Biography Essay"One of the most licentious and repulsive works in Roman literature" is the way W. E. H. Lecky describes the Satyrica (Satyricon, before A.D. 66) in his History of European Morals (191...
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The Roman voluptuary Petronius Arbiter (died ca. 66) is the ascribed author of the Satyricon, a fragmentary picaresque novel generally considered one of the most brilliant productions of Latin literat...
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"One of the most licentious and repulsive works in Roman literature" is the way W. E. H. Lecky describes the Satyrica (Satyricon, before A.D. 66) in his History of European Morals (1911). The English ...
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In the following essay, Musurillo examines Petronius's use of dream symbolism in his poetry and describes how it works on more than one level.
Petronius Arbiter is chiefly known as the autho...
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In the following excerpt, Grube outlines Petronius's thoughts on poetry, particularly his attack on declamations and his assessment that the arts had reached a degenerated state in Rome.
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In the following essay, Sullivan discusses Petronius's wide range of humor, including the humor of incongruity, literary humor, farce, mime situations, verbal wit, and satiric dialogue.
I. Gi...
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In the following essay, Abbott explains how Petronius expresses both the individuality and culture level of his characters through their vocabulary, colloquialisms, pronunciation, word-formation, and ...
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In the following essay, Gill takes issue with J. P. Sullivan's (see excerpt dated 1961) psychoanalytic reading of the sexual scenes in the Satyricon, advocating instead a literary approach whic...
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In the following essay, Beck attempts to reconcile discrepancies in the character of Encolpius by considering him as two separate persons: the narrator and the subject of the narration.
One of the ...
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In the following excerpt, Richardson states that "the Satyricon provides one of the most comprehensive accounts of homosexual activity in Roman times," stressing that Petronius used homo...
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In the following essay, Slater contends that it is the content and occasion of language more than its form that results in the sense of individual characterizations in the Satyricon.
Our initial li...
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In the following essay, Abbott provides background on Petronius's time, credits him with being the creator of the novel, and praises him for the modernity of his realism, particularly with rega...
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In the following excerpt, Abbott searches in other genres—including the epic, the serious heroic romance, the mime, and the prologue of comedy-for elements that could have influenced Petronius&...
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In the following essay, Preston examines some of the techniques and devices used by Petronius for comic effect, including surprise, buffoonery, intoxication, and the continual introduction of new char...
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In the following excerpt, Allen examines some of Petronius's poetry, explaining how it breaks with Roman tradition and why some critics have scorned it.
In my preceding narrative I have seve...
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Jesse Browner has written a lush and sorrowful novel about how to die. It’s set in 66 A.D., but when it comes to our common doom, not much has changed in the last two millennia. Th...
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Last week, Observer intern Vince Levy was sitting by chance near Tom O’Horgan, the octogenarian stage director idolized for directing 70’s-era shows like Hair and ...
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Dana Vachon, the 28-year-old banker turned blogger turned novelist about town, was not wearing socks. Just loafers. A buttery brown leather pair that may or may not have been Gucci and cocooned his...
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Petronius Arbiter
Petronius
Critical Essay by Herbert Musurillo
Our Critic\'d5s Tip Sheet On Current Reading: Week of June 18th, 2007
