A commentary on magic and the supernatural in Petronius' Satyrica

Abstract

Petronius, like many of his contemporaries, had a deep interest in magic. Although magic rituals and tales with a supernatural theme make up a considerable part of the fragments that remain of his novel the Satyrica, little attention has been paid to Petronius’ account of magic. It is a commonplace of Petronian scholarship that the author is a realist, in his predilection for the seamier side of life, in his reproduction of popular speech, in his satirising of contemporary social issues, in his frank treatment of sexuality and in his expropriation of the popular mime, a genre defined by its attention to realism. This thesis, however, will argue that Petronius is a realist in a dimension which has not hitherto been explored in detail: his treatment of res magicae, which, as the commentary will show, is grounded in a bedrock of popular belief as recorded in documentary, as well as literary, texts. The commentary provides, therefore. a detailed examination of a selection of passages from Petronius’ novel Satyrica which have bearing on this aim. These passages include the rituals of Quartilla (16.1-26.6), Proselenos (131.1-131.7) and Oenothea (134.8-138.4) as well as the supernatural anecdotes recounted in the Gene Trimalchionis: the tales of Niceros (61.6-62.14) and Trimalchio (63.1-64.2). it is the contention of this thesis that these passages have real value for the study of ancient magic in that they provide rare insight into contemporary beliefs and realistically describe in detail actual magical rites as they would have been practised by members of Petronius’ society. The commentary provides numerous parallels for the magical procedures described by Petronius as well as discussion, and where these procedures are part of a greater scheme (for example, the three rituals mentioned above) particular attention has been paid to the role these individual procedures play in the ritual as a whole.