Journal satyricon summary of osorgin. Petronius "Satyricon" - analysis
Friends, the work has come down to us in fragments (I’ll talk about this later), so it starts abruptly and incomprehensibly, however, it ends the same way.
It all starts with the fact that a certain Agamemnon rants about the decline of rhetorical art. He is listened to by Enclopius (on whose behalf the narration is being conducted). Suddenly he realizes that he has lost sight of his friend Ascyltus. In addition, 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 kind of brothel. Enclopius runs away from there, Ascyltus catches up with him. It turns out that some uncle lured him there too. Finally Enclopius sees Githon, his beloved boy; but he is crying. It turns out that Askilt ran to him first and, in general, tried to seduce him. Enclopius then invites Ascyltus to travel without them, since he is already tired of him, all the more, he sticks to Giton, whom Enclopius himself loves. A. left; but when E. began to amuse himself with G., Asclete returned and beat E.
Then the "friends" go to the forum, already in the evening, and try to sell the stolen tunic. A man and a woman come up to them, and on the man's shoulders is some kind of E.'s tunic, which he apparently lost earlier; a lot of money is sewn into the tunic. And the tunic they're selling must have been stolen from this guy. The woman understands this, starts screaming and tearing out the tunic, and the "friends" tear out the old tunic (what with the money) from them. They want to sue. Then they just exchanged tunics.
Then Psyche comes to their house, the servant of a certain Quartilla, whom "friends" once dishonored, and this K. appears all in tears. She prays them for two things: that they do not reveal the mysteries of the sanctuary of Priapus (they apparently had debauchery there), and, secondly, she had a vision that they could cure her of a fever. "Friends", of course, agree, promise to do what they can. And then K. and the maid (a girl came with them) begin to laugh; K. says that he knows that he will cure her. And here the debauchery begins; friends are tied up, raped, then a certain kined comes and does such things there that it is a shame to write. Then they were taken to another room - for a feast - "to honor the genius of Priapus with an all-night vigil." There, too, lawlessness was going on with the direct participation of the kined, and then K. decides that Giton (well, “brother” E.) will deflower the girl that came with her. And so it happened. In general, somehow it all ended.
Then they decided to go to a feast to Trimalchio. They come to the baths, see T. there, take a steam bath, go on admiring the luxury of his house; at some point, a slave runs up to them and prays that they intercede for him - he forgot the clothes of the steward in the bathhouse, and now they want to beat him. They intercede, the steward is merciful. The servant thanks them heartily.
Finally they come, settle down around the table. The servant boys go about and sing all the time, though out of tune; they rub the guests' feet, cut their nails, and so on. Trimalchio is brought in on pillows, he is all hung with gold. They begin to serve food - ostrich eggs, in which there are "wineberries" (who knows what it is). When one of the slaves drops a silver tray, T. orders him to be punished, and the dish to be swept out of the room along with rubbish.
They bring the next dish, depicting 12 signs of the Zodiac, and each sign has the corresponding dishes (Taurus has veal, etc.). Then: “a dish, on it are birds and a pig's udder, and in the middle is a hare, all in feathers, as if in the form of Pegasus. At the four corners of the dish, we noticed four Marsyas, from the skins of which a richly peppered gravy flowed directly onto the fish, swimming exactly in the channel. The neighbor tells Enclopius that T. is a freedman; before he had nothing, now he has become incredibly rich, so he is furious with fat. He grows everything - honey, wool, mushrooms - and receives it at home, buying the best sheep and bees. His freedmen friends are about the same get-rich-quick people. Then there will be a trail. a dish: a boar with a cap on its head, piglets made of dough around, and a flock of thrushes flew out of the cut. He is wearing a hat because yesterday the boar was served as the last dish, but then they were released; and today he is here as a freedman, such a witticism. Then T. left the feast for a while; the guests talk about expensive bread, about the fact that no one reveres Jupiter, about their acquaintances, and so on. T. returned and said that he needed to "take it easy" - something was wrong with his stomach; and if anyone needs it, let them not get angry, there are vessels and everything necessary outside the door).
Then they brought three pigs, and T. said that he could kill and cook any; and he himself chose the oldest one for cooking. T. rants about his extensive library; asks Agamemnon to tell about the wanderings of Odysseus; he himself read about them in childhood - he says that, they say, he remembers how the Cyclops tore off Odysseus's finger with tongs (well, this is not true, he confuses everything).
Then they bring a huge roasted boar. But T. begins to resent, 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. further carries some kind of nonsense that he has a lot of silver, and since he is a connoisseur 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 on T. from the stairs; 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 gifts were given to the winner (for example, if the servant called out: “Leek and peaches!” - the winner received a whip (to flog) and a knife (to cross).
Asklit was laughing all this time, because everything looked pompous and stupid. Then a friend of T. began to scold A.: they say, why are you laughing? Freedmen are no worse than him; he, a freedman, is respected, he has amassed wealth, does not owe anyone money, he is fully educated. Then Githon began to laugh, pretending to be Ascletus' servant; friend T. reprimanded him. 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 Elena. Agamemnon kidnapped her, slipped a doe on Diana. This is what Homer tells us about the war between the Trojans and the Parentians. Agamemnon, if you please, won and gave his daughter Iphigenia to Achilles; from this Ajax went crazy, as they will show you now ”(well, of course, he distorted everything again). Then, who portrayed Ajax, chopped up the calf he had brought.
