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Structure and Ambiguity in Catullus LXIV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2018

J. C. Bramble
J. C. Bramble
Affiliation:
Peterhouse, Cambridge
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Extract

The structure of Catullus' sixty-fourth poem tends to be discussed in terms of two antitheses. The happy Peleus–Thetis theme is contrasted with the tragic Theseus–Ariadne inset, and, through the pessimism of 397–408, the decadent present is contrasted with the glorious past. With regard to the latter opposition, an objection immediately presents itself: the glorious past contained the faithlessness, desertion, and misery inherent in the story of Theseus and Ariadne. When Catullus intervenes in his narrative at 22ff.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 16 , 1970 , pp. 22 - 41
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Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

page 22 note 1 See, e.g., Murley, C., ‘The Structure and Proportion of Catullus LXIV’, TAPA LXVIII (1937), 305–17Google Scholar (p. 316, ‘the contrast of respectable marriage and ignoble passion’); Mendell, C. W., ‘The Influence of the Epyllion on the Aeneid ’, YCS XII (1951), 213 Google Scholar (‘a love affair … unsanctified and unfulfilled …a love that is blessed of heaven and fulfilled within the auspices of traditional religion’); Putnam, M. C. J., ‘The Art of Catullus 64’, HSCP LXV (1961), 193 Google Scholar (‘the Peleus–Thetis episode surrounds the Ariadne digression, a happy event framing a sad’); cf. p. 197 (‘the steadfast happiness of Peleus and Thetis, which contrasts with the infidelity of Theseus, is the product of that ideal age pictured in the first part of the epilogue’). Throughout this paper books and articles will be cited after first mention by the author's name alone.

page 22 note 2 See, e.g., Walz, R., ‘Caractère, sens et composition du poème 64 de Catulle’, REL XXIII (1945), 92–109 Google Scholar. Boucher, J.-P., ‘A propos du carmen 64 de Catulle’, REL XXXIV (1956) 194 Google Scholar, seems to think that the epilogue does not resume previous developments and is therefore inorganic. But why did Catullus bring the reader back to Peleus and Thetis at 407–8? Kinsey, T. E., ‘Irony and Structure in Catullus 64’, Latom. XXIV (1965), 913 Google Scholar, regards 384–408 as being neither moralising, nor an epilogue, but explanatory of 382–3: this, in the absence of Alexandrian parallels. The lines very clearly do moralise: the question of parallels is therefore unimportant (but see Euphorion's Thrax, Page, D. L., Greek Literary Papyri I (Loeb, London, 1941), 496–8Google Scholar). To make twenty-five lines depend on the namque of 384 seems perverse.

page 22 note 3 The apostrophe is linked to the first part of the epilogue by further expressions of apparent approval: e.g. 33–4, laetanti …gaudia; 284, risit; 325, laeta; 329, fausto; 334 ff., 373, felici; 382, felicia. As will become clear, I detect an increasing modification of tone between apostrophe and epilogue.

