How The Satyricon drew on The Odyssey
A documented line of influence: Petronius demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Odyssey
Homer · c. 725 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Satyricon
Petronius · c. 65
Ancient RomeRelevance
8/10
On The Satyricon’s page
- The Satyricon is a mock-epic, and the Odyssey is the thing it mocks
- Encolpius is the anti-Odysseus: hounded not by Poseidon but by the wrath of Priapus, washing up among con men instead of monsters, meeting a temptress named Circe
- Read Homer first and every parody lands — the Satyricon assumes you know the grandeur it's deflating
On The Odyssey’s page
- Petronius drags the Odyssey through the gutter — and it's the funnier for knowing the original
- Encolpius wanders Italy dogged by the wrath of Priapus, a low-rent stand-in for Poseidon's wrath at Odysseus
- He even runs into his own Circe — a temptress, no enchantress; the Satyricon is the epic remade as sexual farce