La gazza di Trimalchione. Cromatismo mercuriale e simbologia dionisiaca.

This article, which also aims to illuminate the problematic relationship between the magpie and the jay, focuses on Trimalchio’s pica varia, mentioned by Petronius in Satyricon 28, 9. The enquiry seeks to justify the presence of the bird by applying anthropological, symbolic, and narratological analyses to the text. The magpie is identified as a Dionysian animal – an association primarily supported by the testimony of Annaeus Cornutus – while also exhibiting a mercurial chromaticism. Resembling the ibis, the bird sacred to Hermes, the magpie aligns with the figure of the maître de plaisir in Petronius’ narrative. It appears to function as a form of ‘symbolic prolepsis’: positioned at the entrance of the domus, it anticipates the banquet – a moment under the auspices of Dionysus – where the host engages in a complex mimetic relationship with Mercury, the psychopomp deity and the divine patron of commerce and language.