The Self-Consuming Satirist
The Self-Consuming Satirist
Persius’ metaphors of food and sex seem to provide us with a stable interpretive framework for making sense of his satires, but upon closer inspection this framework collapses in a jumble of self-contradictions. This is intentional, for figural language is not, in Persius’ view, the place to be seeking a stable philosophical view of the world. Metaphor makes us attach emotion and value to the things of this earth that are, in Stoic terms, indifferents--even such shocking extremes as cannibalism and incest. In the end, the images of poetry and the warnings of philosophy join forces to help us give up the life of appearances for the more abstract life of Stoic realities.
Keywords: protreptic, cannibalism, incest, Chrysippus, indifferents, metaphor, value, disgust, Stoicism, praemeditatio malorum
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