Questions for Juvenal Satire Six

Questions for Juvenal Satire Six 1. Because of it’s harsh treatment of women, Juvenal’s Satire VI (S6) has often been called a misogynistic poem. What particular aspects of the poem could contribute to such a claim? 2. Roman literary culture is fascinated by exempla, (moral) role-models or persons who serve as “examples” (the English word derives from the Latin). Are the exempla offered in the poem real ones or type-characters (i.e. those of the sort ‘the kind of person who…’)? Which do you find more convincing and why? 3. The tone and content of S6 are overwhelmingly negative. Are there any values or virtues that the author seems to promote? 4. S6 moves between various satirical vignettes. Are they structured either by any framing themes, or through particular unifying aspects in their content? 5. Does S6 offer any vision of decline with regard to moral values? 6. The poem is addressed to one ‘Postumus’, who is considering marriage. Does the use of an addressee force the reader to assume a particular stance, and if so, what position is assumed for the reader/listener? 7. One critic has argued “It is characteristic of satire to explore an issue in apparently black-and-white terms through an extremist character and to undercut that character without taking sides.” How well does this apply to S6? Assuming that the poem is not simply the ‘poet’s mouthpiece’ (i.e. not merely a direct presentation of Juvenal’s world-view), how convincing do you find the poem’s speaker? 8. What implications (especially with regard to Question 1) could the representation of an unreliable or unconvincing speaker have on the poem’s message as a whole?