Analysis Of Trimalchio's Dinner Party

The ancient Romans were a social people, who rather than dining alone with their families, would attend decadent dinner parties at their friends houses. These dinner parties were a ritualistic affair that often lasted for hours at a time. They focused on culture and always had entertainment of some sort, from performers to the guests themselves who contributed by singing, dancing, reciting, and even making up short poems on the spot. This traditional Roman method of dining has been adopted and warped by Trimalchio, a wealthy man written about in Petronius’ “Satyricon”. Trimalchio was freed from slavery and grew such a tremendous amount of wealth that even upper-class would attend his parties just to get a free meal, despite his dinner parties …show more content…
Right after the second course, Trimalchio’s slaves bring in a silver skeleton to the dining room while Trimalchio himself sings out “Woe is us! This is what happens for all our fuss. When Orcus comes to get us, this is what we’ll all become. So while we’re still alive let’s have some fun!”(Petronius p.24) as the skeleton is then twisted into all sorts of sexual positions. Bringing a skeleton into a dining room at a Roman dinner party was a common practice that served to remind all the guests that anyone could die tomorrow. However, the twisting of the skeleton into sexual positions is Trimalchio’s own spin on this tradition; that serves to bring an irreverence towards the idea of death itself. He believes that everyone should be mindful that it’s coming but not to live in fear. Instead, embrace mortality and live life to the fullest while you still can, because everyone is going to the same …show more content…
As Trimalchio said “The world turns like a grindstone, and there’s always something iffy going on, people getting born, people dying, you name it.” (Petronius p.28) He knows that there’s just no escaping either, and that they’re both just facts of existence. Interconnecting life and death because one cannot exist without the other. Trimalchio even hints at his knowledge of how these two aspects are interlaced in the food that he serves his guests. He uses the food served at his dinner parties as theatre, and as a way for him to reveal his knowledge of the world around him. In the fourth course, after much spectacle, slaves brought in a giant platter with a boar on it and biscuit dough pressed against its udders in a way to look like piglets. As the boar was set down, a man stepped up and “drew a hunting knife and slashed the side of the boar passionately, and thrushes flew out of the gash.” (Petronius p.28) This display could symbolize how life lives on inside death, and how death is a part of