Personal Revelation in Catullus 64

Author(s): Marion L. Daniels

Source: The Classical Journal , May, 1967, Vol. 62, No. 8 (May, 1967), pp. 351-356
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3295589

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PERSONAL REVELATION IN CATULLUS 64

and
T HAT CATULLUS WAS PREOCCUPIED incorporate it in an all-encompassing
with
spiritual experience. That Lesbia did not
love is obvious in most of his poems.
share the
That he was interested in discussing the poet's capacity for love was
all too soon evident to him. Indeed, she
culmination of love in legitimate marriage,
was unable even to maintain a loyal physi-
and contrasting it with disastrous passion,
cal emo-
is natural for a poet as subjective and attachment. It seemed that Lesbia had
tional as Catullus. Catullus "reveals the everything that Catullus desired except
fact that for him affection and love are the ability to experience the true nature of
almost a personal religion."I1 "divine madness." This void in her char-
Catullus' concept of love is akin to acter produced a void in Catullus' life.
Plato's "divine madness," the madness of Although the poet might engage in riotous
Eros. love affairs from time to time, his real
Here too was a 'given,' something which happens desire was not a life of debauchery, but a
to a man without his choosing or knowing why- lasting love relationship. It became ap-
the work, therefore, of a formidable daemon. Here parent to Catullus, grievously apparent,
too-there indeed, above all-Plato recognised that Lesbia could never attain the oneness
the operation of divine grace, and used the old
with him that he desired. He longed for
religious language to express that recognition. But
Eros has a special importance in Plato's thought an ideal union, but because of Lesbia's lack
as being the one mode of experience which brings of capacity for love and of sensitivity to
together the two natures of man, the divine selflove he attained only real passion and
and the tethered beast. For Eros is frankly rootedpain. When the reality of love was painful
in what man shares with the animals, the physi-
to express and the usual forms of epigram
ological impulse of sex . . . yet Eros also supplies
the dynamic impulse which drives the soul for- and elegy seemed inadequate to convey
ward in its quest of a satisfaction transcending Catullus' concept of what love might be,
earthly experience. It thus spans the whole com-the poet turned to mythology to add a new
pass of human personality, and makes the one dimension to his philosophy of love. The
empirical bridge between man as he is and man as stories of Peleus and Thetis and of Theseus
he might be."
and Ariadne provided a catharsis. Though
The knowledge of what love might be he could never enjoy an ideal love, Catul-
and what love was haunted Catullus lus could participate, through his art, in
throughout his life. His passion forthe
Lesbia
story of the ideal past; in like manner,
was physically real, yet Catullus he
had thesuffer in the real present with
could
capacity to transcend the purely the
physical
hapless Ariadne and by identification
secure some measure of emotional release.
1 E. A. Havelock, The lyric genius of Catullus (Oxford
1939) 115. Examples from mythology to provide a
2 E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the irrational (Berkeley
1951) 218. paradigm for personal experience were

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 352 MARION L. DANIELS

common in her husband as Lesbia

other never was to him-he con-
erotic poe
of Propertius' fesses it in theuse
same poem. The of truth is that
myt he
has created her in the image of his own heart
notes that "the figures
because he cannot help it, and Laodamia is the
of
the prototype and models
embodiment of this illusion, half Lesbia, and half
and their character and
himself. Like Lesbia, she was a lovely and famous c
the norms for the character and conduct of woman; like himself, she loved too well and found
contemporary men; what is true in mythher love frustrated. He had a trick of seeing her
not as she was: wayward, fickle, perhaps heart-
is also true and significant in the im- less, and shallow, but as the substance of his own
mediate present."3 emotions; a supreme victory this for love to
In Poem 64, Catullus identifies himselfwring from defeat.5
with Ariadne; the description of the emas-
Numerous enlightening parallels between
culated Attis (63.89-90), illademens fugitCatullus 64 and the rest of the Catullan
in nemora fera; ibi semper omne vitae
corpus add weight to the contention that
spatium famula fuit, seems to describe
the effect of Lesbia on Catullus. The
64 is a personal revelation of the poet's
identification with female characters is
heart.6 When Ariadne awakes from sleep
on Dia, her desertion is hard to accept as
prominent, and there was in Catullus
reality: necdum etiam sese quae visit visere
a strong dash of the feminine as indeed there credit
is in (64.55). Catullus also finds it dif-
all well-rounded and fully-matured natures, for it
ficult to accept the reality of a lost love.
is an ingredient which has nothing to do with
In 8.1-2 he says:
effeminacy. This bi-sexualism indeed on the part
of both men and women is the psychological Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire,
secret of that romanticism which since the passing et quod vides perisse perditum ducas.
of antiquity has been imported into the relation
between the sexes; the man has grown more Poem 30 bears striking parallels through-
tender and the woman more protective-a symp- out to 64. Catullus' great capacity for
tom, this, that civilzation is slowly coming of
love and his extreme sensitivity are dis-
age. Catullus united a very full emotional nature
with an unusual capacity for expressing it in played in the poet's address to his friend
poetry. Each increased the other and as a result Alfenus, and these same emotions run
he far outstripped the emotional register of his rampant throughout 64. For this reason I
race and period.' quote the entire poem (30.1-12):
This explains the remarkable identification Alfene immemor atque unanimis false soda-
of himself with the female. libus,
Such identification and its involvement iam te nil miseret, dure, tui dulcis amiculi?
iam me prodere, iam non dubitas fallere,
in a mythological example is not found perfide ?
only in 63 and 64. In 68, the epistle to nec facta impia fallacum hominum caelicolis
Allius, Catullus, placent.
quae tu neglegis ac me miserum deseris in
looking back over his love's early days, and over-- malis.
come by his yearning for her in imagination . . . eheu quid faciant, dic, homines cuive habeant
sees himself as she might be-as woman and wife fidem ?
-just as he sees her as he is himself-loving, certe tute iubebas animam tradere, inique, me
faithful, patient. This is the secret of the twin inducens in amorem, quasi tuta omnia mi
poetic images of Laodamia and Juno as he used forent.
them in that poem. The tale of Laodamia forms idem nunc retrahis te ac tua dicta omnia
an episode which has puzzled commentators, for factaque
it is the tale of a wife completely devoted to ventos irrita ferre ac nebulas aereas sinis.

