The Satyricon — Volume 03: Encolpius and His CompanionsPetronius Arbiter
General
The Satyricon — Volume 03: Encolpius and His Companions
Petronius Arbiter
Rome -- Fiction; Satire, Latin -- Translations into English
Night had fallen by this time, and the woman to whom I had given my order
had prepared supper, when Eumolpus knocked at the door. "How many of you
are there?" I called out, and as I spoke, I peeped cautiously through a
chink in the door to see if Ascyltos had come with him; then, as I
perceived that he was the only guest, I quickly admitted him. He threw
himself upon the pallet and caught sight of Giton, waiting table,
whereupon, he nodded his head, "I like your Ganymede," he remarked,
"this day promises a good ending!" I did not take kindly to such an
inquisitive beginning, fearing that I had let another Ascyltos into my
lodging. Eumolpus stuck to his purpose. "I like you better than the
whole bathful," he remarked, when the lad had served him with wine, then
he thirstily drained the cup dry and swore that never before had he
tasted a wine with such a satisfying tang to it. "While I was bathing,"
he went on, "I was almost beaten up for trying to recite a poem to the
people sitting around the basin, and when I had been thrown out of the
baths, just like I was out of the theatre, I hunted through every nook
and cranny of the building, calling 'Encolpius, Encolpius,' at the top of
my voice. A naked youth at the other end, who had lost his clothes, was
bawling just as loudly and no less angrily for Giton! As for myself, the
slaves took me for a maniac, and mimicked me in the most insolent manner,
but a large crowd gathered around him, clapping its hands in awe-struck
admiration, for so heavy and massive were his private parts, that you
would have thought that the man himself was but an appendage of his own
member! Oh such a man! He could do his bit all right! I haven't a
doubt but that he could begin on the day before and never finish till the
day after the next! And he soon found a friend, of course: some Roman
knight or other, I don't know his name, but he bears a bad reputation, so
they say, threw his own mantle around the wanderer and took him off home
with himself, hoping, I suppose, to have the sole enjoyment of so huge a
prize. But I couldn't get my own clothing back from the officious bath
attendant till I found some one who could identify me, which only goes to
show that it is more profitable to rub up the member than it is to polish
the mind!" While Eumolpus was relating all this, I changed countenance
continually, elated, naturally, at the mishaps of my enemy, and vexed at
his good fortune; but I controlled my tongue nevertheless, as if I knew
nothing about the episode, and read aloud the bill of fare. (Hardly had
I finished, when our humble meal was served. The food was plain but
succulent and nutritious, and the famished scholar Eumolpus, fell to
ravenously.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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