What is it about?
This article looks at the freedwomen represented in Trimalchio's dinner party as part of Petronius' Satyricon. It explores the ways in which their husbands and other men constantly undermine them, and how their attempts to achieve social respectability are ignored and belittled both by their companion freedmen and by the novel's narrator, Encolpius.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
This is the first article to challenge the characterisation of Fortunata, in particular, as a brazen hussy who walks all over her husband. By taking off not only the so-called 'freedman goggles' but also misogyny goggles, we see that Petronius acknowledges these women's struggle for social respectability after the indignity of slavery, but also shows how others in their lives have not been able or have been unwilling to adapt to this new reality.
Perspectives
This felt like a very important article, because I was getting so frustrated with the existing literature simply glossing over Fortunata with little more than pejorative and snide comments! There seemed to be much more going on in the text, and when I started to look at it properly, I was actually surprised at how Petronius manages to allude to the pain of infertility without disrupting the overall playful tone of his narrator's story.
Dr Liz Gloyn
Royal Holloway University of London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: SHE'S ONLY A BIRD IN A GILDED CAGE: FREEDWOMEN AT TRIMALCHIO'S DINNER PARTY, The Classical Quarterly, April 2012, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0009838811000474.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
