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Petronius And Plato

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Averil Cameron
Averil Cameron
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New Tork/King's College, London
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Extract

It has frequently been remarked by critics of Petronius (though usually merely in passing) that the entry of the monumental mason, Habinnas, in the Cena Trimalchionis is modelled on that of Alcibiades in Plato's Symposium. Yet surprisingly enough the parallel has not found its way into the commentaries, nor has it ever been analysed in detail. In fact it can stand as an interesting illustration of the use of literary allusion in the Satyricon.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , December 1969 , pp. 367 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1969

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References

1 A. L., ‘Zu Petronius’, Berl. phil. Woch. (1900), 925–6;Google ScholarWissowa, G., ‘Athenaeus u. Macrobius’, Nachr. Gott. Ges., Phil.-Hist. Kl. iii. (1913), 334 n. 2;Google ScholarMartin, J., Symposion. Die Gesch. einer lit. Form, Paderborn (1931), 96;Google ScholarCourtney, E., ‘Parody and literary allusion in Menippean Satire’, Philologus cvi (1962), 97;Google ScholarBacon, Helen H., ‘The Sibyl in the Bottle’, Virginia Quarterly Rev. xxxiv (1958), 271.Google Scholar

2 Hirzel, R., Der Dialog ii (Leipzig, 1895), 46 n. 2, 313 n. I.Google Scholar

3 So A. L., loc. cit.

1 Sullivan, J. P. in Critical Essays in Roman Literature: Satire (London, 1963), 86,Google Scholar and see too Anion vi (1967), 82–3.Google ScholarArrowsmith, W., ‘Luxury and Death in the Satyricon’, Arion v (1966), 312, emphasizes the structural importance of Habinnas.Google Scholar

1 Cf. 132 ‘novae simplicitatis opus’. Plato is a recommended author in the ‘schedium Lucilianae humilitatis’ (c. 5).

2 George, Peter, ‘Style and Character in the Satyricon’, Anion v (1966), 339.Google Scholar

1 Fraenkel, E., Horace (Oxford, 1957), 136 n. 1.Google Scholar

2 For Tacitus and the dialogue form see Cameron, Alan, ‘Tacitus and the date of Curiatius Maternus’ death’, C.R. N.S. xvii(1967), 258 if.Google Scholar

3 Collignon, P., Étude sur Pétrone (Paris, 1892), 94 ff.(still fundamental for literary allusions in the Satyricon, though by no means always to be followed).Google Scholar