Satyricon (Romance)

The Satyricon is a work in Latin satirical allotted to Pétrone, which lived at the time of the emperor Néron.

Synopsis

The Romance mixes towards and Prose, Latin traditional and vulgar. The title is besides a derivation of Latin saturated , which means “mixture, pot-rotted”. Moreover, one clearly notes the word game between “satyr” (those which will read it will include/understand why) and “satire” (let us not forget that it is about a partly picaresque novel). It tells the adventures, in a declining Rome of two discharged young people, Encolpe and Ascylte, as well as young lover of this last, Giton. During their peregrinations, they are invited by a freed rich person, Trimalcion, which invites them to a splendid feast. The guests discuss themselves and the life in general. The novel also includes other adventures like a shipwreck or a voyage in Italy of the South. The discussion thread of the account is probably the anger of Priape, caused by Encolpe after it killed a goose, crowned bird of the god.

Titrate work

According to the manuscripts which one has, the title of work is Satiricon or Satyricon or Satirici or Satyrici or Satyri or Satirarum . The tradition forces to limit us between the choice of Satiricon and Satyricon , in accordance with the Bucoliques ( Bucolicon in Latin) and with the Géorgiques ( Georgicon ) of Virgile, because one finds the same termination there - icon, more precisely - icōn, which comes from the Greek suffix - ικός to indicate “something which is relative to” and which in is its plural genitive to agree to the word liber or libri that one often added to the titles of Latin works. It is rather strange that one does not put the title of the work of Pétrone in the plural and that one kept the title of origin…

One is sure that the Bucoliques are a book relating to the shepherds ( βουκόλοι in Greek) and that the Géorgiques are a book relating to the farmers ( γεωργοί ); what is it T then for our Satiricon or Satyricon ? If one decides for the first C-W communication, that wants to say that one places oneself in the universe of the saturated or will satira ; the saturated lanx , a culinary receipt characterized by the mixture of the food products, being at the origin of the term, one managed to qualify saturated by metaphor, a “composite kind which mixes prose, poetry, tragedy, comedy in a delicious tangle of let us tons and kinds”. But the adjective satiricus , satirical French ``'', appeared in Latin only at the beginning of IVe century, in the Christian writer Lactance, it is thus far from probable that a hellenized form of this word could be used as title with a work of Ier or IIe century, except if Pétrone were the pioneer and that we do not have of them traces. Then, a Latin word could not have a Greek ending, which show us besides, the titles Bucolicon and Georgicon .

We choose thus the second C-W communication, which satisfies this constraint of variation, since it refers to the substantive satyrus , loan of the Greek σάτυρος , the “satyr”, but who is closely related to mythology; however in the book, there are hardly allusions to satyrs. One should not however forget, only the term σάτυρος can also indicate an human being, like French “satyr”. We can thus conclude, by admitting this C-W communication, that the Satyricon of Pétrone contains stories of people discharged, obscenes and lustful. But the things can be much simpler than that: in Latin manuscripts, the word will satira is also spelled as will satyra with the will of the scribe; one supposed even an etymological relationship between saturated and σάτυρος . It may be also that Pétrone exploited this ambiguity.

Establishment of the text

The text that we currently have is very fragmentary. All the existing manuscripts derive from a Codex called ω . This codex belonged to satirical complete works of Pétrone. It is known for us only by the means of intermediate editions. Various editions followed one another throughout the Moyen-âge and of the Renaissance, mainly of the principal fragment, the feast of Trimalcion. The first complete edition, but not very reliable, of the Satyricon was made with Amsterdam in 1669. In 1862, Bücheler published two editions which are regarded as the first valid ones. Lastly, in 1961, K. Müller gave a lesson of the text on which are based the majority of the current translations.

Summary

August 1st

Chapters 1-26

Chapters 26-78 (“the banquet of Trimalcion”)

Chapters 79-99

Chapters 100-124

Chapters 125-141

Literary and cultural posterity

August 1st

Supplements apocryphal books

Modern literature

Graphic arts

Péplum of Blutch, going back to 1996, in is a rather free adaptation as a cartoon.

Film

Opera

This work also inspired with Bruno Maderna an opera in an act entitled Satyricon .

French translations

Satyricon , translation of Laurent Tailhade, 1902. Currently available edition at Garnier-Flammarion.
Satyricon , translation of Pierre Grimal, foreword of Jean Dutourd, Delivers Pocket, 1960
Satyricon , translation of Francoise Desbordes, Flammarion, janv. 1993,275 Pages

See too

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