Liminality and Catullus's Attis. - Free Online Library (2024)

Michael Putnam (1982, 46) singles out "personality" asCatullus's genius. One only needs to think of a few memorablecharacters such as (H)Arrius, Suffenus, the constantly grinningEgnatius, the abominable Gellius, and the abandoned Ariadne for thisstatement to ring true. In c. 63 Catullus deals with, arguably, the mostdifficult personality in the whole collection. The young Attis, whocastrates himself of his own free will in a fit of madness, is not avery appealing protagonist; however, he does manage to evoke thereader's sympathy with his plight. Towards the end of the poem,Attis finds himself on a literal and figurative threshold: between thesea, which connects him to his former life, and the wildernessrepresenting his new life, and between his former masculine self and theemasculated servant to Cybele that he has become. He is doomed to thelife of a liminary a threshold person, but without the forgetful ecstasyassociated with the liminal phase. He is fully aware of the before andthe after, and deeply regrets ever having engaged in the goddess'sritual.

The theory of liminality, which is now widely applied in manydisciplines, has its origin in the work of French folklorist Arnold vanGennep. Van Gennep studied various ritual ceremonies in tribal as wellas complex industrial societies and came to the conclusion that aperson's life entails a sequence of "rites of passage,"procedures, conditions, or ceremonies, which signal a transition fromone state of being to another (I960, 2-3). Such rites may includeinitiation, birth, marriage, and funeral rites, as well as thoseassociated with the passage from one occupation to another, or oneeconomic or intellectual group to another (Van Gennep 1960, 1-3). VanGennep identifies three stages that are in essence common to all ritualceremonies despite cultural differences: rites of separation, transitionrites, and rites of reincorporation. These stages may also be calledpreliminal, liminal, and postliminal (Van Gennep 1960, 10-11). Apartfrom this recurring pattern, which may be detected in a variety ofritual ceremonies, Van Gennep in the conclusion to The Rites of Passagestresses two further points that would be taken up by his successors:(1) the transitional phase may obtain a form of independence, such asbetrothal, where adolescence is seen as the preliminal phase andmarriage as the postliminal; and (2) "the passage from one socialposition to another is identified with territorial passage, such as theentrance into a village or a house, the movement from one room toanother..." (1960, 191-192). It is with this last point that theconcept of limen (threshold) comes into play.

Victor Turner, in developing his concept of liminality, takes VanGennep as his starting point. His three stages of rites of passage--orwhat he calls "transition" rites (1969, 94--are as follows. Inthe first phase of separation, the individual (or group) is removed fromher position or state in society. In the liminal phase, the "ritualsubject" acquires ambiguous characteristics as she passes through astage with none of the features of the former or future phase. In thefinal phase, which Turner calls reaggregation (or reincorporation), thepassage is complete and the ritual subject again finds herself in astate of relative stability and structure (1969, 94). The stability ofthe reaggregation phase demands that the individual abide by the normsand the behavioral code required by her new social position (1969, 95).

Turner, whose main focus is on the qualities of the threshold orliminal phase, identifies the following characteristics of "liminalpersonae" or "threshold people." Their nature is"necessarily ambiguous" since their situation cannot bedefined in terms of the normal categories of cultural states. They are"neither here nor here; they are betwixt and between the positionsassigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial"(Turner 1969, 95). These ambiguous qualities are conveyed throughdifferent symbols in various societies, with the liminal situation oftencompared to death, invisibility, darkness, bisexuality and thewilderness (Turner 1969, 95).

Its inherent ambiguity allows the liminal situation to offer anintriguing combination of "lowliness and sacredness," "amoment in and out of time" (Turner 1969, 96). Within the liminalphase the liminaries are stripped of their secular ranks or statuses anda feeling of "communitas" develops among them, that is, a"hom*ogeneity and comradeship" without the ties of structureassociated with the preliminal and postliminal phases (caste, class,rank, etc.). In this sense, communitas appears in phases of"antistructure" as the necessary social bond that constitutesa society (Turner 1969, 96-97). For society to function, both structureand antistructure are needed in succession: diversity and uniformity,inequality and equality, structure and communitas (Turner 1969, 97).

