petronius constructs a novel of everyday content as a “recasting” of a Greek love novel while preserving its plot scheme and a number of individual motives. The novel of the “elevated” style is translated into a “low” level, characteristic of the interpretation of everyday themes in antiquity. From this point of view, the form of the “Menippean satura”, which has already become traditional for parody of high-style storytelling, is not an accident. But Satyricon is not a literary parody in the sense of making fun of romance novels; Also alien to him is that moralizing or accusatory attitude that was usually “characteristic of the Menippean Saturas.” "Refacing" love story, Petronius seeks only to entertain the reader with the merciless frankness of his descriptions, which sometimes go far beyond the limits of what was considered decent in serious literature.

Petronius and his novel in subsequent literature.

Petronius's novel "Satyricon" is one of most interesting works Roman literature. It gives us an idea of ​​the different social groups Rome in the first centuries AD In addition, this novel is valuable to us from a purely philological side: it is in it that the language of the lower classes is recorded - folk Latin, which formed the basis of the Romance languages.

In subsequent centuries, the successors of this genre of satirical and everyday adventure novel were, to some extent, Boccaccio 447 with his “Decameron”, and Fielding with “Tom Jones”, and Lesage with “Gilles Blas”, and many authors of the so-called picaresque novel.

The image of Petronius interested Pushkin, and our great poet described it in “A Tale from Roman Life,” which, unfortunately, was only just begun. An excerpt from it has been preserved - “Caesar Traveled.”

Maikov portrayed Petronius in his work “Three Deaths,” where he showed how three contemporary poets ended their lives in different ways, but almost at the same time: the Stoic philosopher Seneca, his nephew, the poet Lucan, and the epicurean esthete Petronius.

The Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz portrayed Petronius in the novel “Kamo khryadeshi”, but he gave him a somewhat idealized image, emphasizing his humane attitude towards slaves and introducing Petronius’ love for a Christian slave into the plot of the novel.

Before us again is a kind of picaresque novel, a novel in which the hero, undergoing various adventures, like a needle penetrates the entire reality of his and the author’s time and in the end comes out unscathed.

Epigram of Martial

Came from spanish city Bilbilis, on the left tributary of the Giber (now called the Ebro). Martial often and lovingly mentions the place of his homeland in his poems. The year of his birth is unknown; Only on the basis of a combination of some data from the 24th epigram of the 10th book can one assign the time of birth of Martial to 40 AD.

Picture of morals

The content of the epigrams contained in these 12 books is extremely diverse, touching on all sorts of circumstances, phenomena and accidents of everyday life and presenting, in general, a very vivid picture of the morals and life of the second half of the first century of the Roman Empire. Most of all, two features are striking in them: the poet’s penchant for depicting sexual promiscuity, the nudity of which reaches the point of shamelessness, leaving behind the liberties of all other Roman writers - and the flattery and groveling that knows no bounds before the rich and strong people, in the form of acquiring their location and handouts.

If we remember that, on the one hand, filled with extreme cynicism in pictures of debauchery, and on the other, with the most shameful flattery in front of wicked people, these poems belonged to the foremost poet of the era, who was read greedily by contemporaries of both sexes, then in Martial’s epigrams one cannot help but see the bright proof of the moral decline of both literature and society of the Domitian era. Only one book of epigrams is free from the filth of debauchery, the eighth, which the poet dedicated to Domitian and, according to him, deliberately spared the obscenities common in other books; but nowhere can one find such pearls of groveling as in this book.

To justify his obscenities, Martial, in the preface to the 1st book, refers both to previous poets, among other things to Catullus, who can be called the founder of the Roman erotic epigram, and to the fact that he writes in such language only for people who have a taste for shamelessness, lovers of unbridled spectacles on the festival of Flora (ludi Florales), and not for the Cato. But, at the same time, he does not hide the fact that this is precisely the side of his poems that attracts readers to them, and even stern-looking women love to read him on the sly (X1, 16).

It is in vain that the poet assures that his love for pictures of debauchery in poems does not indicate the licentiousness of his morals (I, 4; XI, 15). It cannot be that a person of any strict morals would draw with such constancy and with such love all kinds of natural and unnatural forms of depravity; and Martial’s biography, as far as it can be reconstructed from his own statements, does not at all indicate that he had lasciva only pagina, and vita - proba, as he expresses himself. As for flattery not only to Domitian, but also to his favorites, the freedmen of the court and rich people in general, here the only excuse for the poet who often forgets all human dignity can be that he was not one of the writers in Domitian’s time who played such a role that he in this respect his contemporary and rival were not inferior, also outstanding poet Statius, about whom Martial does not mention a single word (like Statius about him), and that, finally, for the sake of personal safety, Quintilian himself sometimes considered it necessary to burn incense to such a bloodthirsty despot as Domitian.

No one, however, was such a virtuoso in flattery and groveling as Martial, and the vileness of these qualities of his literary activity aggravated by the fact that when political circumstances changed, he, while praising Domitian’s successors, already treated the latter and his reign with sharp censure and glorified Nerva for the fact that “during the reign of a cruel sovereign and in bad times he was not afraid to stay an honest man"(XII, 6).

Literary merits

In literary terms, Martial's epigrams are works of great poetic talent. He gave the Roman epigram, as a special type of lyric poetry, a broad development that it had not had before. Epigram, like special kind literary works, appeared in Rome back in the Cicero era, but all the poets who tried to write in this kind were only partly epigrammatists; the epigram was not the main type of their literary activity. Calvus and Catullus, the main representatives of the epigram of earlier times, gave it particular causticity, using it especially as a weapon in the struggle against political and literary enemies.

In Martial, the epigram takes on all sorts of shades, from a simple poetic inscription on objects or a caption to objects (which was the epigram in its original form among both the Greeks and Romans), to a virtuoso in wit, accuracy, piquancy or simply playfulness of the turn of a poetic joke on the most ordinary, as well as on the most whimsical subjects of everyday life. Therefore, Martial also has primacy in the epigram, as Virgil does in epic poetry, and Horace in purely lyrical (melic) poetry. It goes without saying that this comparison does not at all indicate the equality of Martial with the two leading representatives of Roman poetry; but in the kind of literature that constituted Martial's specialty, he should undoubtedly be given first place.

Related information.

