Beauty (289–345)

This chapter provides the Latin text and a literal translation into English of the section on prayers for beauty and a detailed critical appreciation of those lines, paying particular attention to poetic aspects such as sound, style, rhythm, diction, imagery, vividness and narrative technique, and also assessing humour, wit, irony and the force and validity of the satirical thrusts. Questions of text are considered as well, where they are of substantial importance. In this section Juvenal asks some very relevant questions (e.g. is beauty so desirable; is it worth going to great lengths to secure it; does it necessarily make you happy?). His main thrust is that this prayer is harmful, because beauty entails various serious dangers (such as rape, castration, moral corruption and death), but this basic premise is patently flawed. Messalina is cited as an example in a vivid narrative.