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Fortunata and Terentia: A Model for Trimalchio’s Wife

  • Shannon N. Byrne
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Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel
This chapter is in the book Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel

Abstract

One of the analogues for Trimalchio is Maecenas, both the historical figure and the decadent caricature criticized by Seneca in the Epistles. This paper looks at Trimalchio’s wife, Fortunata, for whom Maecenas’ wife, Terentia, serves as an analogue. What little we know about Terentia are things Petronius’ contemporaries would have known and enjoyed seeing in Fortunata: for example, both women married high-maintenance men, both behave questionably with a family friend, both have a sharp eye for finances, and both like to dance. Endowing Fortunata with Terentia’s characteristics made the Trimalchio/ Maecenas connection all the more amusing for Petronius’ audience.

Abstract

One of the analogues for Trimalchio is Maecenas, both the historical figure and the decadent caricature criticized by Seneca in the Epistles. This paper looks at Trimalchio’s wife, Fortunata, for whom Maecenas’ wife, Terentia, serves as an analogue. What little we know about Terentia are things Petronius’ contemporaries would have known and enjoyed seeing in Fortunata: for example, both women married high-maintenance men, both behave questionably with a family friend, both have a sharp eye for finances, and both like to dance. Endowing Fortunata with Terentia’s characteristics made the Trimalchio/ Maecenas connection all the more amusing for Petronius’ audience.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Table of Contents VII
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Mapping the World in the Ancient Novel
  6. Sailing from Massalia, or Mapping Out the Significance of Encolpius’ Travels in the Satyrica 7
  7. Xenophon’s ‘Round Trip’: Geography as Narrative Consistency in the Ephesiaka 17
  8. Permeable Worlds in Iamblichus’s Babyloniaka 29
  9. Babylonian Stories and the Ancient Novel: Magi and the Limits of Empire in Iamblichus’ Babyloniaka 39
  10. Theama Kainon: Reading Natural History in Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon 51
  11. The Dialogic Imagination
  12. Fortunata and Terentia: A Model for Trimalchio’s Wife 65
  13. Elements of Ancient Novel and Novella in Tacitus 79
  14. ‘A mirror carried along a high road’? Reflections on (and of) Society in the Greek Novel 93
  15. The Heroikos of Philostratus: A Novel of Heroes, and more 107
  16. Springs as a Civilizing Mechanism in Daphnis and Chloe 123
  17. Arcadia Revisited: Material Gardens and Virtual Spaces in Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe and in Roman Landscape Painting 143
  18. Narrating Voyages to Heaven and Hell: Seneca, Apuleius, and Bakhtin’s Menippea 163
  19. Turning Points in Scholarship on the Ancient Novel
  20. Copyists’ Versions and the Readership of the Greek Novel 183
  21. Clues from the Papyri: Structure and Style of Chariton’s Novel 195
  22. New Evidence For Dating The Discovery At Traù Of The Petronian Cena Trimalchionis 209
  23. Bologna as Hypata: Annotation, Transformation, and Transl(oc)ation in the Circles of Filippo Beroaldo and Francesco Colonna 221
  24. The First Japanese Translation of Daphnis & Chloe 239
  25. Boundaries: Geographical and Metaphorical
  26. Refiguring the Animal/Human Divide in Apuleius and Heliodorus 251
  27. Eros the Cheese Maker: A Food Studies Approach to Daphnis and Chloe 263
  28. Rethinking Landscape in Ancient Fiction: Mountains in Apuleius and Jerome 277
  29. Kangaroo Courts: Displaced Justice in the Roman Novel 291
  30. Character and Emotion in the Ancient Novel
  31. Pity vs. Forgiveness in Pagan and Judaeo-Christian Narratives 305
  32. The Interaction of Emotions in the Greek Novels 315
  33. A Critique of Curiosity: Magic and Fiction in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 327
  34. Spectacles of a Dormant Soul: A Reading of Plato’s Gyges and Apuleius’ Lucius 341
  35. Why doesn’t Habrocomes run away from Aegialeus and his Mummified Wife?: Horror and the Ancient Novel 361
  36. List of Contributors 377
  37. Index nominum et rerum 381
  38. Index locorum 389
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501503986-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Table of Contents VII
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Mapping the World in the Ancient Novel
  6. Sailing from Massalia, or Mapping Out the Significance of Encolpius’ Travels in the Satyrica 7
  7. Xenophon’s ‘Round Trip’: Geography as Narrative Consistency in the Ephesiaka 17
  8. Permeable Worlds in Iamblichus’s Babyloniaka 29
  9. Babylonian Stories and the Ancient Novel: Magi and the Limits of Empire in Iamblichus’ Babyloniaka 39
  10. Theama Kainon: Reading Natural History in Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon 51
  11. The Dialogic Imagination
  12. Fortunata and Terentia: A Model for Trimalchio’s Wife 65
  13. Elements of Ancient Novel and Novella in Tacitus 79
  14. ‘A mirror carried along a high road’? Reflections on (and of) Society in the Greek Novel 93
  15. The Heroikos of Philostratus: A Novel of Heroes, and more 107
  16. Springs as a Civilizing Mechanism in Daphnis and Chloe 123
  17. Arcadia Revisited: Material Gardens and Virtual Spaces in Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe and in Roman Landscape Painting 143
  18. Narrating Voyages to Heaven and Hell: Seneca, Apuleius, and Bakhtin’s Menippea 163
  19. Turning Points in Scholarship on the Ancient Novel
  20. Copyists’ Versions and the Readership of the Greek Novel 183
  21. Clues from the Papyri: Structure and Style of Chariton’s Novel 195
  22. New Evidence For Dating The Discovery At Traù Of The Petronian Cena Trimalchionis 209
  23. Bologna as Hypata: Annotation, Transformation, and Transl(oc)ation in the Circles of Filippo Beroaldo and Francesco Colonna 221
  24. The First Japanese Translation of Daphnis & Chloe 239
  25. Boundaries: Geographical and Metaphorical
  26. Refiguring the Animal/Human Divide in Apuleius and Heliodorus 251
  27. Eros the Cheese Maker: A Food Studies Approach to Daphnis and Chloe 263
  28. Rethinking Landscape in Ancient Fiction: Mountains in Apuleius and Jerome 277
  29. Kangaroo Courts: Displaced Justice in the Roman Novel 291
  30. Character and Emotion in the Ancient Novel
  31. Pity vs. Forgiveness in Pagan and Judaeo-Christian Narratives 305
  32. The Interaction of Emotions in the Greek Novels 315
  33. A Critique of Curiosity: Magic and Fiction in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 327
  34. Spectacles of a Dormant Soul: A Reading of Plato’s Gyges and Apuleius’ Lucius 341
  35. Why doesn’t Habrocomes run away from Aegialeus and his Mummified Wife?: Horror and the Ancient Novel 361
  36. List of Contributors 377
  37. Index nominum et rerum 381
  38. Index locorum 389
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