Petronius's work is a parody of various genres and characters of Greek literature. It is known that it has not reached us completely, and many literary scholars have tried to restore it, however, the attempts were unsuccessful. In general, the plot becomes clear from what is available, but there is still no complete disclosure of the images of the main characters.

The work opens with an appeal from the author to the people of that time and to the readers. He is indignant that the world is beginning to degrade: “These inflated speeches, these flashy expressions only lead to the fact that those who come to the forum feel as if they are in another part of the world.” For him, the main values ​​that would define the mentality of Rome were culture and beauty of speech, the ability to create literary masterpieces: “O rhetoricians and scholastics, it will not be said to you in anger, it was you who ruined eloquence.” Finding that the world is deprived of this (“not a single sound work appears”), Petronius expresses his attitude and turns reality upside down in order to distort it and reveal its negative sides.

The narration is told on behalf of Encolpius, who travels with his “friend” Ascylt and meets different people. Of interest, firstly, are the characters themselves. Encolpius is a cruel, dissolute, arrogant, cunning man who lives to satisfy his needs. This is a kind of caricature of ordinary people, thought out to the smallest detail by Petronius. This is a man who wandered around the world in search of pleasure. He allowed himself everything to gain benefit. For example, the beautiful boy Geton was always with him as a means of satisfying various kinds of needs. Gethon, accustomed to the position of a thing-slave, fulfilled all the wishes of Encolpius, even to the point of spending nights together...

Ascylt is not inferior to his companion, no less cruel, but simpler. He is able to forgive and accept defeat, but is very ardent and immoderate in making decisions. These people, constantly quarreling, portray a type of degraded personality, close to an animal in their desires and aspirations.

Overall, Satyricon is a parody of an adventure novel. It is no coincidence that the author chose the adventure genre as a way to reflect in one work the whole world with its flaws, to look into any corner and talk to every person, and then distort them so as to reveal the features of a failed society. The original plot is thought of as the journey of Eumolpus (a man who later joined the wanderers). Upon arrival in one of the cities, he pretends to be a rich man and promises to bequeath everything to himself after his death. to a loved one, after which there are a lot of contenders for this role. But the story ends with Eumolpus ordering that after his death his corpse be torn to pieces and eaten. The text we have now is somewhat different. Two wanderers wander around the world and live on handouts from the rich. Having lost their cloak at the market, they unexpectedly come across it on sale and try to steal it. This incident was noticed, and a woman named Quartilla decided to punish them. She wants to sacrifice to Priapus. Because she herself is a servant of his temple. To do this, with the help of her maids, she rubs Encolpius’ body with an ointment, which deprives him of the opportunity to realize his masculine power.

Petronius describes this scene very frankly and even vulgarly. It represents the vulgarity, the shamelessness of that generation. Of course, there is hyperbolization, but the essence of the problem does not change. Petronius sees the reason for this behavior not only in the peculiarities of the time and state, but also in education: “Parents who do not want to raise their children in strict rules are worthy of censure.”

After this ceremony, the reader is presented with another one - completely different in content, but very similar in the idea embedded in it. This is a feast for the freedman who became a rich man, Trimalchio. Petronius portrays him as a greedy, boastful, lazy drone, around whom hapless slaves scurry around, forced not only to fulfill his empty whims, but also to listen to his stupid chatter. “It’s easy for those who have everything going smoothly,” says Trimalchio. He does not want to look for the origins of what is happening in the lives of those around him, the lives of other people are not important to him, although he himself claims the opposite: “And slaves are people, they were fed with the same milk as us and it is not their fault that their fate is bitter. However, by my grace, soon everyone will drink free water.” These words were followed by further humiliations and insults, intertwined with self-praises. His speech plays a special role in the portrayal of this hero. It is replete with stylistically brightly colored words, expressing either satisfaction with oneself or dissatisfaction with the world around us. He uses many old or stylistically reduced words that characterize him as a man from the people who spent many years among a simple, gray life. But there are also phrases that speak for the owner that he does not understand anything in life, in etiquette and the concept of human dignity. For example, “Poor? What is this?”, “We’ve been starving for a whole year,” “I have about a hundred bucket vessels alone,” “If we know that we are doomed to death, why don’t we now live for our own pleasure?” Trimalchio's language exactly corresponds to the picture of his surroundings. On the one hand, it resembles a feast in Plato’s dialogue of the same name, where everyone primly reclines and recites their thoughts, and on the other, a stormy feast, like Anacreon’s, where lush decorations and exotic food are all around. The technique of hyperbolization in the description of the interior and details contributes to the reduction of this event to the low, petty speech of a pompous proud man.

The travelers move on and encounter another problem. They are in love with the same boy - Geton, who, of his own free will, decides to stay with Asklit. Encolpius is very worried about the defeat, but soon meets Gethon, who fled from the perverted Ascylt (by the way, to the no less perverted Encolpius). Encolpius tries to hide it. Then Asklit promises the finder a large reward. Eumolpus, who was then nearby and thirsty for money, wanted to hand over the boy, but took pity and decided to wander further along with Encolpius and Gethon. Eumolpus was a poet of whom Petronius made a magnificent parody, referring to the poets and rhetoricians of that time. The poems of Eumolpus are adaptations of poems by Homer and Virgil. His poems are comic in nature not only because of the discrepancies with the originals, but also because of the mannerism, pretentiousness of the vocabulary and the way they are presented. The three of the heroes set foot on the ship, trying to get to the other side unnoticed and get lost there. They succeed, but through some trials. To prevent Gethon from being recognized on the ship, he was shaved (his hair and eyebrows were shaved off), and after several suspicions, he finally successfully overcame the water element.

There Enkoliy met his beloved, who immediately wanted to be in his arms. But due to the fact that Enkoliy was deprived of any ability for this, he asked to postpone this event and went to the old witch. Her face contains a number of features characteristic of people engaged in an unspecified type of activity, so this minor character is also very important for Petronius to create a panorama of society. After physical and moral suffering, Encolius is healed and boasts before Eumolpus of his new divine power.

Thus, the Satyricon combines the genres of epic (as travel and storytelling), lyric (speeches by Trimalchio and Eumolpus) and drama. The distorted features of drama are visible when describing the “showdown” (since it cannot be called a conversation or a serious fight) between different characters. Therefore, this work has not only cultural and historical, but also linguistic value, because one of the means of creating satirical portraits is linguistic variation.