page 22 note 4 Prima in 11 has caused too much trouble (see Floratos, Charal S., Über das 64. Gedicht Catulls (Athens, 1957), pp. 8–9 Google Scholar for bibliography). Although Catullus frequently refers to ships and sailing during the Theseus–Ariadne episode (e.g. 53, 58, 84, 121), there is no chronological specification beyond heroum, which appears at 51 at the very beginning of the episode. The events depicted on the tapestry take place in the Age of Heroes. Since this age has no precise chronological location, it is unnecessary to have recourse to strict logic and adopt primam or proram at 11, or to employ mythological stemmatics in order to accommodate the scenes on the coverlet to an exact time scale as, e.g., Granarolo, J., L'Œuvre de Catulle (Paris, 1967), p. 155 Google Scholar, who tentatively suggests that the coverlet is prophetic. I agree entirely that the tone of the Theseus–Ariadne inset ‘n'est plus du tout celle du nimis optatum saeclorum tempus’. But I do not see the need to suppose that Catullus was worried by the finer, more literal points of chronology. Valerius Flaccus makes Argo the first ship at 1. 1, yet at 11. 285 ff. the time scale is violated by the escape of Hypsipyle's father in a boat, and at VII. 279 ff. (bracketed by Kramer, but only because he is unsure of its position) there is a reference to Theseus and Ariadne; cf. another inconsistency about sailing at VII. 261–2. ( MrLee, A. G. reminds me of Ap.Rh. III. 997ff.Google Scholar, which alludes to the voyage of Theseus and Ariadne as though it were antecedent to that of the Argo; but as far as I know, Apollonius does not specify Argo as the first ship.) In the case of Catullus we are dealing with a question of association, not of chronology. The normal order of the myth is reversed at the opening of the poem in order to insinuate that something is wrong. The insinuations are then confirmed during the inset, where navigation leads to tragedy of various kinds. The scenes there represented are prophetic, not because Catullus wrote prima in 11, but because he wished to interrelate the compositional units of his poem in such a way that the second part of the epilogue followed from his opening lines. See later pp. 34–8.

page 23 note 1 It is surely significant that the Minotaur is represented, not as a monster, but as the brother of Ariadne, at 150, potius germanum amittere crevi, and 180–1, quemne ipsa reliqui / respersum iuvenem fraterna caede secuta? This is not far from the epilogue's perfudere manus fraterno sanguine fratres, 399. nondum spreta pietate, 386, hardly accords with neglecto numine divum, 134 (and cf. perfide, 132; periuria, 135 and 148): yet both are a part of the Heroic Age. The whole liaison between Theseus and Ariadne looks like a foretaste of the sexual crimes described at 401 ff. Lygdamus does not seem to have harboured any illusions about this aspect of the Catullan Heroic Age, [Tib.] III. 6. 39 ff.: Cnosia, Theseae quondam periuria linguae / flevisti ignoto sola relicta mari: / sic cecinit pro te doctus, Minoi, Catullus / ingrati referens impia facta viri.

page 23 note 2 Certain ambiguities have been detected by T. E. Kinsey, pp. 911–31, but I cannot agree to the author's refusal of seriousness to the poem as a whole. Curran, L. C.'s paper, ‘Catullus 64 and the Heroic Age’, YCS XXI (1969), 171–92Google Scholar, which contributes further to the discussion of the ironies and ambivalences contained in the poem, was not available to me until after the completion of a first draft of this article. Curran takes the poem seriously, but is sometimes rather fanciful over matters of verbal repetition, and more concerned with Catullus' attitude to the Heroic Age than with the structure of the poem. Agreement and dissent have been recorded in footnotes.

page 24 note 1 For the various accounts, see the material collected by Reitzenstein, R., ‘Die Hochzeit des Peleus und der Thetis’, Hermes XXXV (1900), 73 ff.Google Scholar

page 24 note 2 Mr L. P. Wilkinson kindly brings to my notice certain stylistic traits which might point towards the separation of part of the Theseus–Ariadne inset from the Peleus–Thetis theme. First of all, there is the fact that the echoes from Lucretius are confined to the Theseus–Ariadne inset. Even given Bailey's modification of Munro's note on Lucr. III. 57 (see III, 1753–4), the concentration from 124 to 250 is striking. Secondly, there is the question of the distribution of the poem's thirty spondeiazontes: 120–251, that is, the majority of the Theseus–Ariadne inset, do not display a single instance. The first and second parts of the Peleus–Thetis theme claim seven and nine occurrences respectively (sixteen examples in one hundred and sixty-three lines), and the arrival of Bacchus claims three (in fourteen lines or so, given the lacuna after 253): this leaves eleven examples in the first seventy lines of the Theseus–Ariadne inset, from 50 to 119. Was there then an ‘Ur-Epos’? As Crump, M. M., The Epyllion from Theocritus to Ovid (Oxford, 1931), pp. 120–2Google Scholar, points out, 1–123 could have been followed by 251 ff. (with some slight awkwardness, however): the passage from 124 to 250 might have been added at a later date. If there was an earlier version with a shorter digression, the question of ambiguity and irony is not substantially affected: the ‘Ur-Epos’ postulated above would still have contained most of the features which I discuss. The only considerable difference is that the shorter inset would not have been quite so tragic. However, the fact remains that if there was an independent treatment of part of the Theseus–Ariadne theme, it was Catullus who saw fit to integrate this into an ‘Ur-Epos’. I feel inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and suppose that he knew what he was doing. Mechanical insertion is out of the question: for example, the echo of Ennius' Medea at 171 ff. looks back to the echoes at the opening of the poem, and confirms their warning; 150 and 180–1 look forward to 399 (see above p. 23 n. 1). Rewriting and adjustment would have been necessary. A decision to conflate in itself shows a conscious desire to reinforce the equivocal conception of the Heroic Age conveyed elsewhere in the poem.