Suddenly, a hoop descended from the ceiling, on which golden wreaths and jars of honey hung; and Priapus of dough appeared on the table with baskets of fruit. "Friends" pounced on them and took more food with them. Then they began to pass around the circle the portrait of Trimalchio, who were all kissing.
T. asks his friend Niceroth why he is sad; N. says: when he was still a slave, he was in love with the wife of the tractor driver 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. was frightened, ran quickly to Milissa's house; and she told him that a wolf had just come running and tore 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 - such a story about a werewolf. T. also tells some kind of blizzard about the fact that one day an evil spirit stole a dead child from the mother, slipping a scarecrow instead of him.
Then came Gabinna, a stonemason who makes tombstones. He tells that he has just come from the feast, and paints what dishes were served there. Then he asks that they called the wife of T. Fortunata. She sat in a box with Gabinna's wife Scintilla, they giggled and showed each other their jewelry; then G. suddenly went up to Fortunata and lifted her legs.
Then a slave sang with a nightingale, after - one of the slaves read Virgil; and read terribly, barbarously mangling the words. But T. after the song began to praise the slave. Then they brought more and more dishes, and E. said that even now, when he remembers all this, he becomes ill. They brought, according to him, something absolutely terrible - a pig surrounded by all kinds of fish and birds; T. said it was all made from pork. Then two slaves came with an amphora on their shoulders and seemed to begin to quarrel - and one broke the other amphora. Shells and oysters rained down from it, which they began to distribute to the guests. And then the slaves came and began to wrap flower garlands around the legs of the guests and moisten them with perfume - E. says that he is ashamed to even talk about this.
Then T., getting excited, orders the servants, Philargir and Karion, to settle down in the box. He says that slaves are also people, and also that in his will he ordered to release all slaves after his death, and bequeathed to Filargir the estate and a woman, and Karion - a house and money. 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 soldiers guard it (so that no one ran there out of need), that there should be a statue of his wife nearby, and there should also be a clock - so that everyone involuntarily read his name, depending on what time it is. Then he read out his gravestone inscription: HERE IS THE REST OF POMPEI TRIMALCHION METCENATIAN. HONORARY SEVIRAT WAS AWARDED TO HE IN CIRCUIT. HE COULD DECORATE ANY DECURIA OF ROME WITH HIMSELF, BUT DID NOT WISH. GOOD, WISE, FAITHFUL, HE WAS OUT OF LITTLE PEOPLE, LEFT THIRTY MILLION SESTERTS AND NEVER LISTENED TO A PHILOSOPHER. BE HEALTHY AND YOU WILL BE HEALTHY.
Enclopius told Ascletus that he could not stand going to the bath, and they decided during the turmoil, when everyone was going to the bath, to run away. But when they were crossing the bridge with Giton, a chain dog barked at them, and G. fell into a pond; and Enclopius was drunk, so, holding out his hand to G., he fell down himself. They were dragged out by the steward, and asked to be led out of the gate; however, they were told that in this house they did not leave through the same gate through which they entered. They had to go to the bathroom. A lot of people were steaming there; Trimalchio boasted, as usual, and ordered everyone to feast until morning. Suddenly a rooster crowed; T. said that he was screaming either to the fire or to death, and ordered to catch that rooster. The neighbor's bird was dragged, hacked to death and boiled.
Then, along with the slaves, some, according to E., a handsome boy came, to 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 get a huge dowry by marrying a rich bride, and she ... And he kissed the boy not because because he is handsome, but because he is diligent, knows the score and knows how to read. And he told Gabinna not to build a monument to his wife near his grave. T. starts boasting again; tells that, being a slave, he pleased both the master and the mistress; the owner bequeathed to him the patrimony. Deciding to engage in trade, he equipped five ships - but they all sank. But T. did not despair and again set off five ships with goods - larger and stronger; then he earned a lot of money, began to successfully manage the economy, 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 the servant to bring the clothes in which he would be buried; admiring her and ordering her to be well kept, he said that he wanted to be majestically buried and the citizens remembered well. As a result, T., completely drunk, lay down on the pillows, telling the guests to imagine that he was dead and say something good about him. :) The trumpeters began to play a funeral song. One slave trumpeted so loudly that the guards came running and, thinking that a fire had started in the house, broke the doors and began to pour water. Then the "friends", leaving Agamemnon, took advantage of the opportunity, rushed to eat. Through the notches that Giton had prudently made on the pillars, they reached home; but the old hostess, who was drunk and asleep, did not let them in, and only the courier of Trimalchio, who was passing by, knocked out the door, and so the "friends" were able to enter. However, at night, says E., Asclitus lured Giton out of E.'s bed - in general, it is 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 had to figure out who the boy would stay with. They already wanted to fight, but Giton stopped them. Then they told him to choose a "brother" himself; and Giton chose Asklit, although he spent much 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 away his weapon from harm's way.
Enclopius wandered into the Pinakothek (art gallery), looked at the pictures there, said that even the gods are characterized by the pangs of love. Then some old man appeared in the Pinakothek - Eumolpus. In general, he tells a completely pedophilic, excuse me, story. When he lived in Pergamon, he fell in love with the son of his master. In front of the owners, he always said that he negatively looked at joys with boys, that he was so chaste, etc., and as a result, the owners believed him, and he began to spend a lot of time with the boy. Once, when they were lying in the triclinium after a feast, Eumolpus moved up to the lying boy and said that if he managed to 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, gave him doves in the morning. Another time he said: if the boy does not notice how I will, um, touch him, then I will give him two fighting cocks in the morning. The boy wanted roosters, he pretended not to notice anything. For the third time, he said that if he could do something with the boy, and he did not notice, 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 already, and the boy kept waking him up, and then he told the boy - sleep, otherwise I will tell everything to my father.
