Symbolic Death Landscapes in the 'Satyricon'

Abstract

This essay goes into detail about the symbolic meaning and narrative function of the motif of Death in the work of Petronius. For this purpose, it develops the analysis of its repeated appearance on two central episodes in the Satyricon, the Cena Trimalchionis (Sat.26.7-78.8) and the famous tale of the Widow of Ephesus (Sat.111-112) inserted into a much wider narrative context. First, it is determined why Death is a narrative element which can be read in a symbolic sense in the Petronian text, on the basis of some theories present in literary criticism. Then, thorough the detailed study of the interaction core of the main characters with funeral matters and their peculiar way of experiencing death, we can establish the theory that Petronius uses the inversed meaning as an essential literary resource for his own technique. Basically, Death as a significant semantic instance in the Satyricon confers unity to the plot and is really into the literary art of Petronius in the light of the body of evidence here featured.