page 25 note 1 Accius, 322R3, cited by Ellis, is much closer to Catullus at this point (note acervos), than Il. XXI. 17 ff.Google Scholar

page 25 note 2 The implications of quoque are not always fully brought out: Achilles will be as rapacious in death as he was in life.

page 25 note 3 At Pyth. III. 100 ff.Google Scholar Pindar recounts the death of Achilles, after writing of the luck of Peleus at his wedding. But the death is heroic and pathetic: no victim is slaughtered for the sake of Achilles' shade. The tone in Catullus is quite different. Moreover, Pindar makes the reference in his own person, while in Catullus the sinister allusion is an integral part of the description of the marriage, incorporated into a prophecy delivered during the optatum tempus.

page 26 note 1 Cf. the similes at Od. IV. 535 Google Scholar and Juv. X. 268ff.Google Scholar

page 26 note 2 Catulls Peleus-Epos (Munich, 1956), p. 25 Google Scholar.

page 26 note 3 Kinsey, , p. 926, notes ‘The preceding lines give, if anything, reasons against the marriage’; he also takes felicia, 382Google Scholar, as being ironical. Cf. Newman, J. K., Augustus and the New Poetry, Collection Latomus, LXXXVIII (1967), 58, of 372Google Scholar, ‘The happy couple must have heard the words with mixed feelings’; T.P.Wiseman, Catullan Questions (Leicester, 1969), p. 24 n. 3Google Scholar, likewise takes quare in 372 as being ironical. Curran, pp. 189–90, makes the same point, but goes too far in finding ambiguity throughout 372–80 (the sacrifice is ‘a kind of marriage’; the apostrophe is not ‘a direct address to Peleus and Thetis’): divam in 373 refers to Thetis.

page 26 note 4 Cf. 50–1, introducing the Theseus–Ariadne story (heroum … virtutes); see later p. 34.

page 26 note 5 Putnam, p. 195, remarks upon the prospective nature of the prophecy, as does Newman, p. 58. I am not of the opinion that modern pacificism has conspired to produce a misreading of the prophecy: Catullus was not a dark-age bard. The elegists, for example, repudiate war and bloodshed.

page 27 note 1 = Aesch. fr. 284 a Mette.

page 27 note 2 So, for instance, Fordyce on 323–81, and Williams, G., Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry (Oxford, 1968), p. 227 Google Scholar.

page 27 note 3 See Klingner, pp. 22–3.

page 27 note 4 Kinsey, p. 924, seems to imply this when he writes ‘the technique is realism; the Fates are old therefore Catullus gives them the infirmities of old age. The same technique is applied with devastating effect in the marriage song.’ Yet a little earlier he says that ‘the only reason for bringing in the Fates for the Muses would seem to be that they gave Catullus more scope for the grotesque’. Curran, pp. 186–7, after remarking on the realism, becomes rather vague.

