Petronius “Satyricon” – analysis. Petronius' novel "Satyricon"

Friends, the work has come to us in fragments (I’ll talk about this later), so it begins abruptly and incomprehensibly, however, it ends the same way.

It all starts with a certain Agamemnon ranting about the decline of the art of rhetoric. Enklopius listens to him (on whose behalf the story is told). Suddenly he realizes that he has lost sight of his friend Ascylt. Moreover, he does not know the city and cannot find his way home. He asks the old woman for directions, she takes him to the slums, apparently to some brothel. Enclopius runs away from there, Ascylt catches up with him. It turns out that some guy lured him there too. Finally Enclopius sees Giton, his beloved boy; but he is crying. It turns out that Ascylt ran to him first and, in general, tried to seduce him. Enclopius then invites Askyltus to travel without them, since he is already tired of him, especially since he pesters Giton, whom Enclopius himself loves. A. left; but when E. began to have fun with G., Asklit returned and whipped E.

Then the “friends” go to the forum, in the evening, and try to sell the stolen tunic. A man and a woman approach them, and on the man’s shoulders is some kind of E.’s tunic, which he apparently lost earlier; There is a lot of money sewn into the tunic. And the tunic they are selling was apparently stolen from this guy. The woman understands this, starts screaming and snatching her tunic, and her “friends” snatch the old tunic (what’s with the money) from them. They want to sue. Then they simply exchanged tunics.

Then Psyche, the servant of a certain Quartilla, whom her “friends” had once dishonored, comes to their home, and this K. appears all in tears. She prays to them for two things: that they would not reveal the mysteries of the sanctuary of Priapus (apparently, their debauchery occurred there) and, secondly, she had a vision that they would be able to cure her of her fever. “Friends,” of course, agree and promise to do what they can. And then K. and the maid (a girl also came with them) begin to laugh; K. says that he knows that he will cure her. And then the debauchery begins; friends are tied up, raped, then a certain kinad comes and does such things that it’s embarrassing to write. Then they were taken to another room for a feast - “to honor the genius of Priapus with an all-night vigil.” There was also chaos going on there with the direct participation of the kined, and then K. decides that the girl who came with her will be deflowered by Giton (well, “brother” E.). And so it happened. In general, somehow it all ended.

Then they decided to go to a feast with Trimalchio. They come to the baths, see T. there, take a steam bath, go on to admire the luxury of his house; At some point, a slave runs up to them and asks them to intercede for him - he forgot the housekeeper’s clothes in the bathhouse, and now they want to beat him. They intercede, the steward is merciful. The slave thanks them heartily.

Finally they arrive and sit around the table. The servant boys walk around and constantly sing, although they are out of tune; they rub the guests' feet, cut their nails, etc. Trimalchio is brought in on pillows, he is all hung with gold. They begin to serve food - ostrich eggs containing “wine berries” (who knows what that is). When one of the slaves drops a silver dish, T. orders him to be punished and the dish to be swept out of the room along with the rubbish.

The next dish is brought, depicting the 12 signs of the Zodiac, and each sign has the corresponding dishes (for Taurus - veal, etc.). Then: “a dish with birds and a pig’s udder on it, and in the middle a hare, all covered in feathers, as if in the form of Pegasus. At the four corners of the dish we noticed four Marsians, from whose furs a richly peppered gravy flowed directly onto the fish, swimming as if in the canal.” The neighbor tells Enklopius that T. is a freedman; Before he had nothing, now he has become incredibly rich, so he’s crazy about fat. He grows and receives everything - honey, wool, mushrooms - at home, buying the best sheep and bees. His freedman friends are about the same get-rich-quick people. Then a trace will appear. dish: a boar with a cap on its head, around there are piglets made of dough, and a flock of blackbirds flew out of the cut. He is wearing a hat because yesterday the boar was served as the last dish, but was then released; and today he is here as a freedman, such is the poignancy. Then T. left the feast for a while; the guests talk about expensive bread, about how no one honors Jupiter, about their friends, etc. T. came back and said that he needed to “lighten up” - something was wrong with his stomach; and if anyone needs it, don’t be angry, there are vessels and everything you need outside the door).

Then they brought three pigs, and T. said that he could slaughter and cook any one; and he himself chose the oldest one for cooking. T. talks about his extensive library; asks Agamemnon to tell about the wanderings of Odysseus; he himself read about them in childhood - he says that he remembers how the Cyclops tore off Odysseus’s finger with tongs (well, that’s not true, he confuses everything).

Then they bring a huge roasted hog. But T. begins to be indignant, saying that they forgot to gut him, and calls the cook; he wanted to beat him, but the guests stood up for the cook; then the cook began to gut the pig right there, and fried sausages fell out of the pig.

T. continues to talk some nonsense about how he has a lot of silver, and since he is an expert and lover of myths, the silver depicts Cassandra, who killed her children, and Daedalus, who hid Niobe in the Trojan Horse (he confuses everything, I think It's clear). He got drunk and was about to start dancing, but his wife Fortunata stopped him. Then the magicians came, and during the performance a boy fell from the stairs onto T.; he pretended to be badly hurt, but let the boy go - so that no one would think that such a boy could harm such a great husband.

Then they began to draw lots, and the winner was given gifts (for example, if a servant called out: “Leeks and peaches!” - the winner received a whip (to flog) and a knife (to cross).

Asklit laughed all this time because everything looked pompous and stupid. Then friend T. began to scold A.: they say, why are you laughing? The freedmen are no worse than him; he, a freedman, is respected, he has acquired wealth, he doesn’t owe anyone money, he is fully educated. Then Giton, portraying Asklitus' servant, began to laugh; friend T. reprimanded him too. But Trimalchio told them not to quarrel.

A certain performance began, which T. commented as follows: “Once upon a time there were two brothers - Diomedes and Ganymede with their sister Helen. Agamemnon kidnapped her and slipped a doe to Diana. This is what Homer tells us about the war between the Trojans and the Parentians. Agamemnon, if you please see, won and gave his daughter Iphigenia to Achilles; this made Ajax crazy, as they will now show you” (well, of course, he got it all wrong again). Then the one who had mocked Ajax chopped up the calf he had brought.

Suddenly a hoop dropped from the ceiling, on which hung golden wreaths and jars of honey; and Priapus made of dough with baskets of fruit appeared on the table. The “friends” attacked them and took more food with them. Then they began to pass the portrait of Trimalchio around in a circle, who kissed everyone.

T. asks friend Nikerot why he is sad; N. says: when he was still a slave, he was in love with the wife of the tractor owner Terenty, Milissa. When her partner passed away, he wanted to see his beloved; to get to her house, he took a strong soldier with him. They reached the cemetery, the soldier stopped, turned into a wolf and ran away. N. got scared and ran quickly to Milissa’s house; and she told him that a wolf had just come running and tore apart all their cattle, but one of the slaves pierced his neck. When N. came home, he saw a soldier with a wound on his neck - this is a story about a werewolf. T. also tells some kind of blizzard about the fact that one day devilry stole a dead child from a mother, slipping a stuffed animal in its place.

Then came Gabinna, a stonecutter who makes tombstones. He says that he has just come from a funeral feast and describes what dishes were served there. Then he asks that T. Fortunata’s wife be called. She sat in the box with Gabinna's wife, Scintilla, they giggled and showed each other their jewelry; then G. suddenly approached Fortunata and lifted her legs.

Then some slave sang like a nightingale, then one of the slaves read Virgil; and he read it terribly, barbarously distorting the words. But after the song T. began to praise the slave. Then they brought more and more dishes, and E. said that to this day, when he remembers all this, he feels bad. They brought, according to him, something absolutely terrible - a pig surrounded by all kinds of fish and poultry; T. said it was all made from pork. Then two slaves came with an amformai on their shoulders and allegedly began to quarrel - and one broke the other’s amphora. Shells and oysters fell out of it, which they began to distribute to the guests. And then the slaves came and began to wrap flower garlands around the guests’ feet and moisten them with perfume - E. says that he is ashamed to even talk about this.

Then T., getting excited, orders the servants, Filargir and Karion, to sit in the box. He says that slaves are people too, and also that in his will he ordered the release of all slaves after his death, and he bequeathed a woman to the estate to Filargir, and a house and money to Karion. He read out his will to everyone's delight. T., turning to Gabinea, said that he should have a huge tombstone, richly decorated, with trees around the perimeter, that it should be guarded by soldiers (so that no one would run there to relieve themselves), that there should be a statue of his wife nearby, and also a clock - so that everyone involuntarily reads his name, depending on what time it is. Then he read out his tombstone inscription: HERE LIES THE CITY OF POMPEII TRIMALCHIO MACENATIAN. HE WAS AWARDED AN HONORABLE SEVIRATE IN ABSENTIA. HE COULD HAVE DECORATED ANY DECURATION OF ROME, BUT HE DID NOT WISH TO. PIOUS, WISE, FAITHFUL, HE CAME FROM LITTLE PEOPLE, LEFT THIRTY MILLION SISTERS AND NEVER LISTENED TO ANY PHILOSOPHER. BE HEALTHY AND YOU TOO.

