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Rimell, Victoria
2002.
Petronius and the Anatomy of Fiction.
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Petronius, Sat. 141.4*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
These are the very last words of Eumolpus' testament. The editors all print them thus, but I suspect a hidden corruption in devoverint. The text may seem to have an acceptable meaning, but only on a superficial reading inattentive to the whole context. A certain exegetical discomfort becomes noticeable if the translations are compared: Ernout renders ‘maudire mon âme’, Ehlers in Müller's second and third editions translates ‘sie meinen letzten Atemzug herbeiwünschten’ (thus giving spiritus a strained translation as though it were extremus or ultimus spiritus), and Cesareo- Terzaghi's edition (under Pasquali's supervision) prefers to render with a nuance of the future ‘con quel cuore stesso con cui mi avranno maledetto l'anima’. Obviously, devovere is being understood as synonymous with exsecrari. This is an attested secondary meaning, ‘curse’, ‘execrate’, which developed from the technical religious one connected with the ritual of devotio. According to this interpretation, the captatores cursed the fact that Eumolpus, apparently a sick man on the verge of death, continued to live longer than they could reasonably have expected when they began to court him. But the expression does not seem adequate for conveying this meaning: instead, we would expect something like vitam meam devoverint or me et caput meum devoverint or, better, me ad mortem devoverint, or similarly explicit expressions.
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References
1 On the contemporary atmosphere, Sullivan, cf. J. P., Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero(Ithaca and London, 1985), 34f. and n. 35.Google Scholar
2 This second possibility has been proposed, though doubtfully (‘Ich phantasiere also’), by Thiel, H. van, Petron, Uberlieferung und Rekonstruktion (Leiden, 1971), 50–1.Google Scholar For a discussion of the theme of ‘Scheintod’ in the ancient novel, Wehrli, cf. F., Mus Heh 22 (1965), 142–8.Google Scholar
3 The theme manifests itself also in a varied form in a comparison with hunters and prey that symbolizes perfectly the ‘captatory’ activity of the heredipetae: 140,15,‘ sicut muta animalia cibo inescantur, sic homines non caperentur nisi spe aliquid morderent.’Google Scholar For further examples of this theme Tracy, cf. V. A., ‘Aut captantur aut captant’, Latomus 39 (1980), 399ff.Google Scholar
4 Jacobs must have been following a line of reasoning not very different from my own when 1 he proposed devorant,as indicated by Biicheler′s apparatus; he was emending not devoverintbut –the reading of Burmann′s text, devoveant.Google Scholar
5 The traditional background of the theme of cannibalism in the Satyr iconhas been analysed by Rankin, H. D., ‘“Eating People is Right”: Petronius 141 and a topos’, Hermes 97 (1969), 381–4.Google Scholar
6 Ciaffi, Cf. V., Struttura del Satyricon (Turin, 1955). 126fGoogle Scholar
1 Howell, P., A Commentary on Book One of the Epigrams of Martial (London, 1980), 148;Google Scholar on voyeurism at the baths, see also Mart. 1.96, and Howell′s Commentary, 307–8; on Mart. 11.75 Kay, cf. N. M., Martial Book XI: A Commentary (London, 1986).Google Scholar
2 Stern, M., Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (Jerusalem, 1974–1984), i.525. Stern prints Lindsay′s text and his app. crit.Google Scholar
3 Solin, H., ‘Juden und Syrer in westlichen Teil der romischen Welt’, ANRW II, 29, 2 (1983), 659.Google Scholar
4 T has vv. 1–6; nuda has been preferred by Martial′s editors since Schneidewin (in his edition of 1842) distinguished the three families of Martial′s manuscripts, Reeve, cf. M. D. ‘Martial’, in Texts and Transmission, ed. Reynolds, L. D. (Oxford, 1983), 241 ff.;Google ScholarScriverius, who based his texl on MSS mainly from the C family, has nulla, Friedlaender′s, cf. L. edition (Leipzig, 1886), i. 121; on contamination amongst the ABC families cf. Reeve, loc. cit. (above).Google Scholar
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