3 A. W. Allen, "Sunt qui Propertium malint," in Critical5 Ibid. 118-19.

essays on Roman literature ed. J. P. Sullivan (London 6 Paul W. Harkins' article is valuable: "Autoallegory
1962) 142. For a general discussion of Catullus' treat- in Catullus 63 and 64," TAPA 90 (1959) 102-16. I dis-
ment of myth see A. L. Wheeler, Catullus and the tra-agree with Harkins, however, when he links Thetis and
ditions of ancient poetry (Berkeley 1934) 120-32. Lesbia. There seems to be no similarity between the two
4Havelock (n.1) 118. except that each was beautiful.

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 PERSONAL REVELATION IN CATULLUS 64 353

si tu oblitus es, at di To meminerunt, meminit

Ariadne, Theseus was the most im-
Fides,
portant thing in her life, as Lesbia was to
quae te ut paeniteat postmodo facti faciet tui.
Catullus.
Alfenus, who has broken a vow to Catullus, Omnibus his Thesei dulcem praeoptarit
is called immemor and perfide, just as amorem (64.120).
Theseus, who has broken the vow of love, Credis me potuisse meae maledicere vitae,
is called by Ariadne immemor (135) and ambobus mihi quae carior est oculis
perfide (132, 133). In 30, the breaking of (104.1-2) ?
promises is emphasized by the repetition The enervating effects of Catullus' com-
of fallere and fallacum, and the reader plete absorption with love, described so
also remembers that Theseus has been de-
beautifully in 51, take on new significance
ceitful to Ariadne (64.139-42). Alfenuswhenis compared with similar thoughts in
linked with Theseus when each is accused
64. Among the many effects of love the
of lack of sympathy. Compare iam te nilsays finally that gemina teguntur
poet
miseret, dure, tui dulcis amiculi (30.2) with
lumina nocte (51.11-12). In 64.122 we
the complaint against Theseus, tibi nullasee Ariadne devinctam lumina somno.
fuit clementia praesto, immite ut nostri Ariadne and Catullus are blind to the
vellet miserescere pectus (64.137-8). realities of love; nocte and somno sound the
Alfenus caused anguish to his friend warning. This, perhaps, explains why
because he was immemor and perfidus; nec
Catullus says that leisure, or, if you please,
facta impia fallacum hominum caelicolissleep (blindness) is bad for him. The
placent (30.4). Theseus was perfidious destructive quality of otium7 he expresses
to Ariadne (64.134-5): in 51.15-16: otium et reges prius et beatas
'sicine discedens neglecto numine divum,
perdidit urbes. In 104.3 his helplessness
immemor a! devota domum periuria portas?'
and love's devastation are expressed: nec,
The striking parallels between 30 and 64 si possem, tam perdite amarem. The des-
continue when we read that Alfenus had peration to which love has driven him cries
led Catullus on into love quasi tuta omnia out in 92.2,4: Lesbia me dispeream nisi
mi forent (30.8). Theseus had carried amat . .. verum dispeream nisi amo.
Ariadne away from family and home andAriadne suffered the same despair, for she
now omnia muta, omnia sunt deserta, tota pendebat perdita mente (64.70).
ostentant omnia letum (64.186-7). Alfenus The concluding lines of the Alfenus poem
and Theseus both tossed their promises to (30.11-12)
the winds to be irrita (30.10; 64.142). si tu oblitus es, at di meminerunt, meminit
The complete surrender of Ariadne to Fides,
Theseus is climactically described (64.69- quae te ut paeniteat postmodo facti faciet tui
70): sound the same foreboding note as
illa vicem curans toto ex te pectore, Theseu, Ariadne's curse (64.200-201):
toto animo, tota pendebat perdita mente.
sed quali solam Theseus me mente reliquit,
Catullus constantly reminds us of his com- tali mente, deae, funestet seque suosque.
plete surrender to Lesbia and the remark- These obvious echoes in 64 of the rest of
able depth of his love. In 8.4-5 he says the corpus clarify the personal revelations
cum ventitabas quo puella ducebat
7The last stanza of 51 has often vexed scholars. It
amata nobis quantum amabitur nulla,
seems probable that otium is a fitting conclusion to the
devastating effects of love. See I. Borzsak, "Otium
and again, in 87.1-2, Catullianum," Acta antiqua Acad. Scient. Hungar. 4
(1956) 211-19; R. Katicic, "Die letzte Strophe in
nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatam Catulls Carm. LI," Ziva antika 5 (1959) 27-32. [Cf. also
vere, quantum a me Lesbia amata mea est. Jensen, pp. 363-5 below.-ED.]

