The Satyricon

In the first part of the narrative, Encolpius takes on a relatively passive and observational role, describing events (such as Trimalchio’s banquet) but not acting much. Encolpius begins to take on a more traditional role as protagonist when the plot becomes more focused on his dispute with Ascyltus, and this trend continues with the events onboard the ship. Although the details are vague, Encolpius and Giton are forced to reckon with the consequences of their previous recklessness and debauchery, and when Encolpius finds out who is onboard the trip, he explicitly announces “So at last, Fortune, your conquest is complete!” (89). This comment aligns Encolpius with the classical heroic tradition, in which individuals often had to contend with fates or fortunes controlled by the gods and reckon with sometimes tragic consequences for their previous actions. However, Petronius is also poking fun at this more high-brow tradition because his characters are not actually resigned to nobly accepting their fate but try to hide and escape as much as possible.

Comical chaos and physical brawling ensue aboard the ship, echoing the previous brawls at the lodgings and during Trimalchio’s dinner. Giton shows increased agency and a more active role in this section. While he is still enslaved by Encolpius, he seems to achieve a certain type of equality since he and Encolpius now effectively have the same status: both are outlaws. Giton firmly refuses Eumolpus’s suggestion that they try to disguise themselves: “do you really think that a change of color alone can disguise our appearance?” (91), criticizing Eumolpus’s intelligence, and refusing to follow the directives of someone who is his social superior.

Giton’s actions are what end up resolving the whole conflict. After Eumolpus’s noble but ineffectual attempts to intercede for the two men, “Giton with supreme bravery applied his razor threateningly to his manhood and threatened to excise the root cause of all our troubles” (96). This moment parallels the earlier scene where Ascyltus suggested cutting Giton up and dividing him between Ascyltus and Encolpius in order to resolve their dispute. Giton now replays this scene, but from a position of agency rather than passivity. He is the one wielding the blade (which is not actually sharp), and he also draws attention to the source of his influence. Essentially, all of these people keep fighting over access to Giton’s penis, and he demonstrates that even as a slave, he does have some control over his own body.

While the individuals aboard the ship can reconcile and set their differences aside, the theme of fate plays out even more strongly through the device of the storm and subsequent shipwreck. Shipwrecks are often a convenient literary device for getting characters to an unknown place where they didn’t choose to be, and where they can encounter unfamiliar peoples and cultures (for example, Gulliver’s Travels starts off with a shipwreck stranding Gulliver in the land of Lilliput and several of Shakespeare’s plays including The Tempest and Twelfth Night also make use of this device). The epic tradition of Homer and Virgil, which Petronius would have been familiar with, also often used shipwrecks to delay the attainment of the hero’s goal and generate adventures and misadventures.

The danger and loss of life associated with the shipwreck allows for some of the more earnest and somber scenes in an often raucous text. Faced with almost certain death, Giton literally ties himself and Encolpius together so that “we shall be united for longer in death, at any rate, if in nothing else” (106), evoking a quite possibly sincere love between the two individuals. It is, of course, also possible that Giton wanted to ensure that he can continue to benefit from his relationship with Encolpius, but either way, the belt fastened around them symbolizes the complex, ambivalent, and emotionally charged bond between the two men. Moreover, when Lichas’s body washes up on the beach, Encolpius offers a poignant reflection on the futility of wealth and power, lamenting that “So off you go, mortal men, and fill your minds with ambitious designs! Off with you, careful souls, to order those riches […] which you think will last for a thousand years!” (108). For Encolpius, Lichas’s death reveals the futility of trying to assert control or plan for the future, because catastrophe could always be just around the corner; Encolpius grimly concludes “life is a shipwreck everywhere” (108).

The shipwreck becomes a metaphor for the sudden changes of fortune, but it also serves its role as a plot device, allowing for change of setting, and the introduction of new episodes. Unfortunately, Encolpius and his companions have arrived in possibly an even more corrupt and decadent setting; the bailiff provides exposition by telling them about Croton and warning them that it is “a plague-ridden expanse, populated by nothing but corpses being pecked to pieces, and the crows at work pecking them” (110). This vivid and grotesque metaphor highlights the disgust that Petronius shows towards a world where individuals rely on manipulating and grasping at others, rather than doing anything productive. At least in Campania, individuals seem have been scrappy and living by their wits, or possibly upstarts like Trimalchio, whereas Croton seems to be populated entirely by parasites.

However, in an interesting character development, Eumolpus proposes taking advantage of this; his proposal is so surprising that Encolpius “thought that the old man was being facetious” (111), revealing that this suggestion is out of character for Eumolpus. While Eumolpus often seems dreamy and lost in his own world, he is shrewd enough to see an opportunity when it presents itself, revealing that none of Petronius’s characters are truly lacking pragmatism and opportunism. The complexity of Eumolpus’s character is further established when, having hatched this plan, he reverts to musing on poetry. His long poem discussing the Roman civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar (49-45 BCE) is thematically connected to the plot, since Pompey and Caesar were initially allies, and Pompey was even married to Caesar’s daughter. However, their political rivalry eventually led to the two men engaging in a civil war, and the conclusion of that war with Caesar’s victory was a significant step towards Rome moving from republic to empire. While petty in comparison, the squabbles and betrayal that Encolpius experiences with Ascyltus and Eumolpus shows similar tensions.