Enclopius told Asklitus that he could not stand going to the bathhouse, and they decided during the turmoil, when everyone was going to the bathhouse, to escape. But when they crossed the bridge with Giton, a chained dog barked at them, and G. fell into the pond; and Enclopius was drunk, so, holding out his hand to G., he fell down himself. The housekeeper pulled them out, and they asked to be taken out of the gate; however, they were told that in this house they do not exit through the same gates through which they enter. They had to go to the bathhouse. There were a lot of people steaming there; Trimalchio boasted as usual and ordered everyone to feast until the morning. Suddenly the rooster crowed; T. said that he was screaming either for fire or death, and ordered to catch that rooster. The neighbor's bird was dragged in, killed and cooked.

Then, along with the slaves, some, according to E., a handsome boy came, whom Trimahlion began to pester and kiss. His wife accused him of lust, he threw something heavy at her and accused her of ingratitude: he supposedly saved her from slavery, although he could have received a huge dowry by marrying a rich bride, and she... And that’s not why he kissed the boy because he is handsome, but because he is diligent, knows how to count and can read. And he told Gabinna not to build a monument to his wife near his grave. T. begins to boast again; says that, as a slave, he pleased both the master and the mistress; the owner bequeathed the estate to him. Deciding to engage in trade, he equipped five ships - but they all sank. But T. did not despair and again sent five ships with goods on their journey - larger and stronger; Then he earned a lot of money, began to run a successful farm, acquired a lot of land, and began to conduct his business through freedmen. He was incredibly proud of the fact that he had gone from rags to riches.

Then he ordered a servant to bring the clothes in which he would be buried; Having admired it enough and ordered it to be kept well, he said that he wanted to be buried majestically and remembered with kindness by the citizens. As a result, T., completely drunk, lay down on the pillows, telling the guests to imagine that he had died and say something good about him. :) The trumpeters began to play a funeral song. One slave blew the trumpet so loudly that the guards came running and, thinking that a fire had started in the house, broke the doors and began pouring water. Then the “friends,” abandoning Agamemnon, took advantage of the opportunity and rushed to flee. Using the notches prudently made by Giton on the pillars, they found their way home; but the old woman who was drunk and fell asleep did not let them in, and only Trimalchio’s courier, who was passing by, knocked down the door, and so the “friends” were able to enter. However, at night, says E., Asklit lured Giton from E.’s bed - in general, it’s clear why. Waking up, E. told A. that there could be no more friendship between them and that he should get out; and A. said that he would leave, but first they need to figure out who the boy will stay with. They were about to fight, but Giton stopped them. Then they told him to choose a “brother” himself; and Giton chose Asklit, although he spent a lot more time with E. A. and G. left. E. was incredibly upset. He suffered, then rushed through the streets with thoughts of murder - but some soldier on the street took his weapon away from him out of harm's way.

Enclopius wandered into the Pinakothek (art gallery), looked at the paintings there, and said that even the gods are characterized by the pangs of love. Then some old man, Eumolpus, appeared in the Pinakothek. In general, he tells a completely pedophilic, excuse me, story. When he lived in Pergamon, he fell in love with his master's son. In front of the owners, he always said that he looked negatively at pleasures with boys, that he was so chaste, etc., and in the end the owners believed him, and he began to spend a lot of time with the boy. One day, when they were lying in the triclinium after a feast, Eumolpus moved towards the lying boy and said that if he could kiss the boy so that he would not notice anything, then tomorrow he would give him two doves; the boy heard everything, but pretended to be asleep, Eumolpus kissed him, and gave him doves in the morning. Another time he said: if the boy doesn’t notice how I, um, touch him, then I’ll give him two fighting cocks in the morning. The boy wanted cocks, he pretended not to notice anything. The third time he said that if he could do something obvious to the boy without him noticing, he would give him a horse. The boy “slept” like the dead. But E. did not give the horse, and the boy was offended, saying that he would tell his father everything. As a result, E. again “merged in the ecstasy of love” with the boy, the boy liked it, then a couple more times, then E. wanted to sleep, and the boy kept waking him up, and then he told the boy - sleep, otherwise I’ll tell my father everything.

Enclopius asks Eumolpus about paintings and artists; he tells him about Democritus, Chryssipus, Myron and says that today painting is in decline, because money rules the world. Eumolpus read a long poem about the capture of Troy; then people began to throw stones at him, because they were infuriated that Eumolpus constantly spoke in verse. Eumolpus ran away, followed by Enclopius; Eumolpus said that he would try to restrain himself and not speak in verse, so that at least Enclopius would not run away from him. They go home, Eumolpus goes into the bathhouse and even reads poetry there. Enclopius meets the sobbing Giton at the house; he says that he incredibly regrets that he went with Asklit. Enclopius still loves Giton and keeps him with him. When Eumolpus arrives (who really liked Giton), he tells the story that in the bathhouse some man loudly and irritably called Giton, because he had lost his clothes (well, it was Asklitus). And everyone sympathized with Asklitus, but in the end some man, a Roman horseman, took him with him, because Asklitus was, let’s say, physically very well built.

When Eumolpus began to read poetry again, Enclopius told him to shut up, and Giton said that one should not speak so rudely to elders. Eumolpus said that he was incredibly grateful to the beautiful young man. Giton left the room. Enklopius began to get jealous and told the old man to get out, but the old man managed to run out and lock the door. Then Enclopius decided to hang himself. I was just about to do this when the door swung open and Eumolpus and Giton appeared. Giton said that he would not have survived the death of Enclopius, grabbed a razor from a servant and cut himself in the neck. Enclopius did the same, deciding to die with his loved one, but it turned out that the razor was completely dull, and everyone remained alive.

Suddenly the owner came running and asked what they were doing here and what they were planning. a fight began, Eumolpus was dragged out of the room, he fought with the servants there, and Enclopius and Giton hid in the room. The housekeeper Bargon was brought on a stretcher, who, recognizing Eumolpus as a “great poet,” asked him to help compose a poem for his partner.

Suddenly the herald and Asklit appeared. The herald said that whoever could tell where the boy named Giton was would receive a large reward. Enclopius hid Giton under the bed - the boy clung to the mattress from below, like Odysseus to the belly of a ram. Enclopius himself rushed with Asklitus, playing the fool, begging to see Giton at least once again and asking not to kill him - why else would I use the ax herald? (To break the door). Asklit said he was just looking for Guiton. The herald searched everything, but found nothing, they left. And Eumolpus entered the room and heard Giton sneeze three times; he said that he would catch up with the herald and tell everything! But Giton and Enclopius convinced the old man not to do this and appeased him.

The three of them went on a trip on a ship. At night they suddenly heard someone say that if they find Giton, they don’t know what they will do with him. Eumolpus said that they were traveling on the ship of the Tarentine Lichus, and he was taking the exile Tryphaena to Tarentum. It turned out that Giton and Enclopius were actually fleeing from Lichus and Tryphaena (they had some kind of dark history before, apparently). They are thinking what to do. Giton offers to bribe the helmsman and ask him to stop at some large port, citing the fact that Eumolpus' brother is seasick. Eumolpus says that this will not be possible - Likh may want to visit a sick passenger, and it will not be possible to leave the ship unrecognized. Enclopius suggests secretly sneaking into the boat and sailing wherever you look - of course, Eumolpus is better off staying on the ship. Eumolpus says that the helmsman will notice them, and the boat will be guarded by a sailor. Eumolpus offers to hide in their bags, leaving a hole for air. Eumolpus will say that this is his luggage, and he himself will take it to the shore, since his slaves rushed to the sea, fearing punishment. Enclopius says that they still need to relieve themselves, and they will sneeze and cough. Enclopius invites them to be smeared with ink so that they will be mistaken for Arabs; but Giton says that the ink will wash off, and in general this is a crazy idea. Giton suggests committing suicide. =) But Eumolpus offers to shave their heads and eyebrows and draw a brand on each of their faces - so that they will be mistaken for the brand. And so they did; but a certain Ghis noticed how they cut their hair at night, and this is a bad omen on a ship.

Likh and Tryphena dreamed that they should find Enklopius on the ship. And Gis told them that he saw someone getting a haircut - and the angry Likh ordered to bring those who do such bad things on the ship. Eumolpus said that he did this because the “runaway slaves” had terribly matted hair. Likh ordered Giton and Enklopius to be given forty blows each. As soon as they began to beat Giton, he screamed, and then both Tryphena and the maids recognized him. And Likh approached Enklopius and, even looking not at his face, but at another place :), immediately recognized his fugitive servant. (So, judging by the context, they seduced Tryphaena and insulted Lichus, and then fled). Tryphena still felt sorry for the fugitives, but Likh was angry. Eumolpus began to defend E. and G., Likh was not going to forgive; a fight broke out. Everyone fought, wounded each other, and in the end Giton put the razor (the same dull one with which he could not cut himself) to a clear purpose, and Tryphena, who had tender feelings for him, prayed for the fight to stop. It's all over. They made an agreement so that Tryphena would not pester G., Likh would not pester E., and so that he would not insult him anymore. Everyone made peace and started having fun. Maid T. gave Giton and Enklopius false wigs and eyebrows to make them look prettier.