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 354 MARION L. DANIELS

suggested dicebas quondam solum te nosse Catullum,

earlier. Catull
Lesbia, nec prae me velle tenere Iovem.
self with Ariadne and Le
and there And are numerou
again (109.1-2):
port the analogy. In
iucundum, mea vita, mihi proponis amorem
51
Lesbia: Nam simul te, Lesbia, aspexi, hunc nostrum inter nos perpetuumque fore.
nihil est super mi. The suddenness of
Ariadne's passion for Theseus and its con- Lesbia can be clearly identified with
Theseus when we consider Ariadne's words
suming flame is analogous (64.86-93):
describing Theseus (64.139-41)
hunc simul ac cupido conspexit lumine virgo
regia ... concepit corpore flammam at non haec quondam blanda promissa dedisti
funditus atque imis exarsit tota medullis. voce mihi, non haec miserae sperare iubebas,
sed conubia laeta, sed optatos hymenaeos
Nowhere does Catullus describe Lesbia's
and compare them with the remonstrances
appearance. But he does speak of her foot-
to Lesbia in 72 and 109.
step at the door as he waits for her
(68.70-72): "It is precisely an absorption in the non-
physical aspects of love that sets Catullus'
quo mea se molli candida diva pede
intulit et trito fulgentem in limine plantamnlove for Lesbia apart from the common run
innixa arguta constituit solea. of ancient affairs and gives to it its special
character."9 Instead of mere sexual at-
He links Theseus and Lesbia by describingtraction, Catullus desired a oneness of
Theseus unusually, candida permulcens
body, soul, mind, and spirit. This Catullan
liquidis vestigia lymphis (64.162). Vestigia
concept of love, so opposite to the ancient
in the sense of "feet" is an extremely rare
view of the synonymy of love and desire,
usage, and the similarity of the two pas-
was difficult to express, but to Catullus
sages seems hardly accidental.8 The whole
it could best be explained as a foedus-
point of the creaking sandal and Theseus'
feet becomes obvious when Catullus usessomething that lasted throughout life. De-
scribing his love for Lesbia, he says (87.3-
vestigia again when describing Prometheus:
4):
Prometheus attends the wedding extenuata
gerens veteris vestigia poenae (64.295). nulla fides ullo fuit umquam foedere tanta,
The soft step of Lesbia and the gleaming quanta in amore tuo ex parte reperta mea
est.
foot of Theseus were also to leave vestigia
poenae that could never be erased. NoteHe calls on the gods to see to it that Lesbia
also 64.113, where the vestigia of Theseus
fulfills her part of their contract (109.3-6):
are directed to safety, but in the end lead di magni, facite ut vere promittere possit,
to destruction. This link between three atque id sincere dicat et ex animo,
passages from 64 and the other poems ut liceat nobis tota perducere vita
shows the artistry and subtlety of Catul- aeternum hoc sanctae foedus amicitiae.
lus' personal revelation. Lesbia could not understand the nature of
The affair with Lesbia was shattering
the foedus, and in 70.1-4 Catullus despairs
to the poet's emotions because he expected
over her lack of understanding and faith-
and longed for a spiritual oneness in addi-
lessness:
tion to passion's flame. He had anticipated
Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
mutual affection, and he invokes the quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat.
deepest sympathy when he reminds his love dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
that (72.1-2) in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.