page 28 note 1 At Plato, , Rep. X. 617 cGoogle Scholar, cited by Ellis, their robes were merely white.

page 28 note 2 Hor., Carm. Saec. 25 Google Scholar, veraces cecinisse Parcae, cited by Kroll, and Pers. V. 48, Parca tenax veri, cited by Ellis, on 406 (cf. Hor., Carm. II. 16. 39 Google Scholar, Parca non mendax), do not incline me to believe that Catullus mentioned the truth of the prophecy on three occasions merely because it was conventional practice to do so.

page 28 note 3 Cf. Sen., Apocol. 4. 9 Google Scholar, aurea formoso descendunt saecula filo. Although Catullus is not explicit about the Ages, the description of the spinning of the Parcae, and the introduction of the refrain at 326, evoke the idea of time passing by on a large scale.

page 29 note 1 Il. XXIV. 62 Google Scholar; Alcaeus B 10. 6L–P; Ap.Rh. IV. 807–8.

page 29 note 2 Williams, , Tradition and Originality, p. 227 Google Scholar, remarks that the reader ‘will see special point in those mentioned’, but does not really develop this beyond mythological explanation.

page 29 note 3 384–6 do not only refer to the privileged couple: note sese mortali ostendere coetu.

page 29 note 4 Il. XVI. 143–4Google Scholar (= XIX. 390–1; cf. XVIII. 84 f.); Schol. A ad loc.; Apollod. III. 13. 5; Quint. Smyrn. I. 592.

page 29 note 5 Il. XVI. 144 Google Scholar, φόνον ἔμμεναι ἡρώεσσιν.

page 29 note 6 Fordyce, on 278, merely calls the flowers ‘a characteristically Alexandrian touch’. On 279, Ellis notes ‘On a vase figured by Millingen pl. X, and representing the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, Chiron carries over his left shoulder what looks like a branch or stalk of some large shrub. Perhaps a more pastoral type of gift than the usual spear?’ But flowers are yet more pastoral; and the ‘branch’ might be the embryo of the ashen spear. The flowers of the nymphs at Ap.Rh. IV. 1443 f.Google Scholar (the wedding of Jason and Medea) seem to me of dubious relevance.

page 29 note 7 Putnam, p. 191, notes the verbal similarity to Peliaco … vertice in 1, but draws no conclusions. I argue later that the first line of the poem suggests the venerable innocence of nature, violated by the act of sailing (pp. 36–7). It might (but only might) be the case that the verbal correspondence evokes the guiltless state of nature, since forfeited as a result of the heroes' expedition. If so, then Chiron's connection with Pelion is perhaps a sign that he is the inhabitant of an age which preceded the fall from innocence.

page 29 note 8 Ellis notes ‘in keeping with his character as well-versed in plants and herbs’, presumably thinking of, e.g., Il. IV. 218 f.Google Scholar, XI. 830 f., Pind., Pyth. III. 53 Google Scholar, Hygin., Fab. 274 Google Scholar, where Chiron is represented as a healer. But here his silvestria dona are flores, which surely have no medicinal connotations.

page 30 note 1 Chiron was in fact represented elsewhere as being pre-Olympian, and pre-Heroic. He is the son of Kronos and Philyra at Pind., Nem. III. 47 Google Scholar, Pyth. III. 1. 4 Google Scholar, Ap.Rh. II. 1231 ff.Google Scholar, Ov., Met. VI. 126 Google Scholar; the teacher of the heroes at Il. XI. 832 Google Scholar, Pind., Nem. III. 55 Google Scholar, Pyth. III. 45 f.Google Scholar, Apollod. III. 10. 3. His justice is also proverbial: Il. XI. 832 Google Scholar; Xen., Cyn. I. 1 Google Scholar; schol. Ap.Rh. I. 554; Eratosth., Cataster. p. 184 Google Scholar, Robert; Ov., Fast. V. 384, 413 Google Scholar. Atschol. Ap.Rh. I. 224 Google Scholar, he comes to the help of Peleus when abandoned without weapons on Pelion; at Apollod. III. 13. 5 he advises Peleus how to win the Protean Thetis (it should be noted that Catullus has dropped this version of the first encounter of man and goddess).