And Eumolpus, in order to amuse everyone, told the following story about female inconstancy: a certain matron from Ephesus was distinguished by great modesty and marital fidelity. And when her husband died, she followed him into the burial dungeon and intended to starve herself there. The widow does not give in to the persuasion of her family and friends. Only a faithful servant brightens up her loneliness in the crypt and just as stubbornly goes hungry. The fifth day of mourning self-torture has passed... “... At this time, the ruler of that region ordered, not far from the dungeon in which the widow was crying over a fresh corpse, to crucify several robbers. And so that someone would not steal the robbers’ bodies, wanting to bury them, one soldier was placed on guard near the crosses. As night fell, he noticed that a rather bright light was pouring from somewhere among the tombstones, heard the groans of the unfortunate widow and, out of curiosity, wanted to find out who it was and what was going on there. He immediately went down to the crypt and, seeing there a woman of remarkable beauty, as if before some miracle, as if meeting face to face with the shadows of the underworld, he stood for some time in confusion. Then, when he finally saw the dead body lying in front of him, when he examined her tears and her face scratched with nails, he, of course, realized that this was only a woman who, after the death of her husband, could not find peace for herself out of grief. Then he brought his modest lunch to the crypt and began to convince the weeping beauty to stop killing herself in vain. After some time, the faithful maid also joins the soldier’s persuasion. Not immediately, but the sad Ephesian beauty still begins to succumb to their admonitions. At first, exhausted by long fasting, she is tempted by food and drink. And after some time, the soldier manages to win the heart of a beautiful widow. “They spent in mutual embrace not only that night on which they celebrated their wedding, but the same thing happened the next, and even on the third day. And the doors to the dungeon, in case any of the relatives and acquaintances came to the grave, were, of course, locked, so that it would seem as if this most chaste of wives died over the body of her husband.” Meanwhile, the relatives of one of the crucified people, taking advantage of the lack of security, removed his body from the cross and buried it. And when the loving guard discovered this and, trembling with fear of the impending punishment, told the widow about the loss, she decided: “I prefer to hang a dead man than to destroy a living one.” According to this, she gave advice to pull her husband out of the coffin and nail him to an empty cross. The soldier immediately took advantage of the sensible woman’s brilliant idea. And the next day all the passers-by were perplexed as to how the dead man climbed onto the cross.” Everyone laughs. Enclopius is jealous of Giton for Tryphaena.

Suddenly a storm rises at sea. Likh perishes in the abyss. The rest continue to rush through the waves. Enclopius and Giton are ready to die together. Moreover, Eumolpus does not stop his poetic recitations even in this critical situation. But in the end, the unfortunate people are saved and spend a restless night in a fisherman's hut. After some time, Likh’s body washed ashore, whom they mourned and burned on a funeral pyre.

And soon they all end up in Crotona - one of the oldest Greek colonial cities on the southern coast of the Apennine Peninsula. One of the residents says that terrible morals reign in this city, that honesty cannot achieve anything here. And in order to live comfortably and carefree, the adventure friends decide: Eumolpus will pass himself off as a very wealthy man, wondering who to bequeath all his untold riches. His son supposedly recently died, he went further away from his hometown so as not to torment his heart, and on the way the ship got into a storm and his money and servants sank; however, in his homeland he has untold wealth. Eumolpus reads the poem “O civil war"(quite voluminous). It depicts the fight between Caesar and Pompey. The poet considers the reason for this struggle to be Pluto’s anger at the Romans, who in their mines dug almost to the underground kingdom. To crush the power of the Romans, Pluto sends Caesar against Pompey. The gods were divided into two camps: Venus, Minerva and Mars help Caesar, and Diana, Apollo and Mercury help Pompey. Goddess of discord. Discordia incites the hatred of those who fight. In general, Caesar's actions are justified. Eumolpus criticizes poets who develop the plot of the civil war only historically, without resorting to myths (meaning Lucan). Thus, Petronius polemicizes with Lucan and parodies the mediocre classicists of his time.

So, many Crotonians count on a share in Eumolpus’s will and try to win his favor.

At this time, the maid Kirkei comes to Enklopius, who is inflamed with passion for E..

He agrees to date her. She's very beautiful, and E. and K. kiss and all that, but E., let's just say, can't do anything more. Kirkey is disappointed and offended - they say, why am I bad? She wrote him a mocking letter, he wrote back; asked for forgiveness, looked for a new meeting. They met again, and as they began to embrace, Kirkei's servants appeared and began to beat and spit on him. That's it. Then Enclopius, turning to that part of the body that brought him so much trouble, reads a whole tirade. Hearing him, some old woman brings him to the priestess’s cell and for some reason beats him (?). Then the priestess herself appears - Oenothea (also an old woman), and asks what they are doing here. The old woman explains the problem of Enclopius. Enotea says that to cure the disease, he just needs to spend the night with her. She begins to prepare for the sacrifice, runs back and forth, and meanwhile Enklopius is attacked by three fat geese. E. manages to kill one of them, a particularly violent one. He tells Enotea about what happened, she is horrified, since it was a sacred goose, but, in general, she promises to hide this incident. She performs some kind of healing ritual (it’s better for you not to know what she did). Further the text is very fragmentary, what is happening is not very clear. Apparently, E. is running away from the old woman.

To top it all off, Eumolpus announces to the claimants to his inheritance that after his death they must cut up his corpse and eat it. This is where the manuscript, thank God, ends.

Biography of Petronius:

The Roman historian Tacitus in his work “Annals” creates vivid characterization aristocrat of the time of Nero, Gaius Petronius. According to Tacitus, he was a sophisticated, educated man. Having been sent to Bithynia as a proconsul, and then as a consul, “he expressed himself as quite active and capable of coping with the assignments entrusted to him. But then Petronius left the service and was accepted into the close circle of Nero’s most trusted associates and became a legislator of elegant taste in it. Further, Tacitus reports that Petronius was accused of Piso’s conspiracy, but, without waiting for the verdict, he committed suicide. He spent his last hours at a feast among friends, in his usual rich and elegant surroundings. Before his death, he sent Nero a kind of testament, in which he denounced the emperor’s debauchery and his criminal acts.

Notes Satyricon

Only a small part of Petronius’s novel has reached us, in the original it was called “Satura” (“Satura” was the name given to works by the Romans that allowed the combination of various genres, styles and metrical forms). The parts that have come down to us belong to the fifteenth, sixteenth and perhaps fourteenth books of the novel. They were preserved not in a complete manuscript, but in the form of extracts in a number of manuscripts, the oldest of which - the Bernese - dates back to the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century. Most full list significant fragments belong to XVI century and is kept in the Leiden library; he was made one of the representatives of the Scaliger family - outstanding humanists of the Renaissance. The text of the Feast of Trimalchio is contained in a 15th-century manuscript found in 1650 in Trogir (in Dalmatia). A printed edition of part of the text was first made in Milan in 1482. The fake Nodo dates back to 1692,

Satyricon was first published in Russian in St. Petersburg in 1882. Translator V.V. Chuiko omitted all the verses and copied a number of places, but retained Nodo’s insertions. In 1900, the famous Russian philologist I. I. Kholodnyak published his translation of “The Feast of Trimalchio” (“At dinner with Trimalchio”) in the Philological Review. Finally, in 1924 it was published full translation, completed by B. I. Yarkho. (B. I. Yarkho was indicated on the title as the editor of the anonymous translation.) This translation is based on the text of the publication edited by Bücheler and Hereus (Berlin, 1912); B.I. Yarkho also preserved Nodo’s inserts. For this edition, his translation was edited from the text of Petronius prepared by Ernoux (Paris, Series "Les belles ettres", 1922). Nodo inserts have been removed. The text contains minor notes, marked with<...>.

Page 237. ... mutilated feet ... - an indication of the barbaric custom of cutting the tendons of prisoners so that they could not escape.

To another part of the world - This refers to the so-called “Asiatic” style of eloquence, first introduced into Greek rhetoric by Gorgias (5th century BC). This style is distinguished by short syntactic segments, elaborate arrangement of words, final consonances, and an abundance of figures, especially oppositions.

About pirates... - We are talking about the topics of “declamations” and “controversies”, that is, debates that senior students of rhetoric schools had to conduct at the direction of the teacher. Encolpius is indignant that things that were far from life were interpreted there. fantastic themes, of which there are many, for example, in the “Controversions” of Seneca the Elder. Themes about tyrants, however, persisted for a long time; Juvenal mentions them with annoyance (Satires, VIII, 151).

Demosthenes was considered an example of a noble style as opposed to the “Asian” style.

Page 238. Thucydides - Greek historian(V century BC), Ticherides - Greek orator, contemporary of Demosthenes (IV century BC).

You have to rage among the possessed. - Corresponds to ours: “Live with wolves, howl like a wolf.”

Page 239. Lucilius (died 102 BC) - Roman poet, founder of the genre of satire in Roman literature. Horace, pointing out the shortcomings of Lucilius's verse, explains their lack of processing by haste (Satires, 1, 4, 9).

Tritonia - Pallas Athena. The settlement of the Lacedaemonians is the Spartan colony of Tarentum in Southern Italy. Construction of the Sirens - Neapoiai, according to legend, was built by the siren Parthenope. Athens, Tarentum and Naples were famous for teaching Greek grammar (philology) and philosophy.

From the Meonian stream... - that is, Homeric. Maeonia in Lydia was considered the birthplace of Homer.

Pierian soul - that is, devoted to the muses. Pieria is a land of music.

Sbazoria - a cool task, which consisted in, on behalf of some historical person state and motivate some of his intentions or decisions.

Page 240. Satyrion - savory, the infusion of which was considered a strong stimulant.

If you are Lucretia... - that is, “If you pretend to be Lucretia (a historical example of unapproachable virtue), then in me you have found your Tarquinius” (because of whom Lucretia died). Of course, the comparison is not accurate, for Lucretia did not fall at the hands of Tarquin. but she stabbed herself.

