Bodily Metaphors and Failed Resolution in Persius’s First Satire

Abstract:Persius’s first satire programmatically positions his authorial persona at a remove from contemporary literary practice. By coordinating its bodily images as a metaphorical theme, the poem articulates the satirist’s stance on literary production and consumption. After demonstrating a series of correspondences between eyes and ears, this article contextualizes these dynamics within a system of iuncturae acres by reflecting on the grotesque hybridity of such images and argues that Persius inserts himself into a critical discourse of his own creation and thereby fashions his satiric persona in terms favorable to his position as a poet who experiments with form.