The Satyricon | Page 4

be a gloss added by some copyist
whose knowledge was not equal to his industry. On the other hand,
suppose Trimalchio is speaking of something so commonplace in his
locality that the second term has become a generic, then the difficulty
disappears. We today, even though standing upon the very spot in
Melos where the Venus was unearthed, would still refer to her as the
Venus de Melos. Friedlaender, in bracketing Cumis, has not taken this
sufficiently into consideration. Mommsen, in an excellent paper
(Hermes, 1878), has laid the scene at Cumae. His logic is almost
unanswerable, and the consensus of opinion is in favor of the latter
town.

III

REALISM. Realism, as we are concerned with it, may be defined as the
literary effect produced by the marshaling of details in their exactitude
for the purpose of bringing out character. The fact that they may be
ugly and vulgar the reverse, makes not the slightest difference. The
modern realist contemplates the inanimate things which surround us
with peculiar complaisance, and it is right that he should as these things
exert upon us a constant and secret influence. The workings of the
human mind, in complex civilizations, are by no means simple; they
are involved and varied: our thoughts, our feelings, our wills, associate
themselves with an infinite number of sensations and images which
play one upon the other, and which individualize, in some measure,
every action we commit, and stamp it. The merit of our modern realists
lies in the fact that they have studied the things which surround us and
our relations to them, and thus have they been able to make their
creations conform to human experience. The ancients gave little
attention to this; the man, with them, was the important thing; the
environment the unimportant. There are, of course, exceptions; the
interview between Ulysses and Nausiskaa is probably the most striking.
From the standpoint of environment, Petronius, in the greater portion of
his work, is an ancient; but one exception there is, and it is as brilliant
as it is important. The entire episode, in which Trimalchio figures,
offers an incredible abundance of details. The descriptions are
exhaustive and minute, but the author's prime purpose was not
description, it was to bring out the characters, it was to pillory the
Roman aristocracy, it was to amuse! Cicero, in his prosecution of
Verres, had shown up this aristocracy in all its brutality and greed, it
remained for the author of the Cena to hold its absurdity up to the light
of day, to lash an extravagance which, though utterly unbridled, was
yet unable to exhaust the looted accumulations of years of political
double dealing and malfeasance in office. Trimalchio's introduction is a
masterstroke, the porter at the door is another, the effect of the wine
upon the women, their jealousy lest either's husband should seem more
liberal, their appraisal of each other's jewelry, Scintilla's remark anent
the finesse of Habinnas' servant in the mere matter of pandering, the
blear-eyed and black-toothed slave, teasing a little bitch disgustingly fat,
offering her pieces of bread and when, from sheer inability, she refuses
to eat, cramming it down her throat, the effect of the alcohol upon

Trimalchio, the little old lady girded round with a filthy apron, wearing
clogs which were not mates, dragging in a huge dog on a chain, the
incomparable humor in the passage in which Hesus, desperately seasick,
sees that which makes him believe that even worse misfortunes are in
store for him: these details are masterpieces of realism. The description
of the night-prowling shyster lawyer, whose forehead is covered with
sebaceous wens, is the very acme of propriety; our first meeting; with
the poet Eumolpus is a beautiful study in background and perspective.
Nineteen centuries have gone their way since this novel was written,
but if we look about us we will be able to recognize, under the veneer
of civilization, the originals of the Satyricon and we will find that here,
in a little corner of the Roman world, all humanity was held in
miniature. Petronius must be credited with the great merit of having
introduced realism into the novel. By an inspiration of genius, he saw
that the framework of frivolous and licentious novels could be enlarged
until it took in contemporary custom and environment. It is that which
assures for him an eminent place, not in Roman literature alone, but in
the literature of the world.
a--INFLUENCE OF THE SATYRICON UPON LITERATURE. The
vagrant heroes of Petronius are the originals from whom directly, or
indirectly, later authors drew that inspiration which resulted in the great
mass of picaresque fiction; but, great as this is, it is not to this that the
Satyricon owes its powerful influence upon the literature of the world.
It