8/31 - Catullus LXIV (64)

LXIV (64) 62-85

prospicit et magnis curarum fluctuat undis,
non flavo retinens subtilem vertice mitram,
non contecta levi velatum pectus amictu,
non tereti strophio lactentis vincta papillas,
omnia quae toto delapsa e corpore passim
ipsius ante pedes fluctus salis alludebant.
sed neque tum mitrae neque tum fluitantis amictus
illa vicem curans toto ex te pectore, Theseu,
toto animo, tota pendebat perdita mente.
misera, assiduis quam luctibus externavit
spinosas Erycina serens in pectore curas,
illa tempestate, ferox quo ex tempore Theseus
egressus curvis e litoribus Piraei
attigit iniusti regis Gortynia templa.
nam perhibent olim crudeli peste coactam
Androgeoneae poenas exsolvere caedis
electos iuvenes simul et decus innuptarum
Cecropiam solitam esse dapem dare Minotauro.
quis angusta malis cum moenia vexarentur,
ipse suum Theseus pro caris corpus Athenis
proicere optavit potius quam talia Cretam
funera Cecropiae nec funera portarentur.
atque ita nave levi nitens ac lenibus auris
magnanimum ad Minoa venit sedesque superbas.

She sees and fluctuates with great waves of cares,
Not keeping that finely-wrought headdress on the golden crown of her head,
Not covered with her light garment in respect to her previously covered breast,
Her milky breasts no longer bound with the rolled cord
All these things which float down from her whole body everywhere
Before her feet the waves of the briny sea were playing with.
But caring neither at that time for her headdress nor her flowing garment, she was
Hanging from you with her whole heart, Theseus,
Her whole spirit, her, poor lost one, whole mind.
Oh poor girl, whom Venus was driving mad with continuous grief
Sowing thorny cares in her heart,
Ever since that time when fierce Theseus,
Having set out from the curved shores of Piraeus,
First reached the Gortynian temples of the unjust king [Minos].
For they say that once upon a time, compelled by a fierce plague
To pay the penalty for the killing of Androgeonus,
Athens was accustomed to give a meal of the chosen youth to the glorious Minotaur.
When the narrow Athenian walls were being vexed with these said evils,
Theseus himself chose to throw his own body forward for
Dear Athens rather than that such corpses and yet
Un-corpses of Athens are born to Crete.
And thus leaning on the light ship and with gentle winds
He came to great-hearted Minos and his proud chair.

8/28 - Catullus LXIV (64)

LXIV (64) 52-61

namque fluentisono prospectans litore Diae,
Thesea cedentem celeri cum class tuetur
indomitos in corde gerens Ariadna furores,
necdum etiam sese quae visit visere credit,
utpote fallaci quae tum primum excita somno
desertam in sola miseram se cernat harena.
immemor at iuvenis fugiens pellit vada remis,
irrita ventosae linquens promissa procellae.
quem procul ex alga maestis Minois ocellis,
saxea ut effigies bacchantis, prospicit, eheu,

For Ariadne looking out from the resounding shore of Naxos,
She watches Theseus going with his quick fleet
Carrying untamed furies in her heart,
Not even yet does she believe that she was looking at the things she sees,
As is natural she perceives that she, wretch that she is, has been abandoned on the
lone sand, having just then been roused from deceptive sleep.
But the unmindful youth, as he flees, pushes the seawater with oars,
Leaving behind unfulfilled promises, [leaving them] to the windy gust.
The daughter of Minos from the algae with sad little eyes sees that one at a distance,
stony as a bacchante's statue, alas,

8/27 - Catullus LXIV (64)

• In the first 50 lines, we read the framing story of the bulk of the poem's narrative, which told the story of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. Peleus was an Argonaut, one of the sailors on the first ship, the Argo, which Jason sailed to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The narrative tells of the sea and all her creatures' amazement at the first keel breaking the waters; in their astonishment the Nymphs rise to the surface to watch, among them Thetis, daughter of Oceanus. Peleus, aboard the Argo, falls in love with her, and they plan to marry.
• On the day of the wedding, everyone in Thessaly comes to Pharsalus (the home of Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis; the setting thus references the Iliad), abandoning their work and their homes in favor of the palace in which the wedding will be held. The palace is described with synonyms of "gleaming"; every object in the house shines, owing to the union. Upon the marriage couch of Thetis lies a tapestry or covering which is decorated with a story, that of Ariadne, which begins on Line 50.
• The poem is an epyllion, or a miniature epic, and so mimics their style, with dactylic hexameters. Yet it's a personal poem, so far largely empty of gods.
• Compare the relationship Catullus and Homer with Vergil and Homer: Catullus borrows the characters of the Iliad in Achilles' parents, but sets them in a romantic and small-scale situation (a wedding); Vergil continues the epic tone and transcribes the wrath central to the earlier epic, that of Achilles, to Juno. The reason for Catullus' allusion is because of his status as a novus poeta; his knowledge of the epic was filtered through the Alexandrian poets and their database of literary knowledge. The Augustan poets (Vergil + Horace) are literary poets, with heavy reference to past, principally Greek works.
• Elevated poetry: similar to the Vergil, than previously thought: epic meter, metonymy, repetition, anaphora, chiasmus and synchysis, apostrophe, hyperbaton, periphrasis, etc.

—

LXIV (64) 50-51

haec vestis priscis hominum variata figuris

heroum mira virtutes indicat arte.

This tapestry varied [embroidered] with ancient figures of men

The virtues of heroes indicate with remarkable skill.