Antiquity Studies

Il canis ingens, il Capricorno e l’aragosta nella Cena Trimalchionis

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the exegesis of some Petronian animals. As for the chained dog, the painted one (29.1) and the one in the flesh (64.7-9 and 72.7-9), we recognise both a dense network of epic references to the catabasis of Aeneas and ironic allusions to Seneca and to the popular tradition. Besides that, in our opinion, the epic language used to describe the fall of Ascyltus and Encolpius into the fishpond (72.7) emphasises the game between art and life which pervades the Cena. In the second part we defend the manuscript reading super capricornum locustam marinam (35.4).


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Aug. 16, 2021 | Accepted: Sept. 18, 2021 | Published Dec. 14, 2021 | Language: it

Keywords Zodiac dish • Seneca • Cerberus • Pliny the Elder • Catabasis

Copyright © 2021 Tiziana Brolli. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-557-5/008


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