8 For the inference from the use of vestigia in 64 and 9 Frank O. Copley, "Emotional conflict and its signif-
fulgens planta in 68 see Sheridan Baker, "Lesbia's foot," icance in the Lesbia poems of Catullus," AJP 70 (1949)
CP 55 (1960) 171-3. 23.

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PERSONAL REVELATION IN CATULLUS 64 355

in the
Ariadne too reproaches present calls for
Theseus forth abreak-
plea to the gods
ing their contract or foedus
in the (64.143-4):
heart-rending lines (76.19-26):
nunc iam nulla viro iuranti me miserum
femina aspicite credat,
et, si vitam puriter egi,
nulla viri speret sermoneseripite esse hanc pestem perniciemque mihi,
fideles.
quae mihi subrepens imos ut torpor in artus
An additional dimension of Catullus' expulit ex omni pectore laetitias.
love is expressed in the moving lines (72.3- non iam illud quaero, contra me ut diligat illa,
4) aut, quod non potis est, esse pudica velit;
ipse valere opto et taetrum hunc deponere
dilexi turn te non tantum ut vulgus amicam,
morbum.
sed pater ut gnatos diligit et generos.
o di, reddite mi hoc pro pietate mea.
A unifying link between 64 and the rest
The emphasis upon pietas in 76 and the
of the corpus can be deduced from these
concluding statements of 64 concerning
words. Catullus loved Lesbia as a father
loves his children, but she caused him pietas
con- reveal the centrality of this virtue
stant torment.10 Aegeus expressed in theCatullus' life. The unity of 64 hinges
deepest paternal feelings toward his on pietas. The introduction and con-
son,
gnate mihi longa iucundior unice vita (64. of the poem are concerned with
clusion
215), but the son, Theseus, broughtpietas.
to In the heroic age, pietas was present,
him suffering and death instead ofand re-the gods visited mortals. Among the
ciprocal love. many manifestations of this was the blessed
In the conclusion of 64, the poet relatesmarriage of Peleus and Thetis. In the
that the gods visited mortals as long present age when pietas has been forgotten,
as pietas was not scorned. With the absence the sanctity of marriage has been defiled.
of pietas, all manner of ills prevail, and Sons bring disgrace on their parents by
all the woes mentioned pertain to family shedding a brother's blood. Unrest and
relationships (64.399-404) : adultery prevail among the parents.
perfudere manus fraterno sanguine fratres, Catullus conceived of an ideal love with
destitit extinctos gnatus lugere parentes, Lesbia which would establish a domus and
optavit genitor primaevi funera nati,
be an example of pietas as in the love of
liber ut innuptae poteretur flore novercae,
Peleus and Thetis. Such a love was only in
ignaro mater substernens se impia nato
impia non verita est divos scelerare penates.
the ideal past, however. The real present
Catullus mentions pietas in 76 when, was filled with nothing but pain and
noting that he has nec sanctam violasse passion.
fidem, nec foedere in ullo divum ad fallendos After consideration of the links between

numine abusum homines (76.3-4), he begs 64 and the corpus of Catullus, the structure
for release from his passion that cannot of 64 takes on additional significance.
bring about a happy family relationship. Catullus uses the technique of a wedding
As Theseus destroyed a family relationship and its attendant divertissements to dis-
with Aegeus and a potential one with play his particular concept of pietas. Catul-
Ariadne, so Lesbia destroyed Catullus' lus was never one to moralize; indeed his
realization of family happiness. In 75.1, sophistication, his urbanity seemed to for-
the poet says: huc est mens deducta tua bid it. Yet he could not cease to extol
mea, Lesbia, culpa. The torment of a
pietas and the necessity of its presence and
passion that Catullus cannot control and
the establishment of a happy home through
the great suffering that ensues when he
realizes that his ideal love cannot be real
legal marriage; he therefore chose the
medium of mythology with the structure of
10 Cf. Poems 76 and 85. a wedding to present his thoughts. Catullus

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356

can show in the love of Peleus and Thetis

failure of the relationship. Under the cloak
of mythology, Catullus could preach and
what love with pietas is like; love without
pietas, as in the passion of Ariadne andat the same time preserve his sophistication.
Theseus, and we may say of Catullus and The mantle of mythology is never too
heavy, however, to conceal the Catullus
Lesbia, can bring only loneliness and des-
pair. Pietas must be practiced by bothof the corpus speaking throughout 64.
partners in marriage. Though Catullus
(Ariadne) understood the nature of pietas, MARION L. DANIELS
Lesbia (Theseus) never did, hence the Georgia State College

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