Hannah Kloster, Boston University
The goddess Nemesis features prominently in four of Catullus’ poems (Carmina 50.20, 64.395, 66.71, and 68.77). These constitute the first mentions of Nemesis in extant Latin literature, and the only instances in which a Roman author refers to her as Rhamnusia virgo. Scholars have offered varied interpretations of the goddess’s role in these poems. Some have identified Nemesis’ role in c. 50 as the punisher of the unyielding beloved and overseer of fair contests (Burgess 1986, Pasco-Pranger 2009), others have discussed Catullus’ allusions to Nemesis in the Greek epic and lyric tradition, especially through the epithet “Rhamnusian” (Skinner 1984, Scivoletto 1987), and still others have shown Catullus’ juxtaposition of himself with Laodamia through the prayer to Nemesis in c. 68 (Skinner 1984, Wiseman 1985, Johnson 1982). This paper aims to investigate Nemesis’ role in the Catullan corpus as a whole. By examining the cumulative significance of Nemesis throughout the Carmina, I argue for a new reading of the collection’s closing poem.
In studying the depictions of Nemesis, I illustrate her poetic and personal importance to Catullus. I follow Burgess 1986 in pointing out Catullus’ allusions to Nemesis’ erotic associations in the Hellenistic epigrams (Anth. Pal. 5.273, 6.283, 12.140) and her agonistic aspect. In c. 50, Catullus casts himself as the inferior poet through his prayer to Nemesis as goddess of contest, and she will require that Licinius, the superior poet, return Catullus’ poems. Similarly, c. 66, Catullus’ translation of Callimachus’ “Lock of Berenice,” follows c. 65, in which Catullus tells Hortalus that he will send poems “translated from Callimachus,” an example of poetic exchange. Next, in c. 64, 66, and 68, the epithet Rhamnusia alludes to the Cypria, in which Nemesis produces Helen after her rape by Zeus at Rhamnus. In c. 68, through the speaker’s prayer to the Rhamnusian virgin, Catullus recalls the consequences of Helen’s adultery, this time in terms of his relationship with Lesbia. Catullus may view his brother’s death at Troy as retribution for his own adultery (Skinner 1984). Nemesis thus pervades Catullus’ relationships with friends, family, and lovers. For Catullus, Nemesis demands both amorous and literary reciprocation.
The importance of Nemesis to Catullus in both personal and literary modes offers a new reading of Catullus c. 116. Here, Catullus warns Gellius that he will “pay the punishment” (tu dabis supplicium, 8) for his hubristic actions. The poem unites both erotic and literary retribution. Catullus has tried to appease Gellius with poems of Callimachus (carmine Battiadae, cf. 65.16), and Gellius’ wrongdoing has been an amorous one — he has seduced Lesbia (c. 91). Catullus will exact punishment from Gellius for his crimes, thus embodying the Catullan Nemesis. The importance of Nemesis as the Rhamnusian virgo might also suggest that Nemesis bookends the Catullan corpus, whose identity as the patrona virgo from c. 1 has been proposed by Newman 1990. Through Catullus’ embodiment of the goddess in c. 116, Nemesis presides over the entire collection.