New Criterion, February 1st, 2001
Petronius Satyricon, translated & with commentaries by Sarah Ruden. Hackett, 256 pages, $9.95 paper The Satyricon is the Ulysses of Roman literature. It is a comic novel intoxicated with language, with the power of verbal craft. As Joyce deploys Hamlet, so Petronius uses the Aeneid--the master text of the literature telling a high tale that is both imitated and parodied by the later text. And, in addition, behind both the Satyricon and Ulysses lies the Odyssey of Homer, the breezy and sublime tale of wandering that informs all Western literature. The Satyricon is a product of the age of Nero...
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