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Petronius Satyrica 89
- Classical World
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 106, Number 3, Spring 2013
- pp. 487-491
- 10.1353/clw.2013.0050
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
In section 89 of Petronius's Satyrica we find our hero Encolpius gazing at a picture of the fall of Troy, completely rapt (totum in illa haerere tabula), according to his companion, the poet Eumolpus. Critics have rightly pointed out the similarity with Aeneas at Aeneid 1. 494-95. What seems not to have been noted is the parallelism with "Horace," in Sat. 1.9.2, strolling along the Via Sacra, pondering frivolities, totus in illis. This paper examines the resulting parallels between Encolpius, Horace, and Aeneas, and explores further examples of the influence of Vergil's epic on Petronius's masterpiece.