Petronius the Artist


Book Description

With one exception, the essays which form this book have appeared in various Classical periodicals. They do not claim to present a com prehensive account of Petronius and his work, but are intended to illustrate by discussion some aspects of the work and its author that seem, to me at least, to be of interest. "Did Tacitus quote Petronius" appeared in L'A ntiquiM Classique XXXVII, 2, 1968, 641-643; "On Tacitus' Biography of Petronius" and "Petronius, Priapus and Priapeum LXVIII" in Classica et Mediae valia XXVI 1-2, 1965, 233-245, and XXVII 1-2, 1966, 225-242 respectively; "Some Comments on Petronius' Portrayal of Character" will appear soon in Eranos; "Eating People is Right" appeared in Hermes 97 Bd., 3, 1969,381-384; "Some Themes of Concealment and Pretence in Petronius' Satyricon" in Latomus Tome XXVIII, I, 1969, 99-119; and" Petronius, A Portrait of the Artist" in Symbolae Osloenses XLV, 1970, U8-I28. I wish to thank the editors of these periodicals for their permission to reproduce the articles. Professor J.P. Sullivan was kind enough to let me see the proofs of his book: The Satyricon of Petronius, A Literary Study (London, 1968) before it was published. I acknowledge this with thanks. I wish to acknowledge permission from The Bodley Head to quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald, VoL II p. 9I. I wish to thank Mrs. A. Brodie for typing the material, and Mrs. L. Andrew for her help with the proofs.




Petronius the Poet


Book Description

The ancient novel, previously relegated to the margins of literary study, has recently taken its place at centre stage. Petronius' Satyricon, the oldest surviving work of prose fiction, is in many respects an arrestingly modern ancient novel but the inclusion within it of thirty short poems and two long ones introduces an alien feature in need of investigation. In this study, Catherine Connors draws on developments in Latin literary criticism to take a comprehensive approach to the Satyricon's poems, reminiscences of poetic texts, and the figure of the poet, assessing the ways in which they fragment and refashion established literary forms into a new amalgam of prose fiction. This book will be of interest to students of Latin literature, Neronian culture, and the early history of the novel. All Latin and Greek is translated.




The Hidden Author


Book Description

The Satyricon of Petronius, a comic novel written in the first century A.D., is famous today primarily for its amazing banquet tale, "Trimalchio's Feast." But this episode is only one part of the larger picture of life during Nero's rule presented in the work. In this accessible discussion of Petronius's masterful use of parody, Gian Biagio Conte offers an interpretation of the Satyricon as a whole. He combines the scholarly precision of close reading with a significant, original theoretical model. At the heart of his interpretation, Conte reveals the technique of the "hidden author" that Petronius employs at the expense of his characters, in particular the teller of the story, Enclopius. By remaining hidden outside the narrative, Petronius invites the reader to smile at the folies de grandeur that occur in a culture of scholars and declaimers. Yet as Conte shows, behind the parody and inexhaustible humor of the Satyricon lies an unexpectedly serious lament. For those familiar with the Satyricon, as well as for new readers, Conte's book will be a reliable, enjoyable guide to the wonders the Satyricon contains.




The Garden of Priapus


Book Description

Statues of the god Priapus stood in Roman gardens to warn potential thieves that the god would rape them if they attempted to steal from him. In this book, Richlin argues that the attitude of sexual aggressiveness in defense of a bounded area serves as a model for Roman satire from Lucilius to Juvenal. Using literary, anthropological, psychological, and feminist methodologies, she suggests that aggressive sexual humor reinforces aggressive behavior on both the individual and societal levels, and that Roman satire provides an insight into Roman culture. Including a substantial and provocative new introduction, this revised edition is important not only as an in-depth study of Roman sexual satire, but also as a commentary on the effects of all humor on society and its victims.




A Bibliography of Petronius


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Memoirs


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The Satyricon — Complete


Book Description

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Satyricon — Complete" by Petronius Arbiter. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.







Ancient Rome as a Museum


Book Description

Ancient Rome as a Museum considers how cultural objects from the Roman Empire came to reflect, construct, and challenge Roman perceptions of power and identity. Rutledge argues that Roman cultural values are indicated in part by what sort of materials Romans deemed worthy of display and how they chose to display, view, and preserve them.




Roman Eyes


Book Description

In Roman Eyes, Jas Elsner seeks to understand the multiple ways that art in ancient Rome formulated the very conditions for its own viewing, and as a result was complicit in the construction of subjectivity in the Roman Empire. Elsner draws upon a wide variety of visual material, from sculpture and wall paintings to coins and terra-cotta statuettes. He examines the different contexts in which images were used, from the religious to the voyeuristic, from the domestic to the subversive. He reads images alongside and against the rich literary tradition of the Greco-Roman world, including travel writing, prose fiction, satire, poetry, mythology, and pilgrimage accounts. The astonishing picture that emerges reveals the mindsets Romans had when they viewed art--their preoccupations and theories, their cultural biases and loosely held beliefs. Roman Eyes is not a history of official public art--the monumental sculptures, arches, and buildings we typically associate with ancient Rome, and that tend to dominate the field. Rather, Elsner looks at smaller objects used or displayed in private settings and closed religious rituals, including tapestries, ivories, altars, jewelry, and even silverware. In many cases, he focuses on works of art that no longer exist, providing a rare window into the aesthetic and religious lives of the ancient Romans.