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[35]
After we had praised this outburst a dish followed,
not at all of the size we expected; but its novelty drew every eye to it There was a
round plate with the twelve signs of the Zodiac set in order, and on each one the
artist had laid some food fit and proper to the symbol; over the Ram ram's-head
pease, a piece of beef on the Bull, kidneys over the Twins, over the Crab a crown,
an African fig over the Lion, a barren sow's paunch over Virgo, over Libra a pair of
scales with a muffin on one side and a cake on the other, over Scorpio a small
sea-fish, over Sagittarius a bull's-eye,1 over Capricornus a lobster, over Aquarius a goose, over
Pisces two mullets. In the middle lay a honeycomb on a sod of turf with the green
grass on it. An Egyptian boy took bread round in a silver chafing-dish. . . .
Trimalchio himself too ground out a tune from the[p. 55] musical comedy
“Assafoetida” in a most hideous voice.
1 The meaning is uncertain. The word is probably derived from oculus, “an eye,” and petere, “to seek.” See Lewis and Short s.v. ocliferius.
Petronius Arbiter. Petronius. Michael Heseltine. London. William Heinemann. 1913.
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