page 30 note 2 Noted by, inter alios, Wheeler, A.L., Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry (Berkeley, 1934), p. 125 Google Scholar.

page 30 note 3 For the myth, see, e.g., Cic., Arat. 145 ff.Google Scholar; Virg., Aen. X. 189 ff.Google Scholar; Ov., Met. II. 340 ff.Google Scholar

page 30 note 4 Kroll apparently denies the allusion any meaning with his note ‘Ähnliche gelehrte Periphrasis in alexandrinischer Manier V. 324. 346. 367. 63, 41. 66, 44. 58a, 1’. Similarly, his note on 288 implies nothing more than formalism, ‘Aufzählungen von Blumen und Bäumen liebt die hellenistische Poesie; vgl. Culex 123 ff. Ovid Ars 3, 687 ff.’. At Culex 123 ff., the trees in fact have symbolic associations. In the case of Catullus, the question remains: why these trees?

page 30 note 5 Although the plane is vidua at Mart. III. 58. 3, sterilis at Virg., Georg. II. 70 Google Scholar, and caelebs at Hor., Carm. II. 15.4Google Scholar (in conjunction with the laurel, it is here on the side of luxury and sterility, a symbol of decline from the veterum norma), more generally it has pleasant associations: see Mayor on Juv. I. 12. The laurel is innuba at Ov., Met. X. 92 Google Scholar, but is in fact in place at a wedding: see below p. 31 n. 2.

page 31 note 1 funebris, Hor., Epod. V. 18 Google Scholar; feralis, Virg., Aen. VI. 216 Google Scholar, Ov., Tr. III. 13. 21Google Scholar and Perron. 120. 75; nee laeta, Culex 140; cf. Virg., Aen. II. 714 Google Scholar, iuxtaque (tumulum) antiqua cupressus, Servius ad loc., funebrem arborem. See Th.L.L., s.v. cupressus, for its many funereal associations.

page 31 note 2 It might be argued that the poplar and the cypress are not always unlucky. This is of course true: see, e.g., Od. V. 64 Google Scholar, Theocr. XVII. 30, and Virg., Georg. I. 20 Google Scholar, for the cypress in happier contexts; Hor., Carm. II. 3. 9–10 Google Scholar, for the poplar. But the fact remains that Catullus has chosen an unhappy periphrasis for the poplar, and followed this up with a reference to the cypress: taken together, their auguries could hardly be said to be propitious. Moreover, neither tree figured at wedding ceremonies. At Juv. VI. 79, Apul., Met. IV. 81 Google Scholar, and Plut., Amator. 10. 5Google Scholar the laurel is mentioned (in the last, along with the olive); at Stat., Silv. I. 2. 231Google Scholar, we find the generalised fronde virent postes. A ware of the actual facts of the Roman wedding ceremony, the audience must have been surprised to find the unwelcome presence of the poplar and the cypress. Catullus is perhaps varying the conceit which associated weddings with funerals: see Lucr. I. 95 ff., of Iphigeneia's sacrifice (non ut sollemni more sacrorum / perfecto posset claro comitari Hymenaeo); Ov., Her. II. 117 ff.Google Scholar, VI. 41 ff., VII. 91 ff., XI. 101 ff., XXI. 172, Met. VI. 428 ff.Google Scholar, of wedding and funeral torches, or the attendance of the Furies; Prop. II. 7. 11–12, likening the wedding flute to the funeral trumpet, cf. Ov., Her. XII. 137–40Google Scholar; Prop. IV. 3. 13ff., quae mihi deductae fax omen praetulit, ilia / traxit ab everso lumina nigra rogo, / et Stygio sum sparsa lacu, nee recta capillis / vitta data est, nupsi non comitante deo; Tac., Ann. XIV. 63. 4Google Scholar, huic primum nuptiarum dies loco funeris fuit; Virg., Aen. IV. 169–70Google Scholar, ille dies primus leti primusque malorum / causa fuit.