Enclopius asks Eumolpus about paintings and artists; he tells him about Democritus, Chryssip, Myron and says that today painting is in decline, because the world is ruled by money. 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 fled, 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 to the bathhouse and even reads poetry there. Enclopius at the house meets the weeping Giton; he says that he is incredibly sorry that he went with Asklit. Enclopius still loves Giton and keeps him. When Eumolpus comes (who really liked Giton), he tells a story that in the bathhouse a man called Giton loudly and angrily, because he had lost his clothes (well, it was Asklit). And everyone sympathized with Asklit, but in the end he was taken with him by some man, a Roman horseman, because Asklit was, let's say, physically very well built.
When Eumolpus began reciting 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 extremely grateful to the beautiful young man. Giton left the room. Enclopius became jealous and told the old man to get out, but the old man managed to run out and lock the door with a key. Then Enclopius decided to hang himself. I was about to do this when the door opened and Eumolpus and Giton appeared. Giton said that he would not have survived the death of Enclopius, snatched the razor from the servant and cut himself on the neck. Enclopius did the same, deciding to die with his beloved, 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 thinking. a scuffle began, Eumolpus was dragged out of the room, he fought with the servants there, and Enclopius and Giton hid in the room. The steward Bargon was brought on a stretcher, who, recognizing Eumolpus as a "great poet", asked him to help compose a poem for his concubine.
Suddenly the herald and Asklit appeared. The herald said that whoever said where the boy named Giton was was would receive a great reward. Enclopius hid Giton under the bed - the boy caught on the mattress from below, like Odysseus on the belly of a ram. Enclopius himself rushed off Ascleta, pretending to be a fool, begging to see Githon at least once more and asking him not to kill him—why else would I call the axe? (To break the door). Askleet said he was just looking for Giton. The herald searched everything, but found nothing, they left. But Eumolpus entered the room and heard Giton sneezing 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, propitiated him.
The three of them went on a trip by ship. At night, they suddenly heard someone say that if he finds Giton, he does not know what he will do with him. Eumolpus said that they were traveling on the ship of the Tarentine Lich, and he was taking the exile Tryphena to Tarentum. It turned out that Giton and Enclopius were actually fleeing from Lich and Tryphena (they had some kind of dark history earlier, apparently). They think 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 sick with seasickness. Eumolpus says that this will not be possible - Lich may want to visit a sick passenger, and it will not be possible to get off the ship unrecognized. Enclopius offers to secretly get into the boat and swim wherever his eyes look - of course, it is better for Eumolpus to stay on the ship. Eumolpus says that the helmsman will notice them, and the sailor will guard the boat. Eumolpus offers to hide them in bags, leaving a hole for air, Eumolpus will say that this is his luggage, and he will carry it ashore, because his slaves rushed to the sea, fearing punishment. Enclopius says that they still need to relieve themselves, and they will sneeze and cough. Enclopius proposes to smear them with ink, so that they will be mistaken for Arabs; but Giton says the ink will wash off, and that's a crazy idea anyway. Giton offers to commit suicide. =) But Eumolpus offers to shave their heads and eyebrows and draw a brand on each of their faces - so that they would be taken for branded ones. 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.
Leah and Tryphena imagined what they should find on the ship of Enclopius. And Gis told them that he saw someone cut their hair - and the angry Lich ordered to bring those who do such bad things on the ship. Eumolpus said that he did it because the "fugitive slaves" had terribly tangled hair. Lich ordered Giton and Enclopius to be given forty blows each. As soon as they started beating Giton, he screamed, and then both Tryfen and the maids recognized him. And Lich approached Enclopius and, looking not even at his face, but at another place :), immediately recognized his runaway servant. (So, judging by the context, they seduced Tryphena and insulted Leah, and then fled). Tryphena still felt sorry for the fugitives, but Leah was angry. Eumolpus began to defend E. and G., Likh was not going to forgive; a fight started. Everyone fought, wounded each other, and in the end, Giton put a razor (the same blunt one that he hadn’t been able to kill) for no reason, and Tryfena, who had tender feelings for him, begged for the fight to stop. Everything is over. They concluded an agreement so that Tryphena would not pester G., Likh - to E., and that he would no longer insult him. Everyone reconciled and began to have fun. Maid T. gave Giton and Enclopius 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 vault and intended to starve herself to death there. The widow does not give in to the persuasion of relatives and friends. Only a faithful servant brightens up her loneliness in the crypt and just as stubbornly starves. The fifth day of mourning self-torture has passed... “...At that 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 pull off the robber bodies, wanting to give them to burial, one soldier was put on guard near the crosses. With the onset of night, 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 know who it was and what was being done there. He immediately descended into the crypt and, seeing there a woman of remarkable beauty, as if in front of some miracle, as if coming face to face with the shadows of the afterlife, 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 scratched face, he, of course, realized that this was only a woman who, after the death of her husband, could not find peace for herself from grief. Then he brought his modest dinner to the crypt and began to convince the weeping beauty so that she would stop killing herself in vain. After some time, a faithful maid joins the soldier's persuasion. Far from immediately, but the sad Ephesian beauty nevertheless begins to succumb to their admonitions. At first, exhausted by a long fast, she is seduced by food and drink. And after some time, the soldier manages to win the heart of a beautiful widow. “They spent in mutual embraces not only that night, on which they celebrated their wedding, but the same thing happened the next, and even the third day. And the doors to the dungeon, in case one of the relatives and acquaintances came to the grave, of course, were locked so that it would seem as if this most chaste of wives died over the body of her husband. Meanwhile, relatives of one of the crucified, taking advantage of the absence of guards, removed from the cross and buried his body. And when the amorous guard discovered this and, trembling with fear of the coming punishment, told the widow about the loss, she decided: “I prefer to hang the dead than to destroy the living.” 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 thought. And the next day, all passers-by wondered how the dead man climbed onto the cross. Everyone laughs. Enclopius is jealous of Giton for Tryphena.
