Catullus

Question 1

What are we following right at the beginning of the poem?

Answer 1

Thetis and Peleus’ wedding

Question 2

How does the poem divert from Thetis and Peleus’ wedding?

Answer 2

ecphrasis – story within a story
Ariadne on the tapestry on the wedding-couch

Question 3

What is the order of how Catullus tells the story of Ariadne?

Answer 3

1. Ariadne wakes
2. Theseus and Ariadne meet and he slays minotaur
3. takes Ariadne away and abandons her
4. Ariadne curses Theseus (on the island)
5. Theseus leaves Athens
6. Theseus forgets to change sails and father dies
7. Bacchus rescues Ariadne

Question 4

How does Catullus play on Ariadne being in a tapestry?

Answer 4

• Ariadne describes as a stone statue of a Bacchant
• promised vows to gods with “silent lips” when she meets Theseus
• makes Ariadne speak, even though it isn’t able to be heard by the guests, when she is talking to Theseus sailing away
• Ariadne speaks about being Theseus slave instead and how she would put a crimson/purple sheet on bed – also colour on wedding couch; is this scene in tapestry as in mind?
• after this, says that he is unable to hear what is said and doesn’t have a voice to reply

Question 5

What simile is used when Theseus kills the minotaur?
What is the simile referring to?

Answer 5

trees are ripped out by a relentless hurricane and the tree falls and shatters everything in its path

Hurricane – Theseus
tree – minotaur being killed

Question 6

How does Catullus evoke sympathy for the Minotaur?

Answer 6

• Minotaur a tree – helpless?

Question 7

How does Catullus link Thetis and Peleus’ story to Ariadne and Theseus’?

Answer 7

• marriage of a god to a mortal (relationship)
• Ariadne says “from now on let no woman believe a man’s oath” when shouting after Theseus, sailing away.

Question 8

How does Catullus characterize Theseus through Ariadne and the narration? What rhetorical questions does Ariadne ask Theseus?

Answer 8

• uses many words meaning lustful when she is speaking to him sailing away
• calls him a cheat “fallaci”
• is called “immemori” (forgetful, neglectful – heavy)
• what lioness gave birth to you under a lonely rock?
• what sea conceived you and vomited you out of its foaming waters?
• What Syrtes, what voracious Scylla, what devouring Charybdis?

Question 9

What metaphor does Ariadne use to describe the situation Theseus was in before she saved him?

Answer 9

whirlpool of death