page 31 note 3 Tradition and Originality, p. 226. Cf. Aesch., P.V. 768 ff., 908 ff.Google Scholar, Apollod. III. 13. 5, Hygin., Astr. II. 15 Google Scholar, Fab. 54, and Serv., Ecl. VI. 42 Google Scholar, for the version of the myth in which Prometheus was instrumental in warning Jupiter. But there was an alternative tradition, in which it was Themis, not Prometheus, who made the prophecy: see Pind., Isthm. VIII. 32 Google Scholar, Ap.Rh. IV. 799 ff.Google Scholar The commentators tend to overlook the connection between Prometheus and Chiron: at Apollod. II. 5. 4 he offers to become immortal instead of Chiron, thus allowing the Centaur to die, when tormented by Hercules' poisoned arrow; at Apollod. II. 5. 11, Chiron consents to die for the sake of Prometheus. The three guests appear to have Thessaly in common; see below p. 33 n. 1.

page 32 note 1 For the ring (a piece of rock set in iron), see Serv., Ed. VI. 42 Google Scholar; Plin., N.H. XXXIII. 8 Google Scholar; XXXVII. 2. As Ellis notes, ‘Extenuata would then mean reduced to small compass’. In support of a reference to scars, Fordyce cites Ov., Am. III. 8. 19Google Scholar and Plin., N.H. XXXIII. 24 Google Scholar.

page 32 note 2 Kinsey, p. 923, argues against taking Prometheus' faded scars as symbolising ‘the healing of old wounds’, in view of the peevish absence of Apollo and Diana at 299–302.

page 32 note 3 Kinsey, p. 923, notes that the earlier part of the poem ‘stressed the general graciousness of gods to men; Prometheus’ wounds remind us that this was not always so'. Putnam, p. 191, remarks that the entry of Prometheus ‘somehow breaks the enchanting spell’, but is then carried away into biographical speculation, identifying Catullus with Prometheus. This is too fanciful.

page 32 note 4 Catullus is nothing if not explicit about the departure of the human guests, despite 385, et sese mortali ostendere coetu. Yet Kinsey, p. 913, merely remarks that ‘There is no reason why they should go; the gods would not have objected to their presence’. For reasons which escape me, Curran, p. 185, calls the departure of the human guests ‘tactful’. He then proceeds to connect linquentes at 276 with the use of linquere and relinquere during the Theseus–Ariadne episode, concluding that ‘By the time the words are used in 276 (and 299), the notion of “leaving” has decidedly dark connotations’. I find it hard to believe that anything of the tone of the Theseus–Ariadne episode is carried over into this particular word, which strikes me as being relatively neutral; furthermore, in an episode which deals with desertion, the notion of ‘leaving’ will necessarily recur. The lyrical simile of 269–75 glosses over the harsher implications of the departure of the human guests, but in itself it has a faint suggestion of agitation: post vento crescente magis magis increbescunt, 274. The clementia of 272 is forgotten.

page 33 note 1 It does not seem to have been noted that Prometheus, like Chiron and Penios, has connections with Thessaly. At Ap.Rh. III. 1086 ff.Google Scholar, Prometheus is said to have fathered Deucalion, the first builder of cities, in Thessaly. (Schol. ad loc. notes Hesiod as the source of the story in which Deucalion is the son of Prometheus and Pandora: it should be said that Aesch., P.V. 451 f.Google Scholar implies that Prometheus, not his son, taught men to build cities.) It might be the case that Catullus, like Apollonius, is using Thessaly as the home of civilisation.

page 33 note 2 Pind., Nem. V. 41 ff.Google Scholar, Il. XXIV. 62 f.Google Scholar, Plat., Rep. II. 383 bGoogle Scholar = Aesch. fr. 284a Mette.