Suddenly, a storm rises on the sea. Likh dies in the abyss. The rest continue to rush along the waves. Enclopius and Giton are ready to die together. Moreover, even in this critical situation, Eumolpus does not stop his poetic recitations. But in the end, the unfortunate escape and spend a restless night in a fishing hut. After some time, the body of Leah was thrown ashore, which 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 inhabitants says that terrible morals reign in this city, that nothing can be achieved here with honesty. And in order to live comfortably and carefree, the adventure friends decide: Eumolpus will pretend to be a very wealthy person who is considering who to bequeath all his untold wealth. His son allegedly recently died, he went away from his native city so as not to torment his heart, and on the way the ship fell into a storm and his money and servants drowned; however, in his homeland he has untold wealth. Eumolpus reads the poem "On the Civil War" (rather voluminous). It depicts the fight between Caesar and Pompey. The reason for this struggle, the poet considers Pluto's anger at the Romans, who in their mines dug almost to the underworld. 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 argues with Lucan and parodies the mediocre classicists of his time.
So, many Crotonians count on a share in the will of Eumolpus and try to win his favor.
At this time, the maid of Kirkei comes to Enclopius, who has inflamed passion for E.. He agrees to see her. She's very pretty, and E. and K. kiss and all, but E., let's just say, can't do much more. Kirkeya is disappointed and offended - they say, why am I bad? She wrote him a mocking letter, he wrote back; asked for forgiveness, was looking 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, referring 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, for some reason bludgeons him (?). Then the priestess herself appears - Enotea (also an old woman), and asks what they are doing here. The old woman explains the problem of Enclopius. Enotea says that in order 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 Enclopius is attacked by three fat geese. One of them, especially violent, E. manages to kill. He tells Enotea about what happened, she is horrified, since it was a sacred goose, but, in general, promises to hide this incident. She performs a certain healing ceremony (it is 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.
Then it is told about Philomela - this is an old woman who herself often obtained an inheritance from rich husbands; now she sends her son and daughter to Eumolpus and they all have fun there together.
To top it off, Eumolpus announces to the claimants for his inheritance that after his death they must cut his corpse and eat it. At this point, thank God, the manuscript ends.
Biography of Petronius:
The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals, creates a vivid characterization of the aristocrat of the time of Nero, Gaius Petronius. According to Tacitus, he was a refined, educated man. Being sent to Bithynia as a proconsul, and then as a consul, “he showed himself to be quite active and able to cope with the assignments assigned to him. But then Petronius left the service and was accepted into the close circle of the most trusted close associates of Nero and became in him a legislator of elegant taste. Tacitus further relates that Petronius was accused of plotting Piso, but, without waiting for the verdict, committed suicide. He spent his last hours at a feast among friends, in his usual rich and elegant atmosphere. Before his death, he sent Nero a kind of testament, in which he denounced the emperor's debauchery and his criminal deeds.
In some medieval manuscripts, extracts from a large narrative work, which is one of the most original monuments of ancient literature, have been preserved. The manuscripts are titled Saturae ("Satires") or, in the Greek way, Satyricon ("A satirical tale" or perhaps "Satirical tales"); in the literary tradition of modern times, the name "Satyricon" was established. Historical and everyday indications, the presence of literary controversy 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. A certain Petronius the Arbiter is named as the author in the manuscripts; we meet the same name in quotations from the "Satyricon" by late antique authors.
This image of a naturally 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 the "Satyricon" on the basis of 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, about whom Tacitus tells.
The Satyricon takes the form of a "menippe satura", a narrative in which prose alternates with verse, but in essence it goes far beyond the usual type of "menippe satura". This is a satirical novel of "low"-domestic 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 indicative that the novel of everyday content is built by Petronius as a “retelling” of the Greek love novel with the preservation of its plot scheme and a number of separate motives. The novel of the "sublime" style is translated into the "low" plan, characteristic of the interpretation of everyday topics in antiquity. From this point of view, the form of "menippean satura", which has already become traditional for a parody of high-style narration, is not an accident. But the Satyricon is not a literary parody in the sense of making fun of romance novels; alien to him is also that moralizing or accusatory attitude, which usually “was characteristic of the“ Menippean saturas ”. By “turning the face” of a love story, Petronius only seeks to entertain the reader with the merciless frankness of his descriptions, sometimes far beyond what was considered decent in serious literature.
Petronius and his novel in subsequent literature.
Roman Petronius "Satyricon" - one of the most interesting works of Roman literature. It gives us an idea of the different social groups in Rome in 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 fixed - folk Latin, which formed the basis of the Romance languages.
In subsequent centuries, Boccaccio with his Decameron, and Fielding with Tom Jones, and Lesage with Gilles Blas, and many authors of the so-called picaresque novel were the successors of this genre of satirical everyday adventure novel to some extent.
The image of Petronius interested Pushkin, and our great poet described him in "The Tale of Roman Life", unfortunately only 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 aesthete Petronius.
The Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz portrayed Petronius in the novel Kamo Coming, but he gave him a somewhat idealized image, emphasizing his humane attitude towards slaves and introducing Petronius's love for a Christian slave into the plot of the novel.
Before us is again a kind of picaresque novel, a novel in which the hero, undergoing various adventures, like a needle, permeates all contemporary reality for him and the author and, in the end, comes out unscathed.
Petronius Arbiter
Satyricon
The gymnasium of an Italian city, possibly Puteoli, where the rhetorician Agamemnon teaches. In the portico, where everyone could be present during rhetorical exercises - “declamations”, Encolpius, an educated and dissolute young man, takes the floor, on whose behalf the novel is narrated.
1. “Is it possible that some new furies are moving into reciters who shout: “I received these wounds for the freedom of the people, I sacrificed this eye for you; give me a guide to lead me to my children, for my broken knees do not hold up the body? But even this could be demolished if it showed the way to those who rushed after eloquence. So no! The pomposity of the topic and the most empty chatter of phrases only achieve that those who come to the forum feel as if they have come to another part of the world. That’s why, I think, boys become foolish in schools, because they don’t see or hear anything about human affairs there, but all about sea robbers standing on the shore with shackles at the ready, and about tyrants signing a decree so that sons cut off the heads of their fathers; always about prophecies during the days of a general pestilence, in which it is required to take three, or even more, girls to the slaughter, and other honey-colored verbal baking sprinkled with poppy seeds and cinnamon.
2. Is it not clear that the one who is fed in the midst of all this cannot acquire good taste just as the one who lives in the kitchen cannot smell fragrant. Forgive me, but I will say that you were the first to ruin eloquence. With a light, idle babble, aimlessly exciting the body of speech, you soon managed to make it droop, losing its strength. But they didn’t keep the young at recitations at the time when Sophocles and Euripides were looking for words with which to speak; and the locked up pedant had not yet ruined the talents, when Pindar and the nine lyric poets already refused to sing in Homer's verse. But in order not to cite poets alone as evidence, Plato and Demosthenes did not touch this kind of exercise. That is why their powerful and at the same time, I would say, chaste speech is blameless and not inflated when it stands before us in its natural strength. It was later that swollen and insatiable eloquence was brought to Athens from Asia, and as soon as it breathed its plague-like breath on young souls dreaming of great things, the spirit of eloquence immediately, infected, ossified. Who subsequently high Thucydides, who Hyperidova achieved fame? In the song and in that one, the blush of health will not glimpse; no, what has grown on this food is not able to live up to venerable gray hair. Such was the end of painting, when the audacity of Alexandria found shortcuts in great art.
3. Agamemnon did not tolerate me reciting in the portico longer than he himself had just sat down at school. “Young man,” he objected, “because there is an uncommon taste in your speech and - a rare thing! - attachment to common sense, I will not hide the secrets of the craft from you. Your truth, mentors err in these exercises when they have to go crazy among madmen. For if they did not say what was approved by the youngsters, then, according to Cicero, “one would remain in the school.” False flatterers, making their way to the feasts of the rich, do not think of anything else than that, according to their instinct, it will be most pleasant to hear: they will not get what they are looking for until they set up various traps for their ears. So the teacher of eloquence, if he does not, like a fisherman, put on the bait of the same bait, which he knows that the fish will be tempted by, he will sit on the shore without any hope of a catch.
4. It turns out that parents should be scolded, since they do not want their children to grow up in strict rules. First, like everything else, they also sacrifice this hope of theirs to vanity. Then, hastening to the desired, they push out on the forum the inclinations that have not yet been processed, entrusting the barely born babies with the same eloquence, which, according to them, is nothing more important. And it would be better if they endured the measured course of labors, while the student youth will be drunk with strict reading, while they will set their souls with the lessons of wisdom, while the young will learn to erase words with an inexorable style and listen longer to what they undertook to imitate; If only they would have inspired themselves better that what boys like is not at all delightful, and then their style, as they mature, would gain impressive weight. Now it's not like that: the boys amuse themselves in schools; When they grow up, they make fun of them at the forum, and in old age - and this is more shameful than either one or the other - no one wants to admit that he studied in vain. And so that you do not think that I do not approve of the taste for Lucilian unpretentiousness, I undertake to express in verse what I think.
5. Strict science who wants to see the fruit,
Let your mind turn to lofty thoughts,
Severe abstinence tempers morals;
Vainly let him not seek the proud chambers.
A glutton does not cling to feasts, like a miserable dish,
Let not your sharp mind fill with wine,
Let him not sit in front of the stage for days,
For money applauding the game of mimes.
If the city of Armored Tritonia is dear to him,
Or the settlement of the Lacedaemonians was to my heart,
Or the building of the Sirens - let him give his youth to poetry,
To eat with a merry soul from the Maeonian stream.
After turning the reins, it will spread to the flock of Socrates,
Will freely rattle Demosthenes powerful weapons.
Further, let the crowd of the Romans surround him and, driving out
Greek sound from speeches, their spirit will imperceptibly change.
Having left the forum, sometimes he will fill the page with poems,
The lyre will sing it, enlivened by a swift hand.
Let the proud song of feasts and battles tell
Cicero's exalted syllable will thunder invincibly.
This is what you should give your chest to drink, so that it is wide,
Free stream of speeches to pour out the Pierian soul.