Page 242. ...arrested - In Roman civil law the praetor could seize an item whose ownership was disputed in court.

The Cynics were mendicant philosophers who preached contempt for earthly goods and limitation of needs. The Cynic school, which considered Diogenes and Antisthenes its ancestors, appeared in Italy in the 1st century AD. e.

Equestrian juror... - Since the time of Augustus, the decuria (“dozens”) of jurors were replenished almost exclusively from the equestrian class.

Dipondium is a small coin worth two asses.

Page 243. ...sacrament... at the entrance to the cave. - Commentators believe that we are talking about the sacraments of the Good Goddess. This is evidenced by: a) the fact that men by their very presence desecrated zeal, since men were even forbidden to call her by name, and b) the fact that zeal takes place in a cave: the temple of the Good Goddess in Rome was located in a grotto on the slope of the Aventine Hill . But the festival of the Good Goddess took place on May 1, while our action seems to take place three days before the feast of Trimalchio (see Chapter 26), and in this latter there is an indication of winter time. In addition, in Chap. 17 it is directly stated that the matter took place in the sanctuary of Priapus. The Good Goddess (or Faun) was a purely female deity. Her cult was initially distinguished by chastity and sobriety. But in the imperial era things were completely different.

Page 245. ...drank so much satyrion! - This phrase in the text is seriously damaged. Its meaning is conveyed here approximately. In general, the entire episode has come to us in a very destroyed state, so that it is almost impossible to establish a logical connection between the events.

Page 246. Kined is a corrupt sodomite.

Palestritis - here are probably servants of the palaestra.

Page 247. ...after pickles I don’t want grub. - Literally: “After expensive fish, I don’t eat my daily ration.” The proverb is apparently rude (soldierish?), and it is translated accordingly.

Page 248. Agamemnon is the same teacher of eloquence (rhetor) with whom the reader finds Encolpius talking in ch. 1. Encolpius and

Ascyltos were invited to a feast at Trimalchio's as disciples of Agamemnon.

Trimalchio - This name, according to the interpretation of the word in ancient glossaries, means “thrice nasty.”

Page 249. Menelaus - Agamemnon's assistant.

He called it pork toast - suum propnasse. But if suum is understood not as the genitive plural of the word sus (pig), but as the neuter from suus (one’s own), then one must translate “your toast.” The first understanding is more suitable for Trimalchio, a lover of trivial jokes.

Copper-decorated walkers... - that is, with fashionable plaques that decorated the chests of soldiers, walkers and horses.

A motley magpie greeted those entering. - Talking magpies are mentioned by Persia (in the prologue to the satyrs), Martial (XIV, 76), etc.

Beware of the dog. - Exactly such an image and inscription were discovered in Pompeii, in the “house of the tragic poet.”

Page 250. ...with a caduceus in his hands... - that is, with the rod of Mercury, which Trimalchio considered his patron (see chapters 67 and 77) (see also note to page 522).

Minerva leads them as the goddess of the mind.

Golden thread - denotes a great future.

Lars are geniuses, patrons of the house; They were usually depicted as two young men with cornucopias.

The first beard... - For the first time, the Romans dedicated hair shaved from the chin to the gods.

G. Pompey Trimalchio, Sevier Augustal - Gaius Pompey Trimalchio is called as a freedman, by the name of his former master. Sevier Augustal - one of the six elders of the priestly college of the cult of Augustus, who received the right to have lictors with them, that is, honorary guards who wore bundles of rods (fascia) as a symbol of power.

Triclinium - a dining room, so called because of the large table - “triclinium” (literally: “three-legged”), at which people reclined on three sides. The guests climbed onto the bed from the back and lay down facing the table, leaning on their elbow. Servants served food from the open side of the table. Gabinna will recline at the consular place (chapter 65). In addition to the large table, in Trimalchio’s triclinium there was also a small table in front of each of those reclining. Reclining on the lower bed was G. Pompeii Diogenes (chapter 38). But where was the place of the freedmen on which G. Julius Proculus reclined is difficult to determine. In addition, Dama, Seleucus, Philerot, Ganymede, Echion, Hermerot were placed at the table; further Agamemnon with Encolpius and Ascylt and two women - Fortunata and Scintilla; then Plokom and Nikerot - seventeen people in all.

Page 251. Dormice are small animals from the rodent family.

Page 252. ... gold... with iron stars soldered to it. - A pure gold ring could only be worn by a horseman or a patrician, and the Augustal sevier only when performing duties.

Instead of white and black pebbles... - We are talking about a game of “twelve signs” - something like checkers, the movement of which on the board depended on the number of points rolled on the dice.

Repository - a tray consisting of many special trays placed on top of each other.

Peacock eggs - Eggs are an indispensable first course of lunch for the Romans.

Page 253. Mars loves equality - that is: everyone is equal before God.

Opimian falern. Centennial - The best wine was considered to be bottled under the consul of Opimia (in 121 year before, and. e.). Here, “hundred-year-old” is a symbol for old wine. »

Let's drink... - Conditional translation. The expression "tangomenas faciamus" is not satisfactorily explained, but its meaning is probably the same as in the translation.

Woe to us poor people! - Such verses, consisting of two or more hexameters and one pentameter, are found only in common inscriptions.

The pop-eye (oclopeta) is an unknown sea animal with bulging eyes.

Page 254. ... - from the mime “Lyserpiciary”. - Dramatized farces were called mimes, the text of which only scattered excerpts have reached us. The mime “Laserpiciary” is completely unknown to us.

Ossedarius was a gladiator who fought on a chariot.

His name is Cut - Trimalchio's slave was called Carpus. The vocative case of this word is monophonic with the imperative mood of the verb carrere - to tear, cut. Thus, saying “Carre”, Trimalchio both calls the slave by name and orders him to cut the food. It is possible that this slave was from the Dacian people of the Carpi.

Magpie on a feather bed - Probably because she speaks evil when alone with her husband,

Page 255. ...stole Incubon's hat... - Incubons are brownies or gnomes, keepers of treasures. To the one who stole his hat (invisibility hat?), Incubon was supposed to reveal the place where the treasure was hidden.

His cheek is still burning... - from the slap in the face that was given to the slave during the ritual of his release.

Page 256. “Is this how you knew Ulysses?” - the proverbial exclamation of Laocoon from Virgil’s Aeneid (II, 43).

Many... rascals will be born under this sign - In the original - a play on words: arietillus - “mutton” and “cunning”.

Hipparchus (born around 190 BC) and Aratus (born around 315 BC) are famous astronomers of antiquity.

Page 257. ... then Vromiem, then Lieem, then Eviem... - that is, different names of the god Dionysus, or Bacchus.

Dionysus... be free! -Pun: Liber is one of the names of Dionysus and liber - free. Saying further, “I have Liber the Father,” Trimalchio again plays with words, since his remark has two meanings in Latin: a) I have Bacchus the Father, b) I have a free father (that is, I was born of a free father).

Page 259. Edil is the lowest elected position. There were two Edils; they kept order public buildings and for the correctness of weights and measures, for prices on the market.

Play Morra - This game consists of one quickly unclenching several fingers of his hand, and the other must simultaneously say how many fingers are unclenched. It is clear that in such a game, even in the light, it is easy to cheat.

At the forum... - At the people's assembly.

In the curia! - In meetings of the council of decurions (in the city council).

Page 260. Papista is the owner and teacher of gladiators. Voluntary fighters were valued above hired soldiers and slaves.

Page 261. Bestiaries - fighters with animals in the arena.

Tertiary - When one of the gladiators died, the winner still had to fight with his deputy, who was called the tertiary (therefore “dead for dead”).

With red lines... - In legal books, paragraphs were marked with red paint (rbpsa), hence the expressions “rubric” and “red line” now.

Page 263. ...with my Terracina and Tarentine lands. - Obvious boasting: Terracina is located in Lapine, Tarentum - in the very south of Italy.

Controversion - see note. to page 237.

Polyphemus pulled out his finger with tongs... - Nothing like this is told in Homer’s Odyssey, but it could have been told in some ancient tales that have not reached us. However, here too, perhaps, Tri-malchio confuses the myths, as he often does later.

Page 265. ...battle of Petrait with Germerot... - Wed. Ch. 71, where Trimalchi bequeaths to depict “all the battles of Petrait” on his tombstone.

Page 266. Kordak - obscene dance.

Bailly is a large resort in Campania, near which one of Trimalchio's estates was apparently located.

Page 267. Atellans - Italian folk comedies.

Thracian Pug - probably just as real face, as the destroyer of Ilion Hannibal in ch. 51.

Publilius the Syrian (or Sir) - author of mimes, contemporary of Julius Caesar. His collection of sayings, which were very popular, has been preserved. The poem recited by Trimalchio was probably composed not by Publilius himself, but by Petronius in imitation of him. Page 268. Numidian chickens - guinea fowl. Pieta is the goddess of piety.

Carchedon - Carthage. Fire stones are carbuncles. Winnings.- This refers to gifts that were distributed to guests. The XIV Book of Martial's epigrams is dedicated to poetic inscriptions for such gifts. But the names of Trimalchio's winnings (as opposed to Martial's witty verses) are based on the stupidest puns. In translation they are conveyed by more or less suitable Russian puns.

Page 269. Tutela - guardian goddess.

Page 270. ...did you pay twenty? - the twentieth part of the ransom money that the slave being released contributed to the treasury. Hermerot mistakes Giton for the slave Ascylt.

