The Satyricon | Page 2

IV Pollution V Virginity VI Pandars

INTRODUCTION.
Of the many masterpieces which classical antiquity has bequeathed to
modern times, few have attained, at intervals, to such popularity; few
have so gripped the interest of scholars and men of letters, as has this
scintillating miscellany known as the Satyricon, ascribed by tradition to
that Petronius who, at the court of Nero, acted as arbiter of elegance
and dictator of fashion. The flashing, wit, the masterly touches which
bring out the characters with all the detail of a fine old copper etching;
the marvelous use of realism by this, its first prophet; the sure
knowledge of the perspective and background best adapted to each
episode; the racy style, so smooth, so elegant, so simple when the
educated are speaking, beguile the reader and blind him, at first, to the
many discrepancies and incoherences with which the text, as we have it,
is marred. The more one concentrates upon this author, the more
apparent these faults become and the more one regrets the lacunae in
the text. Notwithstanding numerous articles which deal with this work,
some from the pens of the most profound scholars, its author is still
shrouded in the mists of uncertainty and conjecture. He is as
impersonal as Shakespeare, as aloof as Flaubert, in the opinion of
Charles Whibley, and, it may be added, as genial as Rabelais; an
enigmatic genius whose secret will never be laid bare with the
resources at our present command. As I am not writing for scholars, I
do not intend going very deeply into the labyrinth of critical
controversy which surrounds the author and the work, but I shall deal
with a few of the questions which, if properly understood, will enhance
the value of the Satyricon, and contribute, in some degree, to a better
understanding of the author. For the sake of convenience the questions
discussed in this introduction will be arranged in the following order:

1. The Satyricon.
2. The Author. a His Character. b His Purpose in Writing. c Time in
which the Action is placed. d Localization of the Principal Episode.
3. Realism. a Influence of the Satyricon upon the Literature of the
World.
4. The Forgeries.

I
THE SATYRICON. Heinsius and Scaliger derive the word from the
Greek, whence comes our English word satyr, but Casaubon, Dacier
and Spanheim derive it from the Latin 'satura,' a plate filled with
different kinds of food, and they refer to Porphyrion's 'multis et variis
rebus hoc carmen refertum est.'
The text, as we possess it, may be divided into three divisions: the first
and last relate the adventures of Encolpius and his companions, the
second, which is a digression, describes the Dinner of Trimalchio. That
the work was originally divided into books, we had long known from
ancient glossaries, and we learn, from the title of the Traguriensian
manuscript, that the fragments therein contained are excerpts from the
fifteenth and sixteenth books. An interpolation of Fulgentius (Paris
7975) attributes to Book Fourteen the scene related in Chapter 20 of the
work as we have it, and the glossary of St. Benedict Floriacensis cites
the passage 'sed video te totum in illa haerere, quae Troiae halosin
ostendit (Chapter 89), as from Book Fifteen. As there is no reason to
suppose that the chapters intervening between the end of the Cena
(Chapter 79) and Chapter 89 are out of place, it follows that this
passage may have belonged to Book Sixteen, or even Seventeen, but
that it could not have belonged to Book Fifteen. From the interpolation
of Fulgentius we may hazard the opinion that the beginning of the
fragments, as we possess them (Chapters 1 to 26), form part of Book
Fourteen. The Dinner of Trimalchio probably formed a complete book,

fifteen, and the continuation of the adventures of Encolpius down to his
meeting with Eumolpus (end of Chapter 140) Book Sixteen. The
discomfiture of Eumolpus should have closed this book but not the
entire work, as the exit of the two principal characters is not fixed at the
time our fragments come to an end. The original work, then, would
probably have exceeded Tom Jones in length.

II
THE AUTHOR.
a--"Not often," says Studer (Rheinisches Museum, 1843), "has there
been so much dispute about the author, the times, the character and the
purpose of a writing of antiquity as about the fragments of the
Satyricon of Petronius." The discovery and publication of the Trau
manuscript brought about a literary controversy which has had few
parallels, and which has not entirely died out to this day, although the
best authorities ascribe the work to Caius Petronius, the Arbiter
Elegantiarum at the court of Nero. "The question as to the date of the
narrative of the adventures of Encolpius and his boon companions