3 - THE NATURE AND SOURCES OF PERSIUS' IMAGERY

Summary

The most important, and most complex aspect of the metaphoric background to the first satire is that category of images and motifs which has simultaneous moral and literary force. For it is mainly from this that Persius elaborates his pose of satirist and critic of letters. But there are other, ancillary motifs, one moralistic, some literary-critical, which play a part in his programme. The various classes sometimes overlap, but in the majority of cases the divisions have a good degree of validity.

LITERARY-CRITICAL MOTIFS

Firstly, three complementary motifs which are predominantly relevant to the literary part of the campaign against mid-century Rome. Though in the first instance aimed directly at lack of taste, during the course of the satire they gather moral force.

EARS

Most prominent are the allusions to ears, their function one of indicting insensibility. Hendrickson has remarked that the ear is the medium for the reception of literature, and that Persius' question, nam Romae quis non, line 8, answered finally by auriculas asini quis non habet?, line 121, implies ‘who is a competent reader?’ To quote at length:

It is not enough to say, with Casaubon and the commentators, that this [sc. 121] is but a way of saying that all at Rome are asini, that is stulti, or as a mere variant of πας ἄφρων μαίνεται… the auriculae asini stand in direct relation to the question quis leget haec?