#the satyricon

“est te,” inquit “videre?”

“Is it really you?” she said.

The first words spoken by a woman in the cena Trimalchionis (Trimalchio’s dinner) are to another woman.

Gareth Schmeling notes that this is possibly a colloquial version of what Anchises says to Aeneas when seeing him in the underworld: datur ora tueri nate - “Is it permitted to see your face, child” (“est te…videre” literally translates as “Is it permitted to see you?”)

utique nostra regio tam praesentibus plena est numinibus ut facilius possis deum quam hominem invenire. -

“Certainly our area is so full with public divinities that you can find a god more easily than a human being.” (Petronius’ Satyrica17)

nemo nostrum non peccat. homines sumus, non dei. -

“We all err; we are humans, not gods.” (Petronius’ Satyrica75)