Friends, the work has come to us in fragments (I’ll talk about this later), so it begins abruptly and incomprehensibly, however, it ends the same way.

It all starts with a certain Agamemnon ranting about the decline of the art of rhetoric. Enklopius listens to him (on whose behalf the story is told). Suddenly he realizes that he has lost sight of his friend Ascylt. Moreover, he does not know the city and cannot find his way home. He asks the old woman for directions, she takes him to the slums, apparently to some kind of brothel. Enclopius runs away from there, Ascylt catches up with him. It turns out that some guy lured him there too. Finally Enclopius sees Giton, his beloved boy; but he is crying. It turns out that Ascylt ran to him first and, in general, tried to seduce him. Enclopius then invites Askyltus to travel without them, since he is already tired of him, especially since he pesters Giton, whom Enclopius himself loves. A. left; but when E. began to have fun with G., Asklit returned and whipped E.

Then the “friends” go to the forum, in the evening, and try to sell the stolen tunic. A man and a woman approach them, and on the man’s shoulders is some kind of E.’s tunic, which he apparently lost earlier; There is a lot of money sewn into the tunic. And the tunic they are selling was apparently stolen from this guy. The woman understands this, starts screaming and snatching her tunic, and her “friends” snatch the old tunic (what’s with the money) from them. They want to sue. Then they simply exchanged tunics.

Then Psyche, the servant of a certain Quartilla, whom her “friends” had once dishonored, comes to their home, and this K. appears all in tears. She prays to them for two things: that they would not reveal the mysteries of the sanctuary of Priapus (apparently, their debauchery occurred there) and, secondly, she had a vision that they would be able to cure her of her fever. “Friends,” of course, agree and promise to do what they can. And then K. and the maid (a girl also came with them) begin to laugh; K. says that he knows that he will cure her. And then the debauchery begins; friends are tied up, raped, then a certain kinad comes and does such things that it’s embarrassing to write. Then they were taken to another room for a feast - “to honor the genius of Priapus with an all-night vigil.” There was also chaos going on there with the direct participation of the kined, and then K. decides that the girl who came with her will be deflowered by Giton (well, “brother” E.). And so it happened. In general, somehow it all ended.

Then they decided to go to a feast with Trimalchio. They come to the baths, see T. there, take a steam bath, go on to admire the luxury of his house; At some point, a slave runs up to them and asks them to intercede for him - he forgot the housekeeper’s clothes in the bathhouse, and now they want to beat him. They intercede, the steward is merciful. The slave thanks them heartily.

Finally they arrive and sit around the table. The servant boys walk around and constantly sing, although they are out of tune; they rub the guests' feet, cut their nails, etc. Trimalchio is brought in on pillows, he is all hung with gold. They begin to serve food - ostrich eggs containing “wine berries” (who knows what that is). When one of the slaves drops a silver dish, T. orders him to be punished and the dish to be swept out of the room along with the rubbish.

The next dish is brought, depicting the 12 signs of the Zodiac, and each sign has the corresponding dishes (for Taurus - veal, etc.). Then: “a dish with birds and a pig’s udder on it, and in the middle a hare, all covered in feathers, as if in the form of Pegasus. At the four corners of the dish we noticed four Marsians, from whose furs a richly peppered gravy flowed directly onto the fish, swimming as if in the canal.” The neighbor tells Enklopius that T. is a freedman; Before he had nothing, now he has become incredibly rich, so he’s crazy about fat. He grows and receives everything - honey, wool, mushrooms - at home, buying the best sheep and bees. His freedman friends are about the same get-rich-quick people. Then a trace will appear. dish: a boar with a cap on its head, around there are piglets made of dough, and a flock of blackbirds flew out of the cut. He is wearing a hat because yesterday the boar was served as the last dish, but was then released; and today he is here as a freedman, such is the poignancy. Then T. left the feast for a while; the guests talk about expensive bread, about how no one honors Jupiter, about their friends, etc. T. came back and said that he needed to “lighten up” - something was wrong with his stomach; and if anyone needs it, don’t be angry, there are vessels and everything you need outside the door).

Then they brought three pigs, and T. said that he could slaughter and cook any one; and he himself chose the oldest one for cooking. T. talks about his extensive library; asks Agamemnon to tell about the wanderings of Odysseus; he himself read about them in childhood - he says that he remembers how the Cyclops tore off Odysseus’s finger with tongs (well, that’s not true, he confuses everything).

Then they bring a huge roasted hog. But T. begins to be indignant, saying that they forgot to gut him, and calls the cook; he wanted to beat him, but the guests stood up for the cook; then the cook began to gut the pig right there, and fried sausages fell out of the pig.

T. continues to talk some nonsense about how he has a lot of silver, and since he is an expert and lover of myths, the silver depicts Cassandra, who killed her children, and Daedalus, who hid Niobe in the Trojan Horse (he confuses everything, I think It's clear). He got drunk and was about to start dancing, but his wife Fortunata stopped him. Then the magicians came, and during the performance a boy fell from the stairs onto T.; he pretended to be badly hurt, but let the boy go - so that no one would think that such a boy could harm such a great husband.

Then they began to draw lots, and the winner was given gifts (for example, if a servant called out: “Leeks and peaches!” - the winner received a whip (to flog) and a knife (to cross).

Asklit laughed all this time because everything looked pompous and stupid. Then friend T. began to scold A.: they say, why are you laughing? The freedmen are no worse than him; he, a freedman, is respected, he has acquired wealth, he doesn’t owe anyone money, he is fully educated. Then Giton, portraying Asklitus' servant, began to laugh; friend T. reprimanded him too. But Trimalchio told them not to quarrel.

A certain performance began, which T. commented as follows: “Once upon a time there were two brothers - Diomedes and Ganymede with their sister Helen. Agamemnon kidnapped her and slipped a doe to Diana. This is what Homer tells us about the war between the Trojans and the Parentians. Agamemnon, if you please see, won and gave his daughter Iphigenia to Achilles; this made Ajax crazy, as they will now show you” (well, of course, he got it all wrong again). Then the one who had mocked Ajax chopped up the calf he had brought.

