Dedalo e Pigmalione: la parodia dell' ékphrasis nel Satyricon

in the cena, daedalus' gastronomical sculptures allude to the archetype of the artist and emphasize the mímesis as aesthetics of freedmen. in sat. 126, polyaenus admires circe like a statue: this ékphrasis, modelled on ovidian sources, hints at pygmalion, the artist who creates images free from reality impurities (met. 10. 238-297). his art is not anti-naturalistic; the dissimulatio artis ensures the verisimilitude: circe is more genuine than polyaenus, whose beauty is sophisticated. petronius confuses ironically or overturns art and nature: while in the cena he aims at a social characterization, here everything is uncertain between realism and literary fiction.