Ludus, Invective, and Ritualized Preaching as Variables in Search of Balance in Juvenal’s Satire 3

Authors

  • María Eugenia Steinberg Universidad de Buenos Aires. UBACyT

Keywords:

invective, Juvenal, ludus, satire, sermon

Abstract

In this article, we intend to study Juvenal's Satire 3, focusing on the three aspects mentioned by Niall Rudd, renewed with our own study of ritual, ludus, and invective, in order to expose its internal balance and assess its consequences. Through the analysis of the successive narrative occurrences of its development, we conclude that the ludus, or comedic humor, combined with crude invective and ritualized sermon, in Juvenal 3 provides evidence that the humor of satire is based on a defense mechanism that the satirist or his masks deploy in the face of adversity while "weaving" each episode into the rhetorical discourse of the exemplum. The presence of an audience to whom the satirical mask is addressed, with its complex and variable humor, intensifies the comic process and contributes to a certain pleasure in participating in the communicative circuit because laughter is present together, bitter and counterbalanced by invective and ritual through the sermon.

Author Biography

María Eugenia Steinberg, Universidad de Buenos Aires. UBACyT

Profesora en Letras por la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Se desempeña como Profesora asociada de Lengua y cultura latina y de Filología Latina en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (UBA). Sus principales áreas de interés son: literatura latina imperial; género satírico y afines; ecdótica y transmisión de textos latinos clásicos; recepción; retórica; textos fragmentarios: Lucilio sátiras. 

References

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Published

23-10-2025

How to Cite

Steinberg, M. E. (2025). Ludus, Invective, and Ritualized Preaching as Variables in Search of Balance in Juvenal’s Satire 3. evista e studios Clásicos, (57), 1–18. etrieved from https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs3/index.php/revistaestudiosclasicos/article/view/9428

Issue

Section

Artículos originales