Suddenly a hoop dropped from the ceiling, on which hung golden wreaths and jars of honey; and Priapus made of dough with baskets of fruit appeared on the table. The “friends” attacked them and took more food with them. Then they began to pass the portrait of Trimalchio around in a circle, who kissed everyone.

T. asks friend Nikerot why he is sad; N. says: when he was still a slave, he was in love with the wife of the tractor owner Terenty, Milissa. When her partner passed away, he wanted to see his beloved; to get to her house, he took a strong soldier with him. They reached the cemetery, the soldier stopped, turned into a wolf and ran away. N. got scared and ran quickly to Milissa’s house; and she told him that a wolf had just come running and tore apart all their cattle, but one of the slaves pierced his neck. When N. came home, he saw a soldier with a wound on his neck - this is a story about a werewolf. T. also tells some kind of blizzard about the fact that one day devilry stole a dead child from a mother, slipping a stuffed animal in its place.

Then came Gabinna, a stonemason who makes tombstones. He says that he has just come from a funeral feast and describes what dishes were served there. Then he asks that T. Fortunata’s wife be called. She sat in the box with Gabinna's wife, Scintilla, they giggled and showed each other their jewelry; then G. suddenly approached Fortunata and lifted her legs.

Then some slave sang like a nightingale, then one of the slaves read Virgil; and he read it terribly, barbarously distorting the words. But after the song T. began to praise the slave. Then they brought more and more dishes, and E. said that to this day, when he remembers all this, he feels bad. They brought, according to him, something absolutely terrible - a pig surrounded by all kinds of fish and poultry; T. said it was all made from pork. Then two slaves came with an amformai on their shoulders and allegedly began to quarrel - and one broke the other’s amphora. Shells and oysters fell out of it, which they began to distribute to the guests. And then the slaves came and began to wrap flower garlands around the guests’ feet and moisten them with perfume - E. says that he is ashamed to even talk about this.

Then T., getting excited, orders the servants, Filargir and Karion, to sit in the box. He says that slaves are people too, and also that in his will he ordered the release of all slaves after his death, and he bequeathed a woman to the estate to Filargir, and a house and money to Karion. He read out his will to everyone's delight. T., turning to Gabinea, said that he should have a huge tombstone, richly decorated, with trees around the perimeter, so that it would be guarded by soldiers (so that no one would run there to relieve themselves), so that a statue of his wife would stand nearby, and there would also be a clock - so that everyone could involuntarily read his name, looking at what time it was. Then he read out his tombstone inscription: HERE LIES THE CITY OF POMPEII TRIMALCHIO MACENATIAN. HE WAS AWARDED AN HONORABLE SEVIRATE IN ABSENTIA. HE COULD HAVE DECORATED ANY DECURATION OF ROME, BUT HE DID NOT WISH TO. PIOUS, WISE, FAITHFUL, HE CAME FROM LITTLE PEOPLE, LEFT THIRTY MILLION SISTERS AND NEVER LISTENED TO ANY PHILOSOPHER. BE HEALTHY AND YOU TOO.

Enclopius told Asklitus that he could not stand going to the bathhouse, and they decided during the turmoil, when everyone was going to the bathhouse, to escape. But when they crossed the bridge with Giton, a chained dog barked at them, and G. fell into the pond; and Enclopius was drunk, so, holding out his hand to G., he fell down himself. The housekeeper pulled them out, and they asked to be taken out of the gate; however, they were told that in this house they do not exit through the same gates through which they enter. They had to go to the bathhouse. There were a lot of people steaming there; Trimalchio boasted as usual and ordered everyone to feast until the morning. Suddenly the rooster crowed; T. said that he was screaming either for fire or death, and ordered to catch that rooster. The neighbor's bird was dragged in, killed and cooked.

Then, along with the slaves, some, according to E., a handsome boy came, whom Trimahlion began to pester and kiss. His wife accused him of lust, he threw something heavy at her and accused her of ingratitude: he supposedly saved her from slavery, although he could have received a huge dowry by marrying a rich bride, and she... And that’s not why he kissed the boy because he is handsome, but because he is diligent, knows how to count and can read. And he told Gabinna not to build a monument to his wife near his grave. T. begins to boast again; says that, as a slave, he pleased both the master and the mistress; the owner bequeathed the estate to him. Deciding to engage in trade, he equipped five ships - but they all sank. But T. did not despair and again sent five ships with goods on their journey - larger and stronger; Then he earned a lot of money, began to run a successful farm, acquired a lot of land, and began to conduct his business through freedmen. He was incredibly proud of the fact that he had gone from rags to riches.

Then he ordered a servant to bring the clothes in which he would be buried; Having admired it enough and ordered it to be kept well, he said that he wanted to be buried majestically and remembered with kindness by the citizens. As a result, T., completely drunk, lay down on the pillows, telling the guests to imagine that he had died and say something good about him. :) The trumpeters began to play a funeral song. One slave blew the trumpet so loudly that the guards came running and, deciding that a fire had started in the house, broke the doors and began pouring water. Then the “friends,” abandoning Agamemnon, took advantage of the opportunity and rushed to flee. Using the notches prudently made by Giton on the pillars, they found their way home; but the old woman who was drunk and fell asleep did not let them in, and only Trimalchio’s courier, who was passing by, knocked down the door, and so the “friends” were able to enter. However, at night, says E., Asklit lured Giton from E.’s bed - in general, it’s clear why. Waking up, E. told A. that there could be no more friendship between them and that he should get out; and A. said that he would leave, but first they need to figure out who the boy will stay with. They were about to fight, but Giton stopped them. Then they told him to choose a “brother” himself; and Giton chose Asklit, although he spent a lot more time with E. A. and G. left. E. was incredibly upset. He suffered, then rushed through the streets with thoughts of murder - but some soldier on the street took his weapon away from him out of harm's way.