Golden beard. - Jupiter was depicted with a golden beard. Okkupon - Capture, or "god of capture."

Page 271. Homerists are actors who performed scenes from Homeric poems.

Once upon a time there were two brothers - Diomedes and Ganymede... - Trimalchio again confuses all the myths. Where the “Parentians” (residents of the city of Parentia in Istria) came from is completely unknown.

Page 272. “These words uttered...” - This beginning of the hexameter is found both in the fragments of Lucilius and in Virgil’s “Aeneid” (II, 790).

Page 273. ...strong as an Orc - that is, as death; Orc is the Roman god of the underworld.

Page 274. Apellet - Apellet of Ascalon, tragic actor and singer of the times of Caligula (37-41 years).

Page 275. Cheek, cheek, how many of us are there? - a children's game in which one was blindfolded and hit on the cheek, and he had to guess how many fingers were hitting him.

Page 278. “Meanwhile the fleet of Aeneas...” is the opening verse of the fifth book of the Aeneid.

Looks like Venus - Venus was depicted as a scythe. According to popular superstition, the slave's talkativeness is explained by Gabinna's squint.

Page 279. ...from Norian iron - Norik is a country between the Danube and the Alps, famous for its mines.

Page 280. "Green" - belonging to the "green" party in the circus.

Riders competing in the circus wore clothes of four colors: blue, green, white and red.

Page 281. ...in a toga-pretext... - in a toga with a red stripe, which the Augustal sevirs could wear only when on duty, as well as a gold ring.

G. Pompey... Maecenas - that is, Pompey's freedman, who at one time received him from Maecenas.

Any decuria... - This refers to decuripus (“dozens”) of small civil servants: lictors, scribes, heralds, etc.

Page 282. ... songs of Menecrates... - The musician Menecrates was especially honored by Nero (see Svetoni, Nero, 30).

Page 283. ...doesn’t spit in his bosom... - a means of averting misfortunes, like our “spit three times over your left shoulder.”

Cassandra - Trimalchio calls Fortunata by the name of the mythical sinister prophetess.

Page 284. ...Thracian outfit... - that is, a toy gladiator costume.

Co-heir of Caesar - Noble and rich people, protecting their direct heirs from the arbitrariness of the emperor, left him part of their property in their wills.

Page 285. Scaurus is a family nickname in the noble families of the Emilians and Aurelians.

Page 286. ...wash my bones - According to Roman custom, the bones of a deceased person burned at the stake were washed with wine and incense, wiped with linen and placed in an urn.

Page 287. ...do not compare this miserable inn to Thebes... - We are talking about the mythical struggle for Thebes between the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices, who both died.

Page 288. ...a pebble moves along the board... - See note. to page 252.

In slave labor... - in ergastul, a special institution for punishing guilty slaves, which was available on all large estates.

Page 289. Zeuxides from Heraclea (in Southern Italy) is one of the largest painters of Ancient Greece in the second half of the 5th century BC. e. His paintings, especially images of women, were distinguished by their extraordinary grace and vitality.

Protogenes - Greek painter of the late 4th century BC. e.

Apelles is the most famous Greek painter of the first half of the 4th century BC. o., contemporary of Alexander the Great. His painting is characterized, according to the testimony of ancient authors, by a sense of proportion and the absence of any exaggeration.

The eagle lifts up... god... - that is, Ganymede (see note on page 60).

Hylas is a boy who accompanied Hercules on the Argonauts' campaign. He was kidnapped by the nymphs of the spring in Mysia that he had captured.

A newly born flower is a hyacinth. According to myth, Apollo accidentally killed young Hyacinth with a throwing disc, from whose blood a flower grew. In ancient times, the name hyacinth was not the flower that now bears this name, but probably the purple iris.

Page 290. Lycurgus is a mythical king who gave the strangers who came to him as food for his horses (see also note on page 219).

Page 293. Democritus - Greek materialist philosopher of the V-IV centuries BC. e.

Eudoxus - mathematician, astronomer and geographer of the 4th century BC. e., who first proved the sphericity of the Earth.

Chrysippus is the greatest philosopher of the Stoic school of the 3rd century BC. O.

Hellebore was considered a medicine against mental illness and a means of enlightening the mind.

Lysippos is one of the largest Greek sculptors IV century BC e. His works were distinguished by meticulous attention to detail.

Myron is a contemporary of Phidias and Polykleitos (5th century BC. His statues were distinguished by their extraordinary liveliness and variety of forms.

What's the matter? - What follows is a large poetic work, like school poetry exercises on given topic. This is an abbreviated paraphrase of the second song of the Aeneid (vv. 13-267). The content of two hundred and sixty-five Virgilian hexameters is reduced in this poem to sixty-five iambic senarius (iambic hexameter).

Phrygians are Trojans.

Kalkhant is a priest-predictor in the Greek army.

The god of Delhi is Apollo, whose main sanctuary was on the island of Delos.

As a gift... - that is, a wooden horse.

O homeland! - “Aeneid”, II, 241. Thus, Eumolpus borrows from Virgil even the very frame of the “Aeneid”, putting his story into the mouth of a Trojan.

Sinon is a Greek who gave himself up to the Trojans as if he were doomed to death by the Greeks.

Page 294. Tenedos is an island opposite Troy, behind which the Greek ships took refuge.

The priest lies between the altars... - at the altar of Neptune, where Laocoon made a sacrifice ("Aeneid", II, 201-202).

Page 295. ...with wipers and combs in their hands... - The first episode of this chapter takes place in a bathhouse.

Page 297. ... deprived of honor ... - Deprivation of civil honor was imposed personally by the censor or by court for disgraceful acts: fraud, perjury, usury, bigamy, etc. Some professions (pandering, organizing funeral processions, buffoonery) were associated with "infamiy". A senator deprived of honor was excluded from the Senate lists, an equestrian from the century, and a citizen from the tribe.

I don’t like... - The initial two lines of this poem are moved here from Chapter. 15, where they stand without any connection with the text. This is an arbitrary but ingenious rearrangement of Nodo.

Colchis are a people who lived in Colchis (in the Caucasus) along the Phasis (Rion) river. Pheasants are named after this river.

Sirtes are sandbanks off the northern coast of Africa.

Bareen is an Italian red beard fish.

Page 299. ...this house... - In the text, the word “insula” (literally: “island”) names a house surrounded on all sides by streets. Such multi-story buildings had one or more courtyards. Shops or taverns were usually located below, and living quarters were located above.

The poem inserted into the translation is not in the text of the Satyricon. It is among the poetic fragments attributed to Petronius (XXX according to Bücheler).

Page 310. ...did the salamander destroy your eyebrows? - The Greek physician Dioscorides (a contemporary of Nero) says in his work on medicine (I, 54) that the blood and saliva of a salamander destroy hair.

Page 315. Do you think... - with a slight change in Anna’s words to Dido in the Aeneid (IV, 34).

Page 316. How? Is it really love... - “Aeneid”, IV, 38.

Page 321. ... caught and caught... - that is, on rich testators and flatterers hoping to receive an inheritance.

Page 322. ...to endure both fire and fetters... is the usual formula of the gladiator oath.

Page 324. ...ether bronze... - Ephyra is the old name of Corinth.

In the lands of Amman - in Egypt. Ammon - Egyptian god, identified by the Greeks with Zeus.

Lucrin is a lake in Campania famous for its oysters.

On the Champ de Mars - took place public assemblies in Rome.

Fathers... the assembly is the Senate.

Page 325. ...Cato defeated... - In 55 BC. e., during the consulate of Pompey and Crassus, Cato vainly sought the praetorship and did not get elected; Caesar's protege Vatinius was elected. *

Enyo is the goddess of war.

Great - Pompeii.

In the Parthenopean land... - Parthenopeia - Naples, named after the nymph Parthenope (see also note on page 239, to the words “Building of the Sirens”).

Dikarchida is the Greek name for the city of Puteoli. "

Stone-water presses...-about structures built on artificial embankments in the sea. Reminiscence from Horace, who wrote in Ode 1 of Book III:

The fish have become cramped in the depths of the waters:

Among the swells, masses are erected.

The contractor pours crushed stone into the water...

Page 326. Tisiphone is one of the three furies.

Sulla - Roman dictator (88-79 BC).

O my parent... - For Petronius, Fortune is the daughter of Pluto.

The deity that built them is the god of war Mars, whose sons built Rome.

Twice the bodies at Philippi littered the field... - Petronius, like Virgil in “Dahlias” (I, 490), calls Philippi and the battle of Pharsal between Caesar and Pompey (in 48), I the battle of Philippi, when Octavian and Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius (in 42 BC).

The graves of the Iberians... are an allusion to Caesar's war in Spain against the troops of Pompey, and then against his sons.

The flames of the Thessalian fires... - Pharsalus is located in Thessaly.

In anticipation of the battle of Actium... - It talks about the battle of Actium between Octavian and Mark Antony, who was helped by troops Egyptian queen Cleopatra; This is why Egypt must fear an Aktian defeat. The swords of Octavian's troops are under the special protection of Apollo.

Carrier - Charon.

Mighty brew - Jupiter.

Titan - here: the sun god, Helium, son of the titan Hyperion.

Cinthia.- Artemis (Diana) is called Cinthia, and Apollo is called Cinthia. along Mount Kinfu on the island of Delos, where they were born. Hence the names: Delius and Delil.

