Abstract

BATTISTON, Dora. Interim mulieres sauciae inter se riserunt. The feminine characters of the Satyricon: Satire and parody. Circe clás. mod. [online]. 2004, n.9, pp.73-86. ISSN 1851-1724.

The text of the Satyricon, work attributed to Petronius, denotes a critical attitude towards social prejudices and opinions devaluing the woman. All of that is repeated as common ground between the characters satirized through the parody of several discourses and literary genres which give new semantic value to the pattern, and work as carriers of the satire. The represented world displays misogyny which, paradoxically, delimits the places through the images of power emanating from women. Petronius' relativistic and more tolerant attitude shows in the construction of feminine characters by means of the discourses which are attributed to women, and in the opinions and judgments expressed by characters in the text. It is revealed as a mirror system constituting a circle of power at the same time both ridiculed and feared by men. Women practice power in various places: they carry out the god's vengeance as priestesses, or serve as a motif of seduction, as sorceresses, and establish a symmetrical play of proposals and situations, the sentimental expansion of which remains detained for the correcting purpose of the satire and the moral dimension which adds a 'menippean' element to all aspects of the work and, essentially, to the field of the love relationships.

Keywords : Parody; Satire; Feminine characters.