page 34 note 1 Now see Curran, p. 181, ‘It would be difficult to imagine a worse omen for the success of the marriage than the fact that the couch is thus literally enshrouded in a covering of such sinister import'. It is perhaps worth remarking that it is the human guests, not the divine, who gaze at the couch: note 267–8. This is possibly another sign that Catullus wishes to associate tragedy with man. It might be objected that the Ariadne story has, after all, a happy ending. However, Catullus does not imply that the arrival of Bacchus is an event which should elicit unqualified approval: rather, the element of frenzy is stressed (note lymphata mente furebant, 254, and the following abandoned description of the θίασος). Surely the two adjectives of the last line of this episode— barbaraque horribili stridebat tibia cantu, 264—are intended to leave the reader with equivocal feelings? Similar details in LXIII (esp. 20 ff.) could hardly be said to show Catullus' sympathy for Oriental hysteria. With Curran, p. 180, I find that the arrival of Bacchus does not give a neat or happy conclusion to the story of Ariadne.

page 34 note 2 Cf. 218, fervida virtus.

page 34 note 3 See above, p. 23 n. 1, for the parallels between the Theseus–Ariadne episode and the epilogue.

page 35 note 1 See Fordyce on 19.

page 35 note 2 Wheeler, p. 125, remarks upon Catullus' suggestion of Oriental splendour in his description of Peleus' palace, but draws no conclusions.

page 35 note 3 See Smith, K. F. on Tib. I. 3. 37Google Scholar; Enk on Prop. I. 7. 13–14Google Scholar, referring to Leo, , Plautinische Forschungen2 , pp. 152–5Google Scholar; Nisbet, and Hubbard, , A Commentary on Horace Odes Book 1 (Oxford, 1970), pp. 43–4, 49–50 Google Scholar.

page 35 note 4 See Klingner, p. 9.

page 35 note 5 Enn., Scaen. 246 ff.Google Scholar V3. For Ennius' moralistic colour, see next note. It should be noted that Catullus had Euripides in mind as well as Ennius: compare πεύκη, 4, and pinus, I, replacing abiegna…trabes from the Ennian version (247 V3); ἐρετμῶσαι χέρας 4 and caerula verrentes abiegnis aequora palmis, 7 (perhaps with an element of word-play?). Catullus also lays Apollonius under contribution; with Ap.Rh. II. 1280 Google Scholar cf. line 3.

page 35 note 6 Ennius omits the first two lines of Euripides' account, and resorts immediately to the business of sailing, expanding the third and fourth lines of his model into over three lines. There is no reference to the details of the Argonauts' itinerary, and except for Pelio in the first line, little by way of attempt to set the scene. The Argo only makes an appearance after general moral antipathy has been aroused :pellem inauratam arietis, and imperio regis Peliae, in 251–2 V3, then produce a reaction against the evils of gold and of kings. The addition of per dolum in 252 makes Ennius' moralistic intentions explicit. In comparison, Euripides seems detached and objective.

page 36 note 1 Klingner, p. 7, thinks that Catullus' robora pubis may be Ennian, although the phrase does not survive in this form.

page 36 note 2 See Klingner, pp. 7–8, for the archaisms and Ennianisms in Catullus' exordium.

page 36 note 3 Cf. also Val. Flacc. I.3, ausa, of the Argo. Kroll's note on ausi, ‘denn es war die erste Seefahrt, und das Meer flösste den Alten besonders Schrecken ein’, explains the immediate situation, but the fearfulness of the sea has as its complement the temerity of man in attempting an alien element. I would maintain that ausi Sunt is to be explained with reference to other nautical contexts, not to such usages as, e.g., sapere aude. Nisbet and Hubbard on Hor., Carm. I. 3. 25Google Scholar explain audax with ‘audacia (τόλμα) is an impious self-assertion’, and refer to Dodds, E. R., Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety (1963), pp. 24 ff.Google Scholar

page 36 note 4 Kroll compares mare salsum and aequora salsa, Enn., Ann. 142 Google Scholar and Trag. 367 V3, also Virg., Aen. V. 158 Google Scholar.

page 36 note 5 Cf. Enn., Ann. 37 Google Scholar and 521 V3; Trag. 357 V3; C.I.L. I2. 7. As Klingner notes, p.7, the word does not appear in Virgil, and only three times in Horace, in derisive contexts.

page 37 note 1 Med. 335 ff.

page 37 note 2 See above p. 35 n. 3.

page 37 note 3 Fordyce, citing Virg., Aen. I. 472 Google Scholar, VIII. 208, Caes., B.C. III. 59. 4Google Scholar, notes that avertere ‘is used especially of carrying off spoil’. With verrentes, cf. Enn., Ann. 384–5Google Scholar V3, verrunt extemplo placidum mare marmore flavo; / caeruleum spumat sale conferta rate pulsum, where verrunt leads to pulsum and contrasts with placidum (which must be the correct reading, given that the second line expresses the agitation of the sea when beaten by the ships: not placide); Virg., Aen. III. 208 Google Scholar, torquent spumas et caerula verrunt, V. 778 Google Scholar, certatim socii feriunt mare et aequora verrunt. More strongly, cf. Virg., Aen. V. 143 Google Scholar, convulsum remis…aequor; Curt. Ruf. III. 3. 18, remis pertinacius everberatum mare.

page 37 note 4 If Bergk's correction in 16 is accepted, ilia atque ⟨haud⟩ alia, the emphasis is uneasy: ‘on that day, and on no other day’ did mortals see the naked nymphs. At the end of the poem, after various stages of preparation, we shall see that the human and the divine have been completely separated from one another. In 16 Catullus may be alluding to the delicate nature of the equilibrium between man and god, already partially disturbed by the voyage of Argo; the implication is perhaps that after that eventful day, which marked the beginning of the decline, meetings between man and god became impossible.

page 37 note 5 Kinsey, pp. 915–16, and now Curran, p. 185. They do not mention the link between the proem and 171 ff.

page 37 note 6 See Ellis and Fordyce ad loc.

page 38 note 1 Alcaeus B. 10. 9 L–P; Pind., Pyth. III. 89–90 Google Scholar; Eur., I.A. 705, 1045 ff.Google Scholar

page 38 note 2 On Cat. LXIV. 38 Kroll refers to the Tibullan passage; Fordyce, also to Ov., Fast. I. 665–6Google Scholar, for descriptions of the deserted countryside. In neither of these places is the full effect of the pattern of description similar to that of Catullus.

page 40 note 1 It could, of course, be said that the sacrifices are an instance of human pietas. But after the Polyxena episode, sacrifices do not have the happiest of connotations. Moreover, it seems very difficult to overlook the discordant note introduced by letifero belli certamine, 394 (Granarolo, p. 156, notes the oddity of 394–6). Given the way in which Catullus concludes the first part of his epilogue, I think it is certainly arguable whether the sacrifices simply exemplify pietas. Sacrifice has no place in the ideal life at Sen., Phaedr. 498–500 Google Scholar; the eating of oxen is associated with decline at Arat. 132 and Virg., Georg. II. 537 Google Scholar.

page 41 note 1 Kinsey, pp. 926 f., feels that the final contrast between the Heroic Age and the present is inexact. He remarks that Catullus shows little enthusiasm for the past. It is also perhaps worth noting that the instances of contemporary scelus at 397 ff. are strangely evocative of the Heroic Age. One thinks of the Seven against Thebes, Oedipus, and (depending on the interpretation of 402) possibly of Hippolytus. Perhaps this is again a deliberate blurring of distinctions.

page 41 note 2 I should like to express my thanks to Mr R. G. G. Coleman and Mr L. P. Wilkinson for their helpful criticisms of an earlier draft of this paper.