Quartilla is a character in the Satyricon which is said to be the "first picaresque" novel in Latin[2] although it is not completely extant. This story was written by Petronius Arbiter in the first century. Quartilla is a follower of the god Priapus and she and her maids are involved with seducing and torturing three of the characters, Encolpius, Ascyltum, and Giton.[3]

Portrait by Norman Lindsay (1909-22)[1]

She has been the subject of artistic[1] and academic study.[4] It has been proposed that she represents Octavia and her name is a pun like reference for the reader.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b "The Satyricon" (Illustrated ed.). Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  2. ^ Grube, G.M.A. (1995). The Greek and Roman Critics. Hackett Publishing. p. 261. ISBN 0-87220-310-7.
  3. ^ Gill, Christopher (1973). "The sexual episodes in the Satyricon". Classical Philology. 68 (3): 172–185. doi:10.1086/365975. JSTOR 267748. S2CID 161220171.
  4. ^ Panayotakis, Costas (1994). "Quartilla's histrionics in Petronius Satyrica 16.1-26.6". Mnemosyne. 4a. 47 (3): 319–336. doi:10.1163/156852594X00023. JSTOR 4432375.
  5. ^ The Roman Novel. CUP Archive. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-1-00-134053-1.

Bibliography

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