The Peacock, the Chicken, and the Egg: Ennius' Avian Metempsychosis and Petronius' Satyrica

Trimalchio's pastry peahens' egg dish in Petronius' Satyrica (33.3–8) alludes to Ennius' dream of Homer in the proem of the Annales (especially fragments 8–11 Sk). This intertextual play extends into several of Trimalchio's other dishes as well. These allusions to Pythagorean metempsychosis as explained by Ennius' Homer reinforce the depiction of Trimalchio's home as an underworldlike space and lend nuance to the various Pythagorean references in the Satyrica. The pastry peahens' eggs also fit into a larger network of metaliterary avian motifs in the novel that may have played a role in Petronius' construction of his own authorial identity.