6. I listened to him so diligently that I did not notice Askilt's flight. As I walk through the garden amidst this boiling of speeches, an innumerable crowd of students has already poured out into the portico after the end, presumably, of the improvisation of some reciter who replaced Agamemnon with his Swazoria. While the youths laughed at the maxims and scolded the arrangement of the speech as a whole, I got out in good time and set off in pursuit of Ascyltus. By negligence, I did not notice the road for myself, not knowing, however, in which direction our farmstead was. And so, wherever I turn, I always return there, until finally, exhausted by this running around and covered with perspiration, I approach some old woman who sold garden greens.
7. “Forgive me,” I say, “mother, maybe you know where I live?” She liked this stupid trick. “How,” he says, “not to know?” She got up and walked forward. I feel like a messenger from heaven, and when we came to such a secluded place, the mischievous old woman throws back the veil from the door and says: “It must be here.” Continuing to repeat that I don’t recognize my home, I see some people walking stealthily among the signs and naked harlots, and slowly, moreover, late, I realize that they led me to a brothel. Cursing the old woman with her intrigues and covering my head, I run through this haven of debauchery and suddenly, at the very exit, I run into Askilt, just as exhausted to death - as if the same old woman had brought him here!
Smiling, I greet him and inquire what he is doing in this indecent place.
8. And he wiped away the sweat with his hand and “if you knew,” he says, “what happened to me.” “Something creepy,” I say. Then he weakly like this: “I am wandering,” he says, “throughout the city, not being able to find the place where our courtyard is, suddenly a certain father of the family comes up to me and generously offers to accompany me. Then he leads me through dark alleys, leads me to this very place, and, showing me my wallet, makes me a vile offer. Already the harlot demanded an ass for the room, he already pulled his hands towards me, and if I didn’t have enough strength, I could pay ... ”It already seemed to me that everyone around the satyrion was drunk ...
By joining forces, we pushed the annoying one.
(Having dealt with the admirer of Askilt, the friends set off together to look for their hotel.)
9. As if in a fog, I saw Giton standing at the end of the lane, and rushed straight to him. When I asked if my brother had prepared something for us to eat, the boy sat on the bed and began to control the streams of tears with his thumb. Startled by the sight of my brother, I ask what he has. He did not answer immediately, through force, yielding only when I mixed anger with prayers. “Yes, yours,” he says, “I don’t know, a brother or comrade ran early to the room we rented and set out to overcome my bashfulness. I scream, but he pulled out his sword and “if you are Lucretia, there was,” he says, “your Tarquinius.” Hearing this, I stretched my hands to Ascylt's eyes and "what do you say, - I shout, - you are a skin, a shameful she-wolf, whose breath is stinking?" Ascylts feigned horror, and then, waving his arms, yelled at the top of his lungs. “Be quiet,” he shouts, “you, foul gladiator, whom the arena released from the ashes! Be quiet, you midnight frog, you, who before, when you were not yet a weakling, could not cope with a single decent woman, and to whom I was the same brother in the gardens, which this little boy now serves you in the inn. “But you slipped away,” I say, “from the mentor’s conversation.”
Among the satirical magazines, of which there were a great many in Russia at the beginning of the last century, "Satyricon" occupies a special place. Without a doubt, he enjoyed the greatest fame of all of them, as he was the most vivid spokesman of his time: he was even quoted at Duma meetings.
Main authors
The Satyricon group took shape by 1908; The first issue of the magazine came out on April 3rd. Humorous drawings and caricatures signed by Radakov (1879-1942), Remi (pseudonym of Remizov-Vasiliev), Benois, Dobuzhinsky began to appear on the pages of the new weekly magazine. These drawings were often accompanied by small poems; in addition, the magazine devoted much space to satirical poetry. Among the permanent employees of the "Satyricon" should be called Pyotr Potemkin (1886 - 1926), Vasily Knyazev (1877 - 1937 or 1938), acmeist Sergei Gorodetsky (1884 - 1967), Vladimir Voinov (1878 - 1938), Evgeny Vensky (pseudonym of Evgeny Pyatkin, 1885 - 1943), Krasny (pseudonym of Konstantin Antipov, 1883 - 1919), Samuil Marshak (1887 - 1964), Arkady Bukhov (1889 - 1946), Vladimir Likhachev (1849 - 1910), Dmitry Censor (1877 - 1947), Nikolai Shebuev (1874 - 1937).
Sasha Cherny, undoubtedly the most gifted of the authors of the group, left the magazine in 1911, having managed to publish many works there.
Of the prose writers of the group, besides Averchenko, Teffi (pseudonym of Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya, married Buchinskaya, 1872 - 1952), Osip Dymov (pseudonym of Osip Perelman) ...
"New Satyricon"
In 1913, a crisis occurred in the journal, most of its authors left Kornfeld and founded the New Satyricon, the first issue of which went out of print on June 6. The old magazine still continued to appear: Knyazev, Valentin Goryansky (pseudonym Valentina Ivanova, 1888-1944) and several other writers remained there, but in 1914, after the 16th issue was published, the magazine ceased to exist. The New Satyricon flourished for some time and attracted a number of young writers, among whom were Alexei Budischev (1867-1916), Georgy Vyatkin (1885-1941), Chuzh-Chuzhenin (pseudonym of Nikolai Faleev, 1873-30s) and Mayakovsky, who published in it the poems of 1915-1916 and his "hymns".
