ペトロニウス『サテュリコン』における人物描写

Abstract

This paper examines three aspects of the description of personal appearance in Petronius' Satyricon : first, the influence of physiognomy and the author's attitude toward it ; second, the long portrayal of Circe in Ch. 126 ; third, the realistic descriptions of minor characters. Physiognomy is a pseudoscience that sees through internal personalities by analyzing external appearances. It is questionable whether it was as often applied in literary genres, such as rhetorical speeches or historiographies, as has been assumed, but it is certain that Apuleius used it in a passage in The Golden Ass. As for Satyricon, the words of Chrysis in Ch. 126, 3 imply that she is good at physiognomy. The fact is, however, her analysis of Encolpius's appearance adopts no physiognomic method. She mentions not his physical features but his deliberate guises, and only offers an observation anyone could have made. Here Petronius is revealing this conceited maidservant's stupidity. At the same time, we can infer his critical attitude toward physiognomy itself. The much detailed description of Circe in Ch. 126, 13-8 is unique in the novel. By comparison to passages of other authors, I showed this as a typical literary image of the ideal beauty. The style describing physical parts one by one from top to bottom also follows a pattern prevalent at that time and helps to display the hero's excitement. However, the author's aim is not to praise Circe's beauty. He intends that this goddess-like image be ruined by the description of her vulgar behavior in Ch. 128, 3-4. The picture in Ch. 126 is in fact a foolish romantic fancy of Encolpius. After all, what Petronius really intends is to laugh at the hero's fancy. Though without conclusive proof, the author may also be mocking the romanticism of Greek novels and the exaggeration of rhetorical school-exercises. In addition to that, here is reflected his view that external beauty does not always reflect internal beauty, a view related to the critical attitude toward physiognomy cited above. This is not his original view but several authors wrote aphoristic passages indicating the same idea. There are not a few realistic descriptions of personal appearance in the novel. I clarified the particular implications of every detail from as many testimonies as I could find. These details of appearance are not indispensable to revealing the internal characteristics of the persons, but Petronius likes this kind of pictorial means of characterization, which cannot be found in Apuleius. These depicted persons are always people who disgust the hero, as well as the author undoubtedly. Petronius presumed that a person with a vulgar character inside would naturally have an ugly appearance. To him vulgarity is not a beginning of the exploration of the problems the age bears, but merely an object of derision and satire. This is, as Auerbach pointed out in his Mimesis, the limit of Petronius' realism, while the realism of antiquity marks its zenith in him.