Enclopius wandered into the Pinakothek (art gallery), looked at the paintings there, and said that even the gods are characterized by the pangs of love. Then some old man, Eumolpus, appeared in the Pinakothek. In general, he tells a completely pedophilic, excuse me, story. When he lived in Pergamon, he fell in love with his master's son. In front of the owners, he always said that he looked negatively at pleasures with boys, that he was so chaste, etc., and in the end the owners believed him, and he began to spend a lot of time with the boy. One day, when they were lying in the triclinium after a feast, Eumolpus moved towards the lying boy and said that if he could kiss the boy so that he would not notice anything, then tomorrow he would give him two doves; the boy heard everything, but pretended to be asleep, Eumolpus kissed him, and gave him doves in the morning. Another time he said: if the boy doesn’t notice how I, um, touch him, then I’ll give him two fighting cocks in the morning. The boy wanted cocks, he pretended not to notice anything. The third time he said that if he could do something obvious to the boy without him noticing, he would give him a horse. The boy “slept” like the dead. But E. did not give the horse, and the boy was offended, saying that he would tell his father everything. As a result, E. again “merged in the ecstasy of love” with the boy, the boy liked it, then a couple more times, then E. wanted to sleep, and the boy kept waking him up, and then he told the boy - sleep, otherwise I’ll tell my father everything.

Enclopius asks Eumolpus about paintings and artists; he tells him about Democritus, Chryssipus, Myron and says that today painting is in decline, because money rules the world. Eumolpus read a long poem about the capture of Troy; then people began to throw stones at him, because they were infuriated that Eumolpus constantly spoke in verse. Eumolpus ran away, followed by Enclopius; Eumolpus said that he would try to restrain himself and not speak in verse, so that at least Enclopius would not run away from him. They go home, Eumolpus goes into the bathhouse and even reads poetry there. Enclopius meets the sobbing Giton at the house; he says that he incredibly regrets that he went with Asklit. Enclopius still loves Giton and keeps him with him. When Eumolpus arrives (who really liked Giton), he tells the story that in the bathhouse some man loudly and irritably called Giton, because he had lost his clothes (well, it was Asklitus). And everyone sympathized with Asklitus, but in the end some man, a Roman horseman, took him with him, because Asklitus was, let’s say, physically very well built.

When Eumolpus began to read poetry again, Enclopius told him to shut up, and Giton said that one should not speak so rudely to elders. Eumolpus said that he was incredibly grateful to the beautiful young man. Giton left the room. Enklopius began to get jealous and told the old man to get out, but the old man managed to run out and lock the door. Then Enclopius decided to hang himself. I was just about to do this when the door swung open and Eumolpus and Giton appeared. Giton said that he would not have survived the death of Enclopius, grabbed a razor from a servant and cut himself in the neck. Enclopius did the same, deciding to die with his loved one, but it turned out that the razor was completely dull, and everyone remained alive.

Suddenly the owner came running and asked what they had done here and what they were planning. a fight began, Eumolpus was dragged out of the room, he fought with the servants there, and Enclopius and Giton hid in the room. The housekeeper Bargon was brought on a stretcher, who, recognizing Eumolpus as a “great poet,” asked him to help compose a poem for his partner.

Suddenly the herald and Asklit appeared. The herald said that whoever could tell where the boy named Giton was would receive a large reward. Enclopius hid Giton under the bed - the boy clung to the mattress from below, like Odysseus to the belly of a ram. Enclopius himself rushed to Asklitus, playing a fool, begging to see Giton at least once again and asking not to kill him - why else would I use the ax herald? (To break down the door). Asklit said he was just looking for Guiton. The herald searched everything, but found nothing, they left. And Eumolpus entered the room and heard Giton sneeze three times; he said that he would catch up with the herald and tell everything! But Giton and Enclopius convinced the old man not to do this and appeased him.

The three of them went on a trip on a ship. At night they suddenly heard someone say that if they find Giton, they don’t know what they will do with him. Eumolpus said that they were traveling on the ship of the Tarentine Lichus, and he was taking the exile Tryphaena to Tarentum. It turned out that Giton and Enclopius were actually fleeing from Lich and Tryphaena (they had some kind of dark story, apparently). They are thinking what to do. Giton offers to bribe the helmsman and ask him to stop at some large port, citing the fact that Eumolpus' brother is seasick. Eumolpus says that this will not be possible - Likh may want to visit a sick passenger, and it will not be possible to leave the ship unrecognized. Enclopius suggests secretly sneaking into the boat and sailing wherever you look - of course, Eumolpus is better off staying on the ship. Eumolpus says that the helmsman will notice them, and the boat will be guarded by a sailor. Eumolpus offers to hide in their bags, leaving a hole for air. Eumolpus will say that this is his luggage, and he himself will take it to the shore, since his slaves rushed to the sea, fearing punishment. Enclopius says that they still need to relieve themselves, and they will sneeze and cough. Enclopius invites them to be smeared with ink so that they will be mistaken for Arabs; but Giton says that the ink will wash off, and in general this is a crazy idea. Giton suggests committing suicide. =) But Eumolpus offers to shave their heads and eyebrows and draw a brand on each person’s face - so that they will be mistaken for the brand. And so they did; but a certain Ghis noticed how they cut their hair at night, and this is a bad omen on a ship.

Likh and Tryphena dreamed that they should find Enklopius on the ship. And Ghis told them that he saw someone getting a haircut - and the angry Likh ordered to bring those who do such bad things on the ship. Eumolpus said that he did this because the “runaway slaves” had terribly matted hair. Likh ordered Giton and Enklopius to be given forty blows each. As soon as they began to beat Giton, he screamed, and then both Tryphena and the maids recognized him. And Likh approached Enklopius and, even looking not at his face, but at another place :), immediately recognized his fugitive servant. (So, judging by the context, they seduced Tryphaena and insulted Lichus, and then fled). Tryphena still felt sorry for the fugitives, but Likh was angry. Eumolpus began to defend E. and G., Likh was not going to forgive; a fight broke out. Everyone fought, wounded each other, and in the end Giton put the razor (the same dull one with which he could not cut himself) to a clear purpose, and Tryphena, who had tender feelings for him, prayed for the fight to stop. It's all over. They made an agreement so that Tryphena would not pester G., Likh would not pester E., and so that he would not insult him anymore. Everyone made peace and started having fun. Maid T. gave Giton and Enklopius false wigs and eyebrows to make them look prettier.

And Eumolpus, in order to amuse everyone, told the following story about female inconstancy: a certain matron from Ephesus was distinguished by great modesty and marital fidelity. And when her husband died, she followed him into the burial dungeon and intended to starve herself there. The widow does not give in to the persuasion of her family and friends. Only a faithful servant brightens up her loneliness in the crypt and just as stubbornly goes hungry. The fifth day of mourning self-torture has passed... “... At this time, the ruler of that region ordered, not far from the dungeon in which the widow was crying over a fresh corpse, to crucify several robbers. And so that someone would not steal the robbers’ bodies, wanting to bury them, one soldier was placed on guard near the crosses. As night fell, he noticed that a rather bright light was pouring from somewhere among the tombstones, heard the groans of the unfortunate widow and, out of curiosity, wanted to find out who it was and what was going on there. He immediately went down to the crypt and, seeing there a woman of remarkable beauty, as if before some miracle, as if meeting face to face with the shadows of the underworld, he stood for some time in confusion. Then, when he finally saw the dead body lying in front of him, when he examined her tears and her face scratched with nails, he, of course, realized that this was only a woman who, after the death of her husband, could not find peace for herself out of grief. Then he brought his modest lunch to the crypt and began to convince the weeping beauty to stop killing herself in vain. After some time, the faithful maid also joins the soldier’s persuasion. Not immediately, but the sad Ephesian beauty still begins to succumb to their admonitions. At first, exhausted by long fasting, she is tempted by food and drink. And after some time, the soldier manages to win the heart of the beautiful widow. “They spent in mutual embrace not only that night on which they celebrated their wedding, but the same thing happened the next, and even on the third day. And the doors to the dungeon, in case any of the relatives and acquaintances came to the grave, were, of course, locked, so that it would seem as if this most chaste of wives died over the body of her husband.” Meanwhile, the relatives of one of the crucified people, taking advantage of the lack of security, removed his body from the cross and buried it. And when the loving guard discovered this and, trembling with fear of the impending punishment, told the widow about the loss, she decided: “I prefer to hang a dead man than to destroy a living one.” According to this, she gave advice to pull her husband out of the coffin and nail him to an empty cross. The soldier immediately took advantage of the sensible woman’s brilliant idea. And the next day all the passers-by were perplexed as to how the dead man climbed onto the cross.” Everyone laughs. Enclopius is jealous of Giton for Tryphaena.

Suddenly a storm rises at sea. Likh perishes in the abyss. The rest continue to rush through the waves. Enclopius and Giton are ready to die together. Moreover, Eumolpus does not stop his poetic recitations even in this critical situation. But in the end, the unfortunate people are saved and spend a restless night in a fisherman's hut. After some time, Likh’s body washed ashore, whom they mourned and burned on a funeral pyre.

And soon they all end up in Crotona - one of the oldest Greek colonial cities on the southern coast of the Apennine Peninsula. One of the residents says that terrible morals reign in this city, that honesty cannot achieve anything here. And in order to live comfortably and carefree, the adventure friends decide: Eumolpus will pass himself off as a very wealthy man, wondering who to bequeath all his untold riches. His son supposedly recently died, he went further away from his hometown so as not to torment his heart, and on the way the ship got into a storm and his money and servants sank; however, in his homeland he has untold wealth. Eumolpus reads the poem “O civil war"(quite voluminous). It depicts the fight between Caesar and Pompey. The poet considers the reason for this struggle to be Pluto’s anger at the Romans, who in their mines dug almost to the underground kingdom. To crush the power of the Romans, Pluto sends Caesar against Pompey. The gods were divided into two camps: Venus, Minerva and Mars help Caesar, and Diana, Apollo and Mercury help Pompey. Goddess of discord. Discordia incites the hatred of those who fight. In general, Caesar's actions are justified. Eumolpus criticizes poets who develop the plot of the civil war only historically, without resorting to myths (meaning Lucan). Thus, Petronius polemicizes with Lucan and parodies the mediocre classicists of his time.

So, many Crotonians count on a share in Eumolpus’s will and try to win his favor.

At this time, the maid Kirkei comes to Enklopius, who is inflamed with passion for E.. He agrees to date her. She is very beautiful, and E. and K. kiss and all that, but E., let's just say, can't do anything more. Kirkey is disappointed and offended - they say, why am I bad? She wrote him a mocking letter, he wrote back; asked for forgiveness, looked for a new meeting. They met again, and as they began to embrace, Kirkei's servants appeared and began to beat and spit on him. That's it. Then Enclopius, turning to that part of the body that brought him so much trouble, reads a whole tirade. Hearing him, some old woman brings him to the priestess’s cell and for some reason beats him (?). Then the priestess herself appears - Oenothea (also an old woman), and asks what they are doing here. The old woman explains the problem of Enclopius. Enotea says that to cure the disease, he just needs to spend the night with her. She begins to prepare for the sacrifice, runs back and forth, and meanwhile Enklopius is attacked by three fat geese. E. manages to kill one of them, a particularly violent one. He tells Enotea about what happened, she is horrified, since it was a sacred goose, but, in general, she promises to hide this incident. She performs some kind of healing ritual (it’s better for you not to know what she did). Further the text is very fragmentary, what is happening is not very clear. Apparently, E. is running away from the old woman.

Then it tells about Philomel - this is an old woman who herself often obtained inheritance from rich husbands; Now she sends her son and daughter to Eumolpus and they all have fun there together.

To top it all off, Eumolpus announces to the claimants to his inheritance that after his death they must cut up his corpse and eat it. This is where the manuscript, thank God, ends.

Biography of Petronius:

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his work “Annals,” creates a vivid description of the aristocrat of the time of Nero, Gaius Petronius. According to Tacitus, he was a sophisticated, educated man. Having been sent to Bithynia as a proconsul, and then as a consul, “he expressed himself as quite active and capable of coping with the assignments entrusted to him. But then Petronius left the service and was accepted into the close circle of Nero’s most trusted associates and became a legislator of elegant taste in it. Further, Tacitus reports that Petronius was accused of Piso’s conspiracy, but, without waiting for the verdict, he committed suicide. He spent his last hours at a feast among friends, in his usual rich and elegant surroundings. Before his death, he sent Nero a kind of testament, in which he denounced the emperor’s debauchery and his criminal acts.

