Encolpiuss

Encolpius is the narrator and protagonist of the Satyricon, a satirical novel attributed to Gaius Petronius Arbiter, dating to the 1st century AD. He is portrayed as a young, impoverished, and often amoral Roman citizen who recounts his picaresque adventures through various cities and towns of Roman Italy. His primary companion throughout these escapades is his effeminate lover, Giton, and later the learned but also morally compromised scholar, Ascyltus.

The narrative follows Encolpius's desperate attempts to survive through wit, charm, and often less-than-reputable means. He engages in schemes, thefts, and sexual encounters, often finding himself in ridiculous or perilous situations. His overarching goal is frequently to regain his lost wealth or simply to find his next meal and a place to sleep. The tone of his narration is cynical and self-deprecating, yet also imbued with a certain resilience and a keen, albeit jaded, observation of the society around him.

Encolpius's character is a vehicle for Petronius's critique of Roman society, its decadent elite, its superstitious populace, and its hollow philosophical pretenses. Despite his own flaws and questionable morality, Encolpius often serves as an outsider looking in, exposing the hypocrisy and absurdity of the world he inhabits. His fate, like much of the Satyricon, is left unresolved due to the fragmentary nature of the surviving text.