Content and focus of the journal
The magazine "Satyricon" was very diverse in content and direction: it reflected the tastes of the public and certain literary trends of its time. The public wanted it to be satirical. Responding to this wish, the journal revived and became to strengthen the old tradition of Russian literature. He proclaimed Saltykov-Shchedrin as his teacher, which is proved by the issue specially dedicated to his memory (“New Satyricon”, No. 17), published on the 25th anniversary of the writer’s death in 1914. Bukhov mentions this in his poem “Remember!”, placed in the issue:
...Many of you...
Picks up drops of caustic bile,
Dropped by a smart old man.
However, after the revolution of 1905, this tradition acquired a very special character in the world of the press. In the period 1905-1906, many satirical publications began to be published: "Hammer", "Machine Gun", "Bogey", "Masks", "Gadfly", "Zarnitsa", "Red Laughter", etc., in which they appear, alternating each friend, caricatures and poems, often signed by famous names from the Art World or from the Symbolist school. satire was usually extremely harsh and harsh, excluding any humor, in most cases painted in tragic tones: it was a time when images of death, blood, murder filled both painting and literature.
The Satyricon group, responding to the tastes of the time (close to Leonid Andreev), picked up this tradition and contributed to it. Many times the magazine has placed in very gloomy tones allusions to repression against the opposition, for example, under the guise of descriptions of executions by impalement in Persia.
Thus, on the one hand, the Satyricon develops themes that exclude laughter a priori. In his works, despair sounds, both political and moral, which sometimes really becomes a commonplace. Some poems openly fall into revolutionary pathos. Knyazev is especially inclined to him.
“Now,” Averchenko writes, “all of Great Rus' is writhing in its sleep, immersed in mortal boredom.” This phrase was designed for a comic effect: boredom and vulgarity were considered shameful, and it was customary to constantly remind them that they were opposed by ideals, enthusiasm, noble spiritual impulses; but this almost obligatory recommendation has long been more of a rhetorical formula than a real source of inspiration.
About whom wrote "Satyricon"
In fact, the only social stratum with which the pages of the Satyricon are filled is precisely the petty bourgeoisie, that philistinism, whose presence is felt among both the readers and the authors of the magazine. Krasny's poem, dated 1908, demonstrates, perhaps not quite consciously for the author himself, that the old Russian myths are losing their power. The poem is built on the contrast between the topics of conversations in society (freedom, homeland, indignation, sacrifice) and their material basis - a restaurant, a party, etc. (No. 10, 1908):
Oh, what could be prettier
Than walking in the world of searching,
Where the path is glorious only by sacrifice...
But much more interesting
Read about it in the novel
And sigh over coffee...
Perhaps the intention of the poet was to ridicule the softness of the average intellectual, but the effect produced by the poem is quite different, because the polarity of these ideas is too ridiculous.
Parody in a magazine
The magazine's output was rich in both old and new techniques. The first place among them was occupied by parody - a genre that is satirical in itself. The authors of the "Satyricon" did not neglect the opportunity to ridicule new literary trends, such as symbolism, futurism (for example, Bukhov's poem "The Legend of the Terrible Book" (1913) presents Futurist poems as the most terrible torture for the reader that one can imagine). Egofuturism (Igor Severyanin) has become a favorite target for parody. The archaic style was willingly used, with the help of which the most striking effect of the grotesque was created (for example, Shebuev's ode to universities, designed in the style of the Russian XV111th century, No. 37, 1913).
Often parody coexisted with a serious tone so covertly that contemporaries did not even always notice it. So, for example, Goryansky gave his collection "My Fools" the subtitle "Lyrical satires". Sasha Cherny uses this technique almost everywhere, and one of the letters to Kranichfeld proves that the poet used it quite consciously. He writes: "Humor, satire and lyricism are combined in the same poem..." Some of Bukhov's poems could be mistaken for those written by one of the Symbolists ("To the Poets").
Potemkin especially shone in this crafty genre. He was associated with the Symbolist milieu, frequenting the Stray Dog cabaret, staging some of his plays at the Crooked Mirror Miniature Theatre. In his collection Ridiculous Love (1908), there are also themes characteristic of Russian romantics and symbolists - masks, dolls, and it is not clear whether one should look for the funny in the serious or the serious in the funny. Later, namely in his collection of poems "Geranium" (1912), the poet will move away from this genre and come to a purely comic, more sincere and simpler.
Techniques of fairy tales and folk art in the "Satyricon"
Another favorite technique of the "Satyricon" is a fairy tale. Here its authors willingly followed Kozma Prutkov, in whom they recognized their predecessor. In 1913, a special issue (No. 3) was dedicated to his memory. One of the employees of the Satyricon, Boris Vladimirovich Zhikovich, signed the name Ivan Kozmich Prutkov, as the son of a fictional writer. Nevertheless, his tales are, as a rule, satirical, they do not contain absurdity, like Kozma Prutkov's. Thus, the fable "Brains and the Night" (1914) makes fun of spiritualism, although it is written in Prutkov's style.
"Satyricon" also willingly used the sources of folk art: fairground comedy, quatrains in the style of ditties, which Potemkin and Knyazev collected from the villages. If Knyazev’s ditties serve to “simplify” poetry, then Potemkin, especially in Geranium, with the help of folk style, introduces very lively comic motifs into the descriptions of the life of the St. Petersburg common people (“Groom”).
He did not drink fuselage,
But I drank a little
Copper in the ear
He wore an earring.
Here, the comic is achieved by introducing into the verses the language and habits of the common people: a clerk, an artisan, a worker, a petty merchant, and so on. Such poetry, typically urban and comically good-natured, anticipates the genres that would develop in the 1920s.