Some medieval manuscripts preserve extracts from a large narrative work, which is one of the most original monuments of ancient literature. The manuscripts are given the title Saturae ("Satires") or, in the Greek style, Satyricon ("Satirical Tale" or perhaps "Satirical Tales"); in the literary tradition of modern times, the title “Satyricon” was established. Historical and everyday indications, the presence of literary polemics against the first books of Lucan’s poem, the entire set of data that can serve for the chronological dating of the Satyricon, forces us to attribute this work to the last years of the reign of Nero or to the beginning of the Flavian dynasty. The author in the manuscripts is named as one Petronius Arbiter; We find the same name in quotes from the Satyricon by late ancient authors.

This image of an effortlessly frank and cold-blooded contemptuous “arbiter of grace,” a kind of ancient “dandy,” is extremely suitable for the idea that one can form about the author of “Satyricon” based on the work itself. And since tradition gives Petronius, the author of the Satyricon, the nickname “Arbiter,” it should be considered quite probable that this author is the same person as Petronius, whom Tacitus talks about.

The Satyricon takes the form of a "menippean satura", a narrative in which prose alternates with verse, but in essence it goes far beyond the usual type of "menippean saturas". This is a satirical novel of “low” everyday content. In ancient literature, this novel stands alone, and we do not know whether Petronius had predecessors. From a historical and literary point of view. connections, it seems very significant that Petronius constructs a novel of everyday content as a “recasting” of a Greek love story, preserving its plot structure and a number of individual motifs. The novel of the “elevated” style is translated into a “low” level, characteristic of the interpretation of everyday themes in antiquity. From this point of view, the form of the “Menippean satura”, which has already become traditional for parody of high-style storytelling, is not an accident. But Satyricon is not a literary parody in the sense of making fun of romance novels; Also alien to him is that moralizing or accusatory attitude that was usually “characteristic of the Menippean Saturas.” “Recasting” a love story, Petronius seeks only to entertain the reader with the merciless frankness of his descriptions, which sometimes go far beyond the limits of what was considered decent in serious literature.

Petronius and his novel in subsequent literature.

Petronius' novel "Satyricon" is one of the most interesting works of Roman literature. It gives us an idea of ​​the different social groups in Rome in the first centuries AD. In addition, this novel is valuable to us from a purely philological side: it is in it that the language of the lower classes is recorded - folk Latin, which formed the basis of the Romance languages.

In subsequent centuries, the successors of this genre of satirical and everyday adventure novel were, to some extent, Boccaccio 447 with his “Decameron”, and Fielding with “Tom Jones”, and Lesage with “Gilles Blas”, and many authors of the so-called picaresque novel.

Pushkin was interested in the image of Petronius, and our great poet depicted it in “A Tale from Roman Life,” which, unfortunately, was only just begun. An excerpt from it has been preserved - “Caesar Traveled.”

Maikov portrayed Petronius in his work “Three Deaths,” where he showed how three contemporary poets ended their lives in different ways, but almost at the same time: the Stoic philosopher Seneca, his nephew, the poet Lucan, and the epicurean esthete Petronius.

The Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz portrayed Petronius in the novel “Kamo khryadeshi”, but he gave him a somewhat idealized image, emphasizing his humane attitude towards slaves and introducing Petronius’ love for a Christian slave into the plot of the novel.

Before us again is a kind of picaresque novel, a novel in which the hero, undergoing various adventures, like a needle penetrates the entire reality of his and the author’s time and in the end comes out unscathed.

Petronius Arbiter

Satyricon

The text of the first adventure (or picaresque) novel known in world literature has survived only in fragments: excerpts of the 15th, 16th and presumably 14th chapters. There is no beginning, no end, and apparently there were 20 chapters in total...

The main character (the story is told on his behalf) is the unbalanced young man Encolpius, skilled in rhetoric, clearly not stupid, but, alas, a flawed person. He is in hiding, fleeing punishment for robbery, murder and, most importantly, for sexual sacrilege, which brought upon him the wrath of Priapus, a very peculiar ancient Greek god of fertility. (By the time the novel takes place, the cult of this god flourished in Rome. Phallic motifs are obligatory in the images of Priapus: many of his sculptures have been preserved)

Encolpius and his fellow parasites Ascylt, Giton and Agamemnon arrived in one of the Hellenic colonies in Campania (a region of ancient Italy). While visiting the rich Roman horseman Lycurgus, they all “intertwined in couples.” At the same time, not only normal (from our point of view), but also purely male love is honored here. Then Encolpius and Ascylt (who until recently were “brothers”) periodically change their sympathies and love situations. Ascylt is attracted to the cute boy Giton, and Encolpius hits on the beautiful Tryphaena...

Soon the action of the novel moves to the estate of the shipowner Likh. And - new love entanglements, in which the pretty Dorida, Likh’s wife, also takes part. As a result, Encolpius and Giton have to urgently get away from the estate.

On the way, the dashing rhetorician-lover climbs onto a ship that has run aground, and there manages to steal an expensive robe from the statue of Isis and the helmsman’s money. Then he returns to the estate to Lycurgus.

An orgy of Priapus's admirers - the wild "pranks" of Priapus' harlots... After many adventures, Encolpius, Giton, Ascyltos and Agamemnon end up at a feast in the house of Trimalchio - a rich freedman, a dense ignoramus who imagines himself to be very educated. He energetically strives to enter the “high society.”

Conversations at the feast. Tales of gladiators. The owner importantly informs the guests: “Now I have two libraries. One is Greek, the second is Latin.” But then it turns out that in his head there is a most monstrous confusion famous heroes and plots of Hellenic myths and Homeric epic. The self-confident arrogance of an illiterate owner is limitless. He mercifully addresses the guests and at the same time, yesterday’s slave himself, is unjustifiably cruel to the servants. However, Trimalchio is easy-going...

On a huge silver platter, the servants bring in a whole boar, from which blackbirds suddenly fly out. They are immediately intercepted by bird catchers and distributed to guests. An even more grandiose pig is stuffed with fried sausages. There immediately turned out to be a dish with cakes: “In the middle of it was Priapus made of dough, holding, according to custom, a basket of apples, grapes and other fruits. We greedily pounced on the fruits, but the new fun intensified the fun. For from all the cakes, at the slightest pressure, fountains of saffron began to flow..."

Then three boys bring in images of the three Lars (guardian gods of home and family). Trimalchio reports: their names are the Breadwinner, the Lucky One and the Profitmaker. To entertain those present, Nicerotus, a friend of Trimalchio, tells a story about a werewolf soldier, and Trimalchio himself tells a story about a witch who stole from coffin of the dead boy and replaced the body with a fofan (straw effigy).

