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Encolpius, a soldier of fortune, despiser of pedantry, lecherous and contrary, and the beautiful Giton, who lives off his charms, are invited to a gargantuan banquet hosted by the prodigal, pompous, newly rich Trimalchio. When the feast turns into a riot, the two, joined by the down-on-his-luck poet Eumolpus, leave town quickly to avoid trouble. So begins the Satyrica, a bizarre odyssey through the carnivalesque landscape of Nero's empire.The author of the Satyrica, Petronius, had been Nero's intimate and advisor on all matters of artistic taste and elegance but a jealous rival turned Nero against him. No longer enduring "the suspense of fear or of hope," Petronius eluded his former patron by ending his own life. His novel has lived on, preserving for centuries tales of a time when virtue and vice, power and money, human comedy and human cruelty, mixed and melded unpredictably.The translation is accurate and contemporary. In addition, a chronology, introduction, and commentary offer the reader background on Petronius's social milieu and on the fascinating complexity of his seemingly low-brow novel's poetic structure.
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: University of California Press; Reprint edition (July 11, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520211189
ISBN-13: 978-0520211186
Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 7.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #464,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #510 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Ancient & Classical #739 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Ancient #3035 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Satire
At present on .com, there are 3 differenteditions of the SATYRICON offered. They are allexcellent...I own all 3. And if permitted, I planto review each of the three individually. Thisedition is hard to find, because of its title. has indexed it by its title -- SATYRICA -and thus, it does not come up on searches for"Petronius" or "Satyricon." Which is unfortunate,because it is probably the best of the 3 editions,with all of its extras. There have been many writers who have been influencedby having read Petronius and the SATYRICON (or SATYRICA).Some of these writers have even gone so far as to offertheir opinions about Petronius or about the SATYRICONitself. One of the excellent features of this editionof the SATYRICON (published by Univ. of California Press),translated and with an "Introduction" by R. Bracht Branhamand Daniel Kinney, is the fact that in the back of thebook they include a section titled "Petronius and hisCritics." In this section, they give provocative quotesby authors starting with John of Salisbury (12th century)and extending up through T.S. Eliot in 1932. What theymay not have known is that Herman Melville also hasa short piece about Petronius in his novel REDBURN,Chap. 56, in which the narrator of the novel talks aboutthe hands of his friend Harry Bolton and says: "It wasnot as the sturdy farmer's hand of a Cincinnatus, whofollowed the plough and guided the state, but it wasthe perfumed hand of Petronius Arbiter, that elegantyoung buck of a Roman, who once cut great Seneca deadin the forum." The SATYRICA (or SATYRICON) contains materials whichmight be considered salacious.
Satyrica