Pseudo-childish poetry
And finally, the authors of the "Satyricon" willingly used the form of pseudo-children's poetry. Thus, The Stranger's "Children's Song" (1913), written in response to the new restrictions on the press, portrayed the censors as obedient children:
Like Vanya-Vanyushka
The nannies turned up
Nannies are sad
Strict bosses...
But this literary device, created at first as a satirical one, gradually grows into a special genre, into a style that loses its original orientation. Subsequently, many of the poets of the Satyricon write specifically for children and influence future authors of this genre (the most famous of them is Samuil Marshak). Often they imitate English nursery rhymes and songs, as, for example, Vyatkin, who wrote a poem about the python "The Fifth".
Style of English humor
Some authors adopted the style of English humor, and the first among them was Teffi, whose stylistic devices and turns are examples of a purely English manner. Such, for example, is “the captain, who looked around with round eyes with the air of a man just taken out of the water” (“Instead of Politics”). Taffy's plots reproduce the technique of English humor, which achieves a comic effect, introducing absurdity into everyday situations - for example, a plot about a petty official who won a horse in the lottery and found himself in a hopeless situation, as she quickly brought him to complete ruin ("Gift Horse" ). In addition, the "Satyricon" often published foreign humorists, in particular Mark Twain.
Wordplay
However, the humor of the Satyricon was not only borrowed. Its best authors were able to continue the Russian comic purely verbal direction, based not only on a pun, but also on the semantic collision of words, on a joke that comes from a sound play on words, going back to Gogol.
Taffy's play on words is often brought to the point of absurdity, it causes laughter, as it introduces a whole family of words that sound like nonsense. So, for example, a boy, coming from school, asks adults: “Why do they say “anthem-Asia” and not say “anthem-Africa”?” ("Instead of politics"). Kulikov picks up Kozma Prutkov's play on the words "villa" and "pitchfork" in order to make a poem with a "social" sound on this material: the dream of a rich man - "villa" is opposed to the peasant's dream of new pitchforks ("Two thoughts", 1908). But here the social content pales next to the comic absurdity of the pun.
The Satyricon group, therefore, in its work stands, as it were, on two piles, on two traditions - satirical and humorous, which at that time were not too sharply divided, since humor was often mistaken for satire. Such a mixture prevented the authors of the magazine, at least most of them, from reaching the heights of humor (in the metaphysical sense), satire, in turn, lost its liveliness, degraded, fell into didactics and lost significance.
Nevertheless, the Satyricon remained the legitimate heir of Kozma Prutkov and paved the way for the flourishing of humorous literature that came later, in the 1920s.
Used book materials: History of Russian Literature: XX century: Silver Age / Ed. Zh. Niva, I. Serman and others - M .: Ed. group "Progress" - "Litera", 1995
The text of the first adventurous (or picaresque) novel known in world literature has survived only in fragments: fragments of the 15th, 16th and presumably 14th chapter. There is no beginning, there is no end, And in total, apparently, there were 20 chapters ...
The protagonist (the narration is being conducted on his behalf) is an unbalanced young man Encolpius, who has become proficient in rhetoric, is clearly not stupid, but, alas, not an impeccable person. He is hiding, fleeing punishment for robbery, murder, and, most importantly, for sexual sacrilege, which brought the wrath of Priapus, a very peculiar ancient Greek god of fertility, on him. (By the time of the novel, 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 with fellow parasites Ascyltus, Giton and Agamemnon arrived in one of the Hellenic colonies in Campania (a region of ancient Italy). Visiting the rich Roman horseman Lycurgus, they all "intertwined in pairs." At the same time, not only normal (from our point of view), but also purely male love is in honor here. Then Encollius and Ascyltus (still recently former "brothers") periodically change their sympathies and love situations. Askilt is fond of the cute boy Githon, and Encolpius hits on the beauty Tryphaena ...
Soon the action of the novel is transferred to the estate of the shipowner Likha. And - new love weaves, in which the pretty Dorida, the wife of Leah, also takes part. As a result, Encolpius and Giton have to urgently escape from the estate.
On the way, a dashing lover-rhetorician climbs onto a ship that has run aground, and manages to steal an expensive mantle from the statue of Isis and the helmsman's money. Then he returns to the estate to Lycurgus.
... Bacchanalia of Priapus' fans - wild "pranks" of Priapus harlots ... After many adventures, Encolpius, Giton, Ascyltus and Agamemnon end up at a feast in the house of Trimalchio - a wealthy freedman, a dense ignoramus who imagines himself to be very educated. He energetically rushes into the "high society".
Conversations at the feast. Stories about gladiators. The owner importantly informs the guests: “Now I have two libraries. One is Greek, the other is Latin. But it immediately turns out that in his head the famous heroes and plots of the Hellenic myths and the Homeric epic were mixed up in the most monstrous way. The self-confident arrogance of an illiterate owner is boundless. He graciously addresses the guests and at the same time, yesterday's slave himself, is unjustifiably cruel to the servants. However, Trimalchio is quick-witted...
On a huge silver platter, servants bring in a whole boar, from which thrushes suddenly fly out. They are immediately intercepted by birders and distributed to guests. An even grander pig is stuffed with fried sausages. Immediately there was a dish with cakes: “In the middle of it was Priapus made of dough, holding, according to custom, a basket with apples, grapes and other fruits. We greedily pounced on the fruits, but already a new amusement intensified the fun. For from all the cakes, at the slightest pressure, fountains of saffron were hammered ... "
Then three boys bring in the images of the three Lares (the guardian gods of the home and family).