Greek god- Hercules, the first to cross the Alps.

Page 327. The Hesperia field is western (in relation to Greece), that is, Italian.

Gallas, who again sought to take the Capitol. - The Gauls captured all of Rome in 387 BC. e. and they did not take the Capitol only because the guards were awakened by the sacred geese, who heard the enemies creeping up.

I am being driven out of Rome - Pompey insisted that Caesar be allowed to return to Rome from Gaul only after he had disbanded his legions.

Delphic bird - raven, prophetic bird, dedicated to the diviner god, Apollo of Delphi.

Mavorsovs - Marsovs, by ancient name Marsa - Mavors.

Turma - a cavalry detachment of thirty to thirty-two warriors.

Page 328. Amphitryon’s stepson is Hercules, who ascended to the Caucasus to liberate Prometheus.

To the coasts of the Hydaspes... - an error or an exaggeration: Pompeii did not reach further than the Euphrates, and the Hydaspes is a river in India.

To whom Jupiter marveled in triple glory... - Pompeii received three triumphs: Libyan, Spanish and Pontic.

Page 329. Palla - upper front door women's clothing, a type of mantle.

Erebus is the god of underground darkness, the son of Chaos.

Vellona is the goddess of war.

Megaera is one of the furies (see note on page 100).

Liona is the mother of Venus, and here is Venus herself. Julius Caesar descended from the grandson of Venus Iulus.

The Cyllene offspring is Mercury (Hermes), born on Mount Killene.

Tiryns warrior - Hercules (Hercules).

Marcellus - Gaius Claudius Marcellus, consul of 49 BC. e., who introduced bills hostile to Caesar to the Senate.

Curio - Gaius Scribonius Curio, tribune of the people who went over to Caesar's side.

Lentulus - Lucius Scribonius Lentulus Crurus, consul of 49, enemy

Epidamnus is a seaside city in Illyria (now Durres), occupied by Pompey at the outbreak of the civil war.

Page 331. ... closer than fourteen rows to the orchestra... - In the front rows, closer to the orchestra (lower part of the stage), sat noble people (in Rome - senators), in the back rows - the plebs.

She nailed her caresses to the cross - she gave herself to a person who could suffer the shame of crucifixion - a slave.

Praxiteles is a great Greek sculptor (IV century BC), meaning one of his statues of Artemis, which has not reached us.

Hiding gray hair under a swan feather is a hint at the transformation of Jupiter into a swan to seduce Leda, and above - into a bull to kidnap Europa.

Dakaya - see note. to page 60.

Page 332. ... to delay the running of the setting luminary. - The mother of the sorceress Kirkei (Circe), the beloved of the Sun god, disrupted his running, holding him in her arms. Kirkeia, who is in love with Encolpius, calls him Polyaenus, the name he adopted in Croton.

Page 333. Alcibiades (5th century BC) - Athenian commander and political figure, student of Socrates. Plato's Symposium tells the story of Alcibiades' futile attempts to seduce his mentor.

Page 334. ...send for trumpeters - for your own funeral. See chap. 78.

Page 338. Doesn’t Ulysses himself argue with his own heart? - “Odyssey” XX, 17:

He hit himself in the chest and said to his irritated heart:

“Heart, humble yourself...”

Katanas.- The name of the Roman censor Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder (234-149 BC) became a household name for too strict guardians of morality.

Gipepi is a city in Lydia.

Page 840. ...bulls... the flames died down from the girl’s charms... - To get the Golden Fleece, Jason had to plow the Ares field on fire-breathing bulls. Medea helped Jason in this (see also notes to pp. 345, 355).

Proteus is a sea god who could take on various forms.

Page 341. Hekala - a poor woman who sheltered Theseus when he went to fight the Marathon bull.

The Battiadic muse is the muse of the poet Callimachus (born around 310 BC), who dedicated one of his works to Hekala.

Page 342. Stymphalids - birds of Ares with copper claws, beaks and feathers. It was believed that they lived near the city of Stymphalg in Arcadia. Phineus is a Thracian king, punished by the gods for his crimes. He was blinded and given over to be tortured by the Harpies, who poisoned his food with a foul-smelling liquid until he was delivered from torment by the Argonauts.

Harpies are mythical monsters with the heads of women and the bodies of birds.

Page 343. ...Servius or Labeo himself - Servius Sulpius, a contemporary of Julius Caesar, and Labeo, who lived under Augustus, were distinguished by the firmness of their convictions and the courage with which they opposed the autocracy of both rulers.

Page 345. ...exiled from the kingdom of Inachus... - Hercules, the son of Zeus and the Tiryns queen Alcmene, was born in exile, since his stepfather, Amphitryon, had to leave Argolis - the land of the mythical king Inachus - for an accidental murder.

Raise the load of the firmament... - This refers to the eleventh labor of Hercules - the theft of the Hesperian apples. The apples were stolen for Hercules by the titan Atlas, and the hero was supposed to replace him at this time, supporting the vault of heaven on his shoulders.

Laomedon is the King of Troy, he did not pay the gods Apollo and Poseidon the promised reward for the construction of the Trojan walls, for which Apollo struck the country with a pestilence, and the second sent a monster devouring people, to which Laomedon's daughter, Hesion, was to be sacrificed. Hercules freed her, but, also not receiving a reward, went on a campaign against Troy and killed Laomedon.

Pelias is the Thessalian king, the uncle of Jason, who was under the protection of Hera (Juno), who took revenge on Pelias for putting Jason in mortal danger by sending him on a campaign for the Golden Fleece; Jason's wife, the sorceress Medea, persuaded the daughters of Pelias to cut him into pieces and boil him in a cauldron, promising to restore his youth.

Telephus angered Bacchus by raising arms against the Greeks marching to Troy, and was wounded by Achilles.

Nereus is the sea god, the father of the Nereid sea nymphs.

Hellespont god Priapus...- The main temple of Priapus was located in Lampsacus on the Hellespont (near the Dardanelles Strait).

Page 346. Protesilaus - greek hero, killed during landing on the Trojan shore. He was resurrected for three hours at the request of his wife, who then died in his arms.

Socrates... - Here the text is again greatly damaged, and it is impossible to establish with certainty who owns individual parts of the subsequent speech.

Page 348. ...Hannibal kept them under siege... - The capture of the Spanish city of Sagunta by Hannibal occurred in 219 BC. e.

The Petelians are residents of the city of Petelia, which was besieged by Hannibal.

Numantia is a Spanish city besieged and taken by the Roman general Scipio in 133 BC. e.

Petronius Arbiter

Satyricon

The text of the first adventure (or picaresque) novel known in world literature has survived only in fragments: excerpts of the 15th, 16th and presumably 14th chapters. There is no beginning, no end, and apparently there were 20 chapters in total...

The main character (the story is told on his behalf) is the unbalanced young man Encolpius, skilled in rhetoric, clearly not stupid, but, alas, a flawed person. He is in hiding, fleeing punishment for robbery, murder and, most importantly, for sexual sacrilege, which brought upon him the wrath of Priapus, a very peculiar ancient Greek god of fertility. (By the time the novel takes place, the cult of this god flourished in Rome. Phallic motifs are obligatory in the images of Priapus: many of his sculptures have been preserved)

Encolpius and his fellow parasites Ascylt, Giton and Agamemnon arrived in one of the Hellenic colonies in Campania (a region of ancient Italy). While visiting the rich Roman horseman Lycurgus, they all “intertwined in couples.” At the same time, not only normal (from our point of view), but also purely male love is honored here. Then Encolpius and Ascylt (who until recently were “brothers”) periodically change their sympathies and love situations. Ascylt is attracted to the cute boy Giton, and Encolpius hits on the beautiful Tryphaena...

Soon the action of the novel moves to the estate of the shipowner Likh. And - new love entanglements, in which the pretty Dorida, Likh’s wife, also takes part. As a result, Encolpius and Giton have to urgently get away from the estate.

On the way, the dashing rhetorician-lover climbs onto a ship that has run aground, and there manages to steal an expensive robe from the statue of Isis and the helmsman’s money. Then he returns to the estate to Lycurgus.

The bacchanalia of Priapus' admirers - the wild "pranks" of Priapus' harlots... After many adventures, Encolpius, Giton, Ascyltos and Agamemnon end up at a feast in the house of Trimalchio - a rich freedman, a dense ignoramus who imagines himself to be very educated. He energetically strives to enter the “high society.”

Conversations at the feast. Tales of gladiators. The owner importantly informs the guests: “Now I have two libraries. One is Greek, the second is Latin.” But then it turns out that in his head there is a most monstrous confusion famous heroes and plots of Hellenic myths and Homeric epic. The self-confident arrogance of an illiterate owner is limitless. He mercifully addresses the guests and at the same time, yesterday’s slave himself, is unjustifiably cruel to the servants. However, Trimalchio is easy-going...

On a huge silver platter, the servants bring in a whole boar, from which blackbirds suddenly fly out. They are immediately intercepted by bird catchers and distributed to guests. An even more grandiose pig is stuffed with fried sausages. There immediately turned out to be a dish with cakes: “In the middle of it was Priapus made of dough, holding, according to custom, a basket of apples, grapes and other fruits. We greedily pounced on the fruits, but the new fun intensified the fun. For from all the cakes, at the slightest pressure, fountains of saffron began to flow..."

