SCS-24: Catullus

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.

This paper re-examines the use of choral imagery in Catullus 63 considering the political meaning of the word chorus in the Republican period. I will develop a theory of “Republican Choral Poetics,” in which Greek choral imagery is a way of criticizing the behavior of leaders. Though scholars have proposed a metapoetical interpretation of the chorus in Catullus 63 (Curtis), however, the political valences of choral imagery in Catullus’ poem and in Republican literature have not been considered.

In Catullus’ Carmina 64.188-201, Ariadne invokes the Eumenides (194), the snaky-haired avenging goddesses who “avenge the deeds of men” (64.193, Mulroy 2002),” and whose appearance resembles the Erinyes more than that of the Eumenides. Ariadne summons the Eumenides for her demise here in Catullus’ poem while the variations and receptions of her myth, particularly in other Roman elegy, do not seem to include any such evocation to these goddesses by any name.

Catullus drew heavily upon Roman comedy, as an increasingly expansive body of scholarship has shown (see esp. Polt; cf., e.g., Goldberg; Agnesini; Uden; Hanses 294–316). No study, however, has yet fully examined the influence of comedy upon what may be Catullus’s most challenging work, poem 68A–B (here taken as one poem; for discussion see, e.g., Leigh).

In Catullus 63, the protagonist Attis undergoes a change in grammatical gender after their castration in the fifth line of the poem. In some editions (e.g., Goold 1989), Attis, who was initially masculine, is uniformly feminine from this point on. In others (Mynors 1958), Attis is gendered feminine in the narration but masculine in the dialogue. In still others (Morisi 1999), Attis’ grammatical gender fluctuates between masculine and feminine at emotional inflection points.

In poem 23, Catullus denies Furius Bibaculus, another transpadane poet, money and mocks him for being excessively dry. Marsilio and Podlesney have argued that the terms of Furius’ dryness constitute a critique of his poetic style.