This play between structure and antistructure, between civilizationand wilderness, between sanity and insanity, lies at the heart ofCatullus's c. 63. The poem starts in medias res: Attis is eagerlyon his way to the Phrygian woods, "across the high seas"(super alta... maria, l), (1) to reach the haunts of the goddess. There,in a fit of frenzy, he castrates himself and starts to dance and sing,encouraging his comrades--whom the reader only becomes aware of now--tojoin in (4-11). The comrades have followed his lead across the sea(15-16) and have also castrated themselves "out of a burning hatredfor Venus" (Veneris nimio odio, 17). Attis now inspires them tocome with him to the house of Cybele, offering a detailed description ofthe rites performed at her abode (12-26). After this exhortation the"new initiates," accompanied by the tambourine and cymbals,run singing to their destination where they quickly fall into a deepsleep because of their exertion (27-38). With the light of sunrise alsocomes clarity of mind and Attis wakes up with the horrible realizationof what she has done and lost (39-46). (2) She hurries back to the shoreand looks across the sea with tear-filled eyes, addressing herfatherland "in misery" (miseriter, 49). A twenty-three-linesoliloquy follows in which Attis mourns for all that is familiar anddear to her: house, country, possessions, friends, parents (domo /patria, bonis, amicis, genitoribus, 58-59), the marketplace and sportsfacilities (foro, palaestra, stadio et gyminasiis, 60), as well as herformer state as an athletic and desirable young man (64-67):

ego gymnasi fui flos, ego eram decus olei:mihi ianuae frequentes, mihi limina tepida,mihi floridis corollis redimita domus erat,linquendum ubi esset orto mihi Sole cubiculum.I was the flower of the gymnasium; I used to be the pride of thewrestling ring. For me doors were filled; for me thresholds remainedwarm; for me the house was adorned with floral garlands, when it wastime for me to leave my bedroom, the sun already in the sky.

This is put in stark contrast with what Attis perceives as the lotthat awaits her now. Having been the star of the sports fields (gymnasijlos, decus olei, 64) and the leader (duce, 15) of a group of young men,she will now be a servant and a slave (ministra, famula, 68) to Cybele.Moreover, instead of the light, openness, and culture associated withthe gymnasium and palaestra, Attis will now be subjected to the cold andmountainous landscape of Phrygia where wild animals roam the densevegetation (70-72):

ego viridis algida Idae nive amicta loca colam?ego vitam agam sub altis Phrygiae columinibus,ubi cerva silvicultrix, ubi aper nemorivagus?Am I to stay in the freezing, snow-clad sites of lush Ida? Am I tospend my life beneath the towering heights of Phrygia, where thewood-dwelling doe, where the wild boar of the forest roams?

As Attis explicitly states her regret, the words reach the ears ofthe goddess. Unyoking her tame lions, choosing the wilder one on theleft-hand side (laevumque pecoris hostem, 77), Cybele sends the beast tofrighten Attis back into the woods and back into submission. The poemends with a direct address of the goddess by the Catullan speaker,requesting her to overlook him when searching for candidates to drivemad.