Then three boys bring in images of the three Lars (guardian gods of home and family). Trimalchio reports: their names are the Breadwinner, the Lucky One and the Profitmaker. To entertain those present, Nicerotus, a friend of Trimalchio, tells a story about a werewolf soldier, and Trimalchio himself tells a story about a witch who stole a dead boy from a coffin and replaced the body with a fofan (straw effigy).

Meanwhile, the second meal begins: blackbirds stuffed with nuts and raisins. Then a huge fat goose is served, surrounded by all kinds of fish and poultry. But it turned out that the most skillful cook (named Daedalus!) created all this from... pork.

“Then something began that is simply embarrassing to tell: according to some unheard of custom, curly-haired boys brought perfume in silver bottles and rubbed them on the legs of those reclining, having previously entangled their legs, from the knee to the very heel, with flower garlands.”

The cook, as a reward for his skill, was allowed to lie down at the table with the guests for a while. At the same time, the servants, serving the next dishes, always hummed something, regardless of the presence of voice and hearing. Dancers, acrobats and magicians also entertained guests almost continuously.

Trimalchio, touched, decided to read out... his will, a detailed description of the future magnificent tombstone and the inscription on it (his own composition, of course) with a detailed listing of his titles and merits. Even more touched by this, he cannot resist making the corresponding speech: “Friends! And slaves are people: they were fed with the same milk as us. And it is not their fault that their fate is bitter. However, by my grace, they will soon drink free water, I set them all free in my will<...>I am now announcing all this so that my servants will love me now just as they will love me when I die.”

The adventures of Encolpius continue. One day he wanders into the Pinakothek (art gallery), where he admires the paintings of the famous Hellenic painters Apelles, Zeuxis and others. He immediately meets the old poet Eumolpus and does not part with him until the very end of the story (or rather, until the end known to us).

Eumolpus speaks almost continuously in verse, for which he was repeatedly stoned. Although his poems were not bad at all. And sometimes very good. The prose outline of “Satyricon” is often interrupted by poetic inserts (“Poem about the Civil War”, etc.). Petronius was not only a very observant and talented prose writer and poet, but also an excellent imitator and parodist: he masterfully imitated the literary style of his contemporaries and famous predecessors.

Eumolpus and Encolpius talk about art. Educated people have something to talk about. Meanwhile, the handsome Giton returns from Ascylt to confess to his former “brother” Encolpius. He explains his betrayal by fear of Ascylt: “For he possessed a weapon of such magnitude that the man himself seemed only an appendage to this structure.” New turn fate: all three end up on Likh's ship. But not all of them are greeted equally cordially. However, the old poet restores peace. After which he entertains his companions with the “Tale of the Inconsolable Widow.”

A certain matron from Ephesus was distinguished by great modesty and marital fidelity. And when her husband died, she followed him into the burial dungeon and intended to starve herself there. The widow does not give in to the persuasion of her family and friends. Only a faithful servant brightens up her loneliness in the crypt and just as stubbornly goes hungry. The fifth day of mourning self-torture has passed...

“...At this time, the ruler of that region ordered several robbers to be crucified not far from the dungeon in which the widow was crying over a fresh corpse. And so that someone would not steal the bodies of the robbers, wanting to bury them, they placed one soldier on guard near the crosses. As night fell, he noticed that among the tombstones a rather bright light was pouring from somewhere, he heard the groans of the unfortunate widow and, out of curiosity, characteristic of to the entire human race, I wanted to know who it was and what was going on there. He immediately went down to the crypt and, seeing there a woman of remarkable beauty, as if before some miracle, as if meeting face to face with the shadows of the underworld, he stood for some time in confusion. Then, when he finally saw the dead body lying in front of him, when he examined her tears and her face scratched with nails, he, of course, realized that this was only a woman who, after the death of her husband, could not find peace for herself out of grief. Then he brought his modest lunch to the crypt and began to convince the weeping beauty so that she would stop killing herself in vain and not tormenting her chest with useless sobs.”

After some time, the faithful maid also joins the soldier’s persuasion. Both convince the widow that it is too early for her to rush to the next world. Not immediately, but the sad Ephesian beauty still begins to succumb to their admonitions. At first, exhausted by long fasting, she is tempted by food and drink. And after some time, the soldier manages to win the heart of a beautiful widow.

“They spent in mutual embrace not only that night on which they celebrated their wedding, but the same thing happened the next, and even on the third day. And the doors to the dungeon, in case any of the relatives and acquaintances came to the grave, were, of course, locked, so that it would seem as if this most chaste of wives died over the body of her husband.”

Meanwhile, the relatives of one of the crucified people, taking advantage of the lack of security, removed his body from the cross and buried it. And when the loving guard discovered this and, trembling with fear of the impending punishment, told the widow about the loss, she decided: “I prefer to hang a dead man than to destroy a living one.” According to this, she gave advice to pull her husband out of the coffin and nail him to an empty cross. The soldier immediately took advantage of the sensible woman’s brilliant idea. And the next day, all passers-by were perplexed as to how the dead man climbed onto the cross.

A storm is rising at sea. Likh perishes in the abyss. The rest continue to rush through the waves. Moreover, Eumolpus does not stop his poetic recitations even in this critical situation. But in the end, the unfortunate people are saved and spend a restless night in a fisherman's hut.

And soon they all end up in Crotona - one of the oldest Greek colonial cities on the southern coast of the Apennine Peninsula. This, by the way, is the only geographical point specifically designated in the text of the novel available to us.

In order to live comfortably and carefree (as they are used to) in a new city, the adventure friends decide: Eumolpus will pass himself off as a very wealthy man, wondering who to bequeath all his untold wealth. No sooner said than done. This makes it possible for cheerful friends to live in peace, enjoying not only a warm welcome from the townspeople, but also unlimited credit. For many Crotonians counted on a share in the will of Eumolpus and vied with each other to win his favor.

And again a series of love adventures follows, not so much as the misadventures of Encolpius. All his troubles are connected with the already mentioned anger of Priapus.

But the Crotonians have finally seen the light, and there is no limit to their just anger. The townspeople are energetically preparing reprisals against the cunning people. Encolpius and Giton manage to escape from the city, leaving Eumolpus there.

The inhabitants of Crotona treat the old poet according to their ancient custom. When some disease was raging in the city, the citizens supported and fed one of their compatriots for a year in the best possible way at the expense of the community. And then they sacrificed: this “scapegoat” was thrown from a high cliff. This is exactly what the Crotonians did with Eumolpus.

2. “Satyricon”: genre, composition

spread of vulgar pseudoculture; the humiliated position of people of literature and art. The novel is “oversaturated” with events. In the kaleidoscopic adventures of the heroes, a pattern can be traced: finding themselves in some bad situation, they miraculously get out of it. The tutor of Emperor Nero, the famous philosopher Seneca (55 BC - 40 AD) made a significant contribution to the development of the tragic genre. This one

ancient tragedy

Petronius's Satyricon is a milestone in the history of the novel that arose at the end of antiquity. True, the term “novel” itself originally appeared in the Middle Ages and then meant a work written in Romance languages. The novel in its modern meaning is one of the most important genres of literary art, which has come a long way in historical development. It has transformed in terms of structure and style and now represents a wide palette of forms and genre varieties.

IN ancient times the novel turned out to be a relatively “late” genre, declaring itself after the heyday of the heroic epic, tragedy and comedy, after the highest peaks of lyric poetry, at the decline of both Greek and Roman literature.

The Greek novels that have reached us date back to the 1st-3rd centuries. n. e.: these are “Daphnis and Chloe” by Long, “Aethiopica” by Heliodorus, as well as “Chaereus and Callirhoe” by Chariton. Although the Greek novel accumulated elements and plots of the story, erotic Hellenistic elegy, and some ethnographic descriptions, it did not become a mechanical fusion of them, but emerged as a new genre. In the mentioned novels, two themes clearly stood out: love and adventure. As a result, the novel developed in Greece in its love-adventurous variety.

In Rome, the novel is represented by two significant artistic monuments, also created at the time of its beginning literary decline: the Satyricon by Petronius and The Golden Ass by Apuleius.

There is an adventurous quality to these novels; but at the same time they are more firmly rooted in everyday reality and are not alien to naturalistic details. They can rightfully be characterized as adventure and everyday novels. The proportion of love themes presented in an erotic refraction is great in them.

The content of Petronius's novel is determined by the adventures of three vagabonds, lumpen people who wander through the cities of Italy and at the same time get into endless troubles and encounter many different people. This is the main storyline, on which side colorful episodes and scenes are “strung”. Before us is a work that had no analogues in antiquity. Its stylistic multi-layeredness and diversity are striking: before us are adventures and everyday sketches, parody and subtle irony, satire and allegory, the kaleidoscopic nature of episodes following one another, high pathos and vulgar vernacular. Let’s add to this the abundant poetic passages “integrated” into the text, as well as inserted short stories.

“Satyricon” is an original, innovative work in composition, language, and style. Each era has its own linguistic element. The novelist conveys both the deliberate pathos of Eumoplaus and the rude vernacular of the guests, slaves and freedmen at Trimalchio’s feast: their monologues and remarks are interspersed with proverbs, sayings, and jokes. Here are some of the sayings with which the linguistic elements of the novel are “replete”: “you give me, I will give you”, “a fish never runs dry”, “a big ship has a long voyage”, etc. The text is abundantly scattered with hints, hidden allusions, and is mentioned historically -mythological names and concepts.