Meanwhile, the second meal begins: blackbirds stuffed with nuts and raisins. Then a huge fat goose is served, surrounded by all kinds of fish and poultry. But it turned out that the most skillful cook (named Daedalus!) created all this from... pork.

“Then something began that is simply embarrassing to tell: according to some unheard of custom, curly-haired boys brought perfume in silver bottles and rubbed them on the legs of those reclining, having previously entangled their legs, from the knee to the very heel, with flower garlands.”

The cook, as a reward for his skill, was allowed to lie down at the table with the guests for a while. At the same time, the servants, serving the next dishes, always hummed something, regardless of the presence of voice and hearing. Dancers, acrobats and magicians also entertained guests almost continuously.

Trimalchio, touched, decided to read out... his will, a detailed description of the future magnificent tombstone and the inscription on it (his own composition, of course) with a detailed listing of his titles and merits. Even more touched by this, he cannot resist making the corresponding speech: “Friends! And slaves are people: they were fed with the same milk as us. And it is not their fault that their fate is bitter. However, by my grace, they will soon drink free water, I set them all free in my will<...>I am now announcing all this so that my servants will love me now just as they will love me when I die.”

The adventures of Encolpius continue. One day he wanders into the Pinakothek (art gallery), where he admires the paintings of the famous Hellenic painters Apelles, Zeuxis and others. He immediately meets the old poet Eumolpus and does not part with him until the very end of the story (or rather, until the end known to us).

Eumolpus speaks almost continuously in verse, for which he was repeatedly stoned. Although his poems were not bad at all. And sometimes very good. The prose outline of “Satyricon” is often interrupted by poetic inserts (“Poem about the Civil War”, etc.). Petronius was not only a very observant and talented prose writer and poet, but also an excellent imitator and parodist: he masterfully imitated the literary style of his contemporaries and famous predecessors.

Eumolpus and Encolpius talk about art. Educated people have something to talk about. Meanwhile, the handsome Giton returns from Ascylt to confess to his former “brother” Encolpius. He explains his betrayal by fear of Ascylt: “For he possessed a weapon of such magnitude that the man himself seemed only an appendage to this structure.” New turn fate: all three end up on Likh's ship. But not all of them are greeted equally cordially. However, the old poet restores peace. After which he entertains his companions with the “Tale of the Inconsolable Widow.”

A certain matron from Ephesus was distinguished by great modesty and marital fidelity. And when her husband died, she followed him into the burial dungeon and intended to starve herself there. The widow does not give in to the persuasion of her family and friends. Only a faithful servant brightens up her loneliness in the crypt and just as stubbornly goes hungry. The fifth day of mourning self-torture has passed...

“...At this time, the ruler of that region ordered several robbers to be crucified not far from the dungeon in which the widow was crying over a fresh corpse. And so that someone would not steal the bodies of the robbers, wanting to give them up for burial, one soldier was placed on guard near the crosses. As night fell, he noticed that among the tombstones a rather bright light was pouring from somewhere, he heard the groans of the unfortunate widow and, out of curiosity, characteristic of to the entire human race, I wanted to know who it was and what was going on there. He immediately went down to the crypt and, seeing there a woman of remarkable beauty, as if before some miracle, as if meeting face to face with the shadows of the underworld, he stood for some time in confusion. Then, when he finally saw the dead body lying in front of him, when he examined her tears and her face scratched with nails, he, of course, realized that this was only a woman who, after the death of her husband, could not find peace for herself out of grief. Then he brought his modest lunch to the crypt and began to convince the weeping beauty so that she would stop killing herself in vain and not tormenting her chest with useless sobs.”

After some time, the faithful maid also joins the soldier’s persuasion. Both convince the widow that it is too early for her to rush to the next world. Not immediately, but the sad Ephesian beauty still begins to succumb to their admonitions. At first, exhausted by long fasting, she is tempted by food and drink. And after some time, the soldier manages to win the heart of the beautiful widow.

“They spent in mutual embrace not only that night on which they celebrated their wedding, but the same thing happened the next, and even on the third day. And the doors to the dungeon, in case any of the relatives and friends came to the grave, were, of course, locked, so that it would seem as if this most chaste of wives died over the body of her husband.”

Meanwhile, the relatives of one of the crucified people, taking advantage of the lack of security, removed his body from the cross and buried it. And when the loving guard discovered this and, trembling with fear of the impending punishment, told the widow about the loss, she decided: “I prefer to hang a dead man than to destroy a living one.” According to this, she gave advice to pull her husband out of the coffin and nail him to an empty cross. The soldier immediately took advantage of the sensible woman’s brilliant idea. And the next day, all passers-by were perplexed as to how the dead man climbed onto the cross.

A storm is rising at sea. Likh perishes in the abyss. The rest continue to rush through the waves. Moreover, Eumolpus does not stop his poetic recitations even in this critical situation. But in the end, the unfortunate people are saved and spend a restless night in a fisherman's hut.

And soon they all end up in Crotona - one of the oldest Greek colonial cities on the southern coast of the Apennine Peninsula. This, by the way, is the only geographical point specifically designated in the text of the novel available to us.

In order to live comfortably and carefree (as they are used to) in a new city, the adventure friends decide: Eumolpus will pass himself off as a very wealthy man, wondering who to bequeath all his countless wealth. No sooner said than done. This makes it possible for cheerful friends to live in peace, enjoying not only a warm welcome from the townspeople, but also unlimited credit. For many Crotonians counted on a share in Eumolpus’s will and vied with each other to win his favor.

And again a series of love adventures follows, not so much as the misadventures of Encolpius. All his troubles are connected with the already mentioned anger of Priapus.

But the Crotonians have finally seen the light, and there is no limit to their just anger. The townspeople are energetically preparing reprisals against the cunning people. Encolpius and Giton manage to escape from the city, leaving Eumolpus there.

The inhabitants of Crotona treat the old poet according to their ancient custom. When some disease was raging in the city, citizens kept and fed one of their compatriots for a year the best way at the expense of the community. And then they sacrificed: this “scapegoat” was thrown from a high cliff. This is exactly what the Crotonians did with Eumolpus.

2. “Satyricon”: genre, composition