Page:The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter (1922), vol. 2.djvu/181

 on the tomb of a lady of pleasure. This inscription was composed by a voluptuary of the school of Petronius.

ALIAE. RESTITVTAE. ANIMAE. DVLCISSIMAE.

BELLATOR. AVG. LIB. CONIVGI.

CARISSIMÆ. AMICI. DVM.

VIVIMVS. VIVAMYS.

In this inscription, it is almost impossible to translate the last three words. ‘‘While we live, let us live,” is inadequate, to say the least. So far did this doctrine go that latterly it was deemed necessary to have a special goddess as a patron. That goddess, if we may rely upon the authority of Festus, took her name “Vitula” from the word “Vita” or from the joyous life over which she was to preside.

  “At the corners of the tray we also noted four figures of Marsyas and from their bladders spouted a highly seasoned sauce upon fish which were swimming about as if in a tide-race.”

German scholars have adopted the doctrine that Marsyas belonged to that mythological group which they designate as “Schlauch-silen” or, as we would say in English, ‘‘Wineskin-bearing Silenuses.” Their hypothesis seems to be based upon the discovery of Rh