C. 63 is, for the modern reader, perhaps the least accessible ofall of Catullus's poems. The myth is obscure, and the protagonistat best a pathetic fool. In Catullus's Rome, the cult of Cybele hadbeen established in 204 BCE and his readers would have been familiarwith the main characters in the poem (Bremmer 2004, 557). (3) However,as Jan Bremmer (2004, 566) notes, the first reference to Attis in extantRoman literature is in Catullus. Although Catullus wrote in a time wherethere seems to have been a growing interest in Cybele's cult, (4)Attis was never a key figure in Republican myth or religion (Bremmer2004, 567). Moreover, in contemporary society the attitude towardsCybele's cult, and in particular towards her eunuch priests, theGalli (who were inspired by the mythical Attis to castrate themselves),was at best ambivalent. Valerius Maximus reports with approval that acertain Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus, consul in 77 BCE, gave the verdictthat a Gallus could not inherit from a Roman citizen as he was neitherman nor woman (Wiseman 1985, 204). In Roman eyes, as Vassiliki Panoussi(2003, 105) suggests, the Gallus's "transgression of thegender binary" negates any claim to social identity. A morepositive view may be found in M. Terentius Varro's Eumenides wherethe protagonist dresses like a woman in order to enter the temple ofCybele. There he marvels at the beauty and exotic clothing of the Galli;he is enchanted by their music and at first is impressed with theirmorality until he speaks out against their self-castration and has toflee (Wiseman 1985, 204-205; Roller 1999, 308). "The attraction isadmitted but the Roman ethos prevails" (Wiseman 1985, 205), such awillful act of self-injury being seen as madness in Roman eyes. And so,alarmed by the rowdiness, hypnotic music, and self-mutilation, the Romanstate kept tight control over the performance of Cybele's rites.The rites were restricted to her temple on the Palatine except for theMegalensia festival where a procession and games were held in honor ofthe goddess (Vermaseren 1977, 96). Both Roman citizens and slaves wereforbidden to participate in these rites and to castrate themselves(Bremmer 2004, 567). What these literary accounts and tight regulationby the state reveal is the Roman people's combined sense ofrepulsion for, and fascination with, the Eastern cult of Cybele.Catullus's prayer at the end of c. 63 might suggest a similarfeeling. However, he makes some significant changes to the myth that, inthe end, reveal a much more sympathetic, 'Roman' protagonist,who allows the Catullan speaker to comment on the complexities ofidentity in late Republican Rome.

As Steven Harrison (2004a, 520) has noted, in all of the extantversions of the Attis myth his Eastern origin, whether Phrygian orLydian, is a given, but in Catullus's poem Attis has travelledacross the high seas, together with his companions, to reach thePhrygian wood (Phrygium namus, 2). His status as foreigner in Phrygia(and that of his comrades by implication) is confirmed in the secondhalf of the poem when he sadly looks across the sea in the hope ofcatching a glimpse of his homeland: ubinam aut quibus locis te positam,patria, reor? / cupit ipsa pupula ad te sibi derigere aciem (Where then,or in what location, Fatherland, am I to think you rest? The very pupilsof my eyes desire to fix their gaze on you, 55-56). Already he feels theabsence of the marketplace, the palaestra, the race track, and thegymnasium (abero faro, palaestra, stadio et gyminasiis?, 60) and hemourns for the manly glory of those sports grounds, which had been hisuntil very recently. Attis is clearly describing a Greek city. In thisrespect, Catullus's poem introduces an East-West contrast as one ofits main features (Harrison 2004a, 522; cf. Rubino 1974, 157): theyouth, having left behind the heart of Greek civilization, ventures intothe Phrygian wilderness. (5) In another change to the myth, noted byPhyllis Forsyth (1976, 556), Catullus has Attis castrate himself of hisown free will. (6) This introduces a new element to the story. Yet thereis a tension between free will and forced submission throughout thepoem. In the final scene of the poem, before the speaker's prayer,Cybele sends one of her lions to frighten Attis back into submission. Inthe pre-Catullan versions of the encounter between a Gallus and a lion,it is Cybele who saves the Gallus (through his playing of thetambourine, her instrument): the lion either runs away in fright or is"converted" to Cybele's cult and the Gallus is verygrateful (Courtney 1985, 90). (7) K. M. W. Shipton (1987, 446) lists themain differences between Catullus's version of the story and thatof his Hellenistic predecessors: in c. 63 the lion is sent by Cybeleherself and the animal remains a threat to the protagonist, who is thenforced into worshipping the goddess; he does so voluntarily out ofgratitude in the other versions. In Catullus, therefore, the storyacquires a distinctly negative note. The Attis from c. 63 is not theAttis from myth or ritual. So who is he?

