Petronius’s Myrrhene vase

Petronius’s Myrrhene vase is a priceless, brilliantly colored vessel that Petronius deliberately smashes at a feast. First presented as an incomparable work of art and a personal possession, it becomes the center of his parting gesture: after dedicating its use to the Lady of Cyprus, he forbids its use in honor of any other divinity, breaks it before his guests, and makes its destruction an example of choosing departure before old age and weakness arrive.

Appearance and Value

At the feast, the vase is described as resembling a rainbow in its brilliance and as being beyond price. It stands apart even among Petronius’s other goblets, which gleam with gold, precious stones, and artists’ carvings. Those gifts delight the guests, but the Myrrhene vase is singular: its beauty and value make its eventual destruction impossible to mistake for an ordinary act of generosity.

Dedication and Destruction

Petronius identifies the vase as the one from which he poured a libation in honor of the Lady of Cyprus. He declares that no man’s lips may touch it again and that no hand may pour from it in honor of another divinity. Rather than keep the vessel as a treasured object or give it away intact, he casts it onto the pavement strewn with lily-colored saffron flowers, where it breaks into small pieces.

The act gives the vase a final, exclusive dedication even as it removes the possibility of further use. Its destruction is not accidental damage: Petronius controls the moment, explains its meaning, and directs the guests’ attention from the broken object to the choice it represents.

The Vase as a Parting Gesture

The breaking follows Petronius’s distribution of his goblets as gifts to the guests. Their delight, and the astonishment that follows the vase’s destruction, frame the gesture as a reversal: the man who has just given away beautiful possessions now destroys the most valuable one. He tells his friends not to be astonished, describing old age and weakness as sad companions in life’s final years. The vase’s fragments thus accompany his advice that a person need not wait for those years, since departure can come earlier, as he intends it to for himself.

The vessel links aesthetic value to the scene’s meditation on mortality. Its beauty is made vivid before it is irretrievably broken; the guests cannot preserve it, just as Petronius refuses to let the prospect of decline dictate the terms of his ending. The object’s fate makes his announcement visible and irreversible, turning a feast gift into a sign of farewell.