Audiobook The Satyricon — Volume 05: Crotona Affairs

The narrative follows the adventurers as they settle in Crotona, a city obsessed with courting wealthy, childless strangers. Encolpius encounters Circe, a woman of high status with low tastes, but finds himself mysteriously unmanned by performance anxiety. Desperate to restore his vigor, he submits to absurd magical rituals performed by dubious old crones, enduring beatings and public humiliation while trying to conceal his failures from his companion Giton and his patron Eumolpus.

Meanwhile, Eumolpus plays the part of a wealthy benefactor to perfection, drawing flocks of greedy sycophants who lavish him with gifts in hopes of securing a place in his will. Philumene offers her own children to curry favor, while Eumolpus and his servants engage in farcical mechanical ruses to maintain the illusion of youth and vigor. Encolpius eventually recovers his manhood, much to his relief, but recognizes that the tide of suspicion among the locals is rising as Africa's supposed riches fail to arrive.

To outwit the relentless legacy hunters, Eumolpus drafts a final will containing a monstrous stipulation: his heirs must consume his dead body in public view to claim their inheritance. While the prospect of cannibalism shocks the sycophants, their greed almost overrules their disgust until they realize they are being played as fools. The plot unravels, leading to the violent exposure of the impostors, the death of Eumolpus in the manner of a ritual scapegoat, and the hasty flight of the survivors.