One of the elements of the Roman decorative arts there was a mosaic: it was used to create portraits and group scenes. Petronius’s style is distinguished by its peculiar “mosaic” nature, a bizarre combination of high and low, and the use of different lexical resources.

In the surviving text of the Satyricon, three parts can be roughly distinguished. The first is connected with the events before the appearance of the heroes at Trimalchio’s feast. Before us are three main characters: the young men Encolpius and Ascylt, as well as the handsome young man Giton, for whom the first two compete in love. Giton's beauty causes harassment from both men (which was common in Rome at that time) and women. All three wander around the cities of Italy, live at the expense of others, cheat, and do not disdain petty thefts. Encolpius, the hero-narrator, is reported to have narrowly escaped justice, killed a man, and desecrated a temple; Ascylt is no better than him, “immersed in all kinds of voluptuousness.”

The novel opens with an episode in a rhetoric school, where Encolpius talks at length about poor teaching, about the decline of eloquence, which comes down to juggling with empty phrases. Then a quarrel breaks out between Encolpius and Ascylt: both are jealous of each other for Giton. Already from the first pages, Petronius’s original style is revealed: lengthy monologues, sometimes comic and anecdotal stories, as well as poems are put into the mouths of the heroes; the latter, in a number of cases, are parodies of popular poetic works. Another scene, openly erotic, takes place in the hotel where the heroes live and where a certain Quartilla, a shameless priestess of Priapus, the god of voluptuousness, highly revered by the Romans, appears. It turns out that the young people Encolpius and Ascylt committed some unseemly act and are being persecuted by Priapus, while Quartilla performs a ritual of “saving” the young people, a kind of “redemptive” ceremony, which results in a shameless orgy. At the same time, Quartilla organizes the “wedding” of his maid Pannihis with Giton. These and similar episodes are completely reliable signs of the Roman way of life.

Some medieval manuscripts contain extracts from a large narrative work, which is one of the most original monuments ancient literature. The manuscripts give the title Saturae (“Satires”) or, in Greek, Satyricon (“ Satirical story"or maybe "Satirical stories"); in the literary tradition of modern times, the title “Satyricon” was established. Historical and everyday indications, the presence of literary polemics against the first books of Lucan’s poem, the entire set of data that can serve for the chronological dating of the Satyricon, forces us to attribute this work to the last years of the reign of Nero or to the beginning of the Flavian dynasty. The author in the manuscripts is named as one Petronius Arbiter; We find the same name in quotes from the Satyricon by late ancient authors.

This image of an effortlessly frank and cold-blooded contemptuous “arbiter of grace,” a kind of ancient “dandy,” is extremely suitable for the idea that one can form about the author of “Satyricon” based on the work itself. And since tradition gives Petronius, the author of the Satyricon, the nickname “Arbiter,” it should be considered quite probable that this author is the same person as Petronius, whom Tacitus talks about.

The Satyricon takes the form of a "menippean satura", a narrative in which prose alternates with verse, but in essence it goes far beyond the usual type of "menippean saturas". This is a satirical novel of “low” everyday content. IN ancient literature This novel stands in isolation, and we do not know whether Petronius had predecessors. From a historical and literary point of view. connections, it seems very significant that Petronius constructs a novel of everyday content as a “recasting” of a Greek love novel while preserving its plot scheme and a number of individual motives. The novel of the “elevated” style is translated into a “low” level, characteristic of the interpretation of everyday themes in antiquity. From this point of view, the form of the “Menippean satura”, which has already become traditional for parody of high-style storytelling, is not an accident. But Satyricon is not a literary parody in the sense of making fun of romance novels; Also alien to him is that moralizing or accusatory attitude that was usually “characteristic of the Menippean Saturas.” "Refacing" love story, Petronius seeks only to entertain the reader with the merciless frankness of his descriptions, which sometimes go far beyond the limits of what was considered decent in serious literature.

Petronius and his novel in subsequent literature.

Petronius' novel "Satyricon" is one of most interesting works Roman literature. It gives us an idea of ​​the different social groups Rome of the first centuries AD In addition, this novel is valuable to us from a purely philological side: it is in it that the language of the lower classes is recorded - folk Latin, which formed the basis of the Romance languages.

In subsequent centuries, the continuers of this genre of satirical and everyday adventure novel were, to some extent, Boccaccio 447 with his “Decameron”, and Fielding with “Tom Jones”, and Lesage with “Gilles Blas”, and many authors of the so-called picaresque novel.

The image of Petronius interested Pushkin, and ours great poet described it in “A Tale from Roman Life,” which, unfortunately, was only just begun. An excerpt from it has been preserved - “Caesar Traveled.”

Maikov portrayed Petronius in his work “Three Deaths,” where he showed how three contemporary poets ended their lives in different ways, but almost at the same time: the Stoic philosopher Seneca, his nephew, the poet Lucan, and the epicurean esthete Petronius.

Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz portrayed Petronius in the novel “Kamo khryadeshi”, but he gave a somewhat idealized image of him, emphasizing his humane treatment to slaves and introducing Petronius’s love for a Christian slave into the plot of the novel.

Before us again is a kind of picaresque novel, a novel in which the hero, undergoing various adventures, like a needle penetrates the entire reality of his and the author’s time and in the end comes out unscathed.

Epigram of Martial

Originated from the Spanish city of Bilbilis, on the left tributary of the Giber (now called the Ebro). Martial often and lovingly mentions the place of his homeland in his poems. The year of his birth is unknown; Only on the basis of a combination of some data from the 24th epigram of the 10th book can one assign the time of birth of Martial to 40 AD.

Picture of morals

The content of the epigrams contained in these 12 books is extremely diverse, touching on all sorts of circumstances, phenomena and accidents of everyday life and representing, in general, a very a bright picture morals and life of the second half of the first century of the Roman Empire. Most of all, two features are striking in them: the poet’s penchant for depicting sexual promiscuity, the nudity of which reaches the point of shamelessness, leaving behind the liberties of all other Roman writers - and the flattery and groveling that knows no bounds before the rich and strong people, in the form of acquiring their location and handouts.

If we remember that, on the one hand, filled with extreme cynicism in pictures of debauchery, and on the other, with the most shameful flattery in front of wicked people, these poems belonged to the foremost poet of the era, who was read greedily by contemporaries of both sexes, then in Martial’s epigrams one cannot help but see the bright proof moral failure both literature and society of the Domitian era. Only one book of epigrams is free from the filth of debauchery, the eighth, which the poet dedicated to Domitian and, according to him, deliberately spared the obscenities common in other books; but nowhere can one find such pearls of groveling as in this book.

To justify his obscenities, Martial, in the preface to the 1st book, refers both to previous poets, among other things to Catullus, who can be called the founder of the Roman erotic epigram, and to the fact that he writes in such language only for people who have a taste for shamelessness, lovers of unbridled spectacles on the festival of Flora (ludi Florales), and not for the Cato. But, at the same time, he does not hide the fact that this is precisely the side of his poems that attracts readers to them, and even stern-looking women love to read him on the sly (X1, 16).

It is in vain that the poet assures that his love for pictures of debauchery in poems does not indicate the licentiousness of his morals (I, 4; XI, 15). It cannot be that a person of any strict morals would draw with such constancy and with such love all kinds of natural and unnatural forms of depravity; and Martial’s biography, as far as it can be reconstructed from his own statements, does not at all indicate that he had lasciva only pagina, and vita - proba, as he expresses himself about himself. As for flattery not only to Domitian, but also to his favorites, courtiers from freedmen and rich people in general, here is an excuse for those who often forget everything human dignity the only thing that can serve the poet is that he was not one of the writers in Domitian’s time to play such a role that his contemporary and rival, also an outstanding poet Statius, was not inferior to him in this regard, about whom Martial does not mention a single word (just as Statius does not mention him ), and that, finally, for the sake of personal safety, Quintilian himself sometimes considered it necessary to burn incense to such a bloodthirsty despot as Domitian.

No one, however, was such a virtuoso in flattery and groveling as Martial, and the vileness of these qualities of his literary activity aggravated by the fact that when political circumstances changed, he, while praising Domitian’s successors, already treated the latter and his reign with sharp censure and glorified Nerva for the fact that “during the reign of a cruel sovereign and in bad times he was not afraid to stay an honest man"(XII, 6).

Literary merits

In literary terms, Martial's epigrams are works of great poetic talent. He gave the Roman epigram, as a special type of lyric poetry, a broad development that it had not had before. Epigram as a special type literary works, appeared in Rome back in the Cicero era, but all the poets who tried to write in this kind were only partly epigrammatists; the epigram was not the main type of their literary activity. Calvus and Catullus, the main representatives of the epigram of earlier times, gave it particular causticity, using it especially as a weapon in the struggle against political and literary enemies.

In Martial, the epigram takes on all sorts of shades, from a simple poetic inscription on objects or a caption to objects (which was the epigram in its original form among both the Greeks and Romans), to a virtuoso in wit, accuracy, piquancy or simply playfulness of the turn of a poetic joke on the most ordinary, as well as on the most whimsical subjects of everyday life. Therefore, Martial also has primacy in the epigram, as Virgil does in epic poetry, and Horace in purely lyrical (melic) poetry. It goes without saying that this comparison does not at all indicate the equality of Martial with the two leading representatives of Roman poetry; but in the kind of literature that constituted Martial's specialty, he should undoubtedly be given first place.

Related information.