The Satyricon (also called Satyrica) is a Latin work thought to have been written about 65 GC by Gaius Petronius Arbiter. The Satyricon mixes prose and poetry and combines in places epic diction with mundane, comic events. It chronicles the misadventures of the retired illustrious gladiator Encolpius, his sixteen-year-old boyfriend Giton, and the lecherous old poet Eumolpus. The Satyricon depicts marginalized men’s encounters with highly privileged women as these men strive to improve their lives and enjoy their sexuality.
The failures of Roman and medieval sumptuary laws on women’s fancy dress reveal the limit to gender justice: what women want must be permitted. … Read the post limit to gender justice: lessons of ancient & medieval sumptuary laws
Inmate-partner violence hurts men, old, young, fat & thin. It has compelled men to accept being cuckolded and castrated. Those are terrible sacrifices. … Read the post men forced to offer sacrifices amid intimate-partner violence
As Guibert of Nogent understood, the classical idea of beauty was closely associated with desire. Guibert noted that desire requires from men sexual labor. … Read the post women’s beauty and men’s under-appreciated work of desire
Peter Abelard gave his son Astralabe advice on cuckolding. Glyco’s response to his steward cuckolding him in the Satyricon show men’s difficult position. … Read the post now-unspeakable wrong: resisting cuckolding in medieval Europe
Trimalchio’s marriage to Fortunata in the Satyricon shows difficulties with medieval philosopher Peter Abelard’s advice about women to his son Astralabe. … Read the post Abelard’s advice to his son Astralabe & Trimalchio’s Fortunata
The highly rhetorical Satyricon begins with declamations that parody criticism of education. A gendered perspective shows current application to feminism. … Read the post declamation in Satyricon’s school of rhetoric: a gendered perspective
In the Satyricon, Proselenos & Oenothea sought to cure Encolpius’s impotence. They mocked Jesus without his selfless love and healing success. … Read the post curing Encolpius’s impotence: Proselenos & Oenothea unlike Jesus
Encolpius suffered impotence with Circe in the Satyricon. The Virgilian cento describing his drooping penis proclaims the epic disaster of men’s impotence. … Read the post epic disaster of men’s impotence: Encolpius in the Satyricon
Despite metaphorical figuring of the penis as a weapon of violence, men’s erections should invoke hope for resurrection as in Abu Nuwas’s Arabic poetry. … Read the post resurrection: overcoming the poetic problem with penises & erections
In reading ancient Latin literature, pioneering 19th-century social scientist William Sanger didn’t distinguish between cultural constructions and reality. … Read the post ancient Latin literature in Sanger's 19th-century social science