It is often observed that Catullus's Attis is a tragic figure(Forsyth 1976, 556; Courtney 1985, 90; Thomson 1997, 374). Harrison(2004a, 526) traces echoes of Euripides' Medea in Attis'ssecond speech in the poem (50-73) where he regrets what he has done andmourns for his homeland and all that is dear and familiar. Medea, havingfled from her native Colchis with Jason, laments the abandonment of herfather and city (Euripides, Med. 166-167). Furthermore, both Attis andMedea leave their homelands in a state of "madness": he in areligious frenzy, she with "a crazed heart" ([phrase omitted],Med. 433-435). And like Attis, Medea represents a clash between East andWest, for Euripides portrays her as "an Eastern barbarian who isnot accepted in the Western culture of Corinth" (Harrison 2004a,526). These parallels lend an unmistakable tragic tone toCatullus's retelling of the Attis myth. (8) However,Catullus's Attis is an ambiguous character in many respects, notonly in terms of gender. While he recalls a figure from tragedy on theone hand, he also resembles a devotee of Bacchus on the other. Thisresemblance brings yet another element into play.

The similarities between Cybele's cult andDionysus/Bacchus's cult have often been noted, even in ancienttimes (Bremmer 2004, 560, referring to Strabo 10.3.12-16). In c. 63,Catullus exploits the resemblances between these two cults to emphasizethe liminal position of his protagonist. Bacchic rites are primarilyassociated with the god's female followers, the Maenads, whoventure into the mountains for the performance of their ritual. This isprecisely the way in which Catullus depicts Cybele's feminizeddevotees. He underscores the connection by referring to thegoddess's home as the place "where the Maenads with theircrowns of ivy fiercely toss their heads" (ubi capita Maenades piiaciunt hederigerae, 23). Both cults make use of the same instruments,the tambourine and cymbals (tympanum... cymbala, 29) (Panoussi 2003,109; Bremmer 2004, 562). Furthermore, Attis's group offellow-devotees is described as a thiasus (27), the standard term for aband of Maenads. When Attis summons them to the woods, his cry of agiteite ad alta... nemora (Come, go to the lofty woods, 12) recalls thetraditional cry that urged the Maenads into the mountains ([phraseomitted] [To the mountain, to the mountain!, Bacch. 116, 165) (Bremmer2004, 562).

With the connection between the cults of Cybele and Bacchus firmlyestablished, Catullus is able to introduce yet another theme into hispoem. Panoussi (2003, 103, 106) detects in the Bacchic rites the threephases of ritual identified by Van Gennep: separation, transition, andreintegration. The women leave their homes to go into nature where,intoxicated and entranced by loud music and dancing, they enter into astate of delirium where they are temporarily 'freed' fromtheir bodies and are able to commune with the god (cf. Cole 2007, 330).When the effects of the wine and ecstasy subside, they return to theirnormal, stable, and structured lives. Panoussi (2003, 109) notes thatCatullus involves the theme of marriage by incorporating Maenadism inhis poem: through its liberation of the female, Maenadism entails"a temporary negation of male authority," which showsresemblances with marriage rites. (9) The young woman about to bemarried acts out a seeming unwillingness to enter the new phase of herlife and her new household by running back to her birth family in wilddefiance. This is the transitional phase where the young woman isregarded as an animal that will shortly be tamed by the civilization ofmarriage and male authority--the final, stable stage of reintegration(Panoussi 2003, 106). Apart from the castration, which renders Attisgender-ambivalent, Panoussi (2003, 107-108) suggests that Catullusemploys the similarities between the Bacchic and marriage rites to casthis protagonist in the role not only of a female, but also of a virginbride. Attis's act of self-castration and consequent bleeding (8)recalls both the sacrifices of ritual and the young woman's loss ofvirginity as she enters the marital phase (Panoussi 2003, 110). This isfurther hinted at by the simile of Attis as heifer (veluti iuvencavitans onus indomita iugi [like a heifer, unbroken, who avoids theweight of the yoke, 33]), which recalls the description of Laodamia inCatullus, c. 68b: qui tamen indomitam ferre iugum docuit ([the love]which taught you, though unbroken, to bear the yoke, 118). Gerald Sandy(1971, 192-193) interprets the yoke as a metaphor for the bindingcommitment of marriage, while Justin Glenn (1973, 60) suggests a broaderapplication of the yoke image, arguing that the taming of femalelivestock is a common metaphor in ancient erotic literature and oftenassociated with the