Not So Funny After All

In 1971 Helmut van Thiel published a short monograph in which he proposed that the text of Petronius, as we have it, presents parts of the narrative out of order and therefore needs to be restored to its original form. This chapter explores the consequences of following Van Thiel’s prescriptions for our appreciation of the Quartilla episode, a badly damaged and curiously repetitive section of narrative (16–25) in which a priestess of Priapus exacts punishment for an unwitting transgression from the narrator and his companions. Consideration of the setting and mise en scene points to an extended parodic imitation of a two-stage initiation into a mystery cult rather than to any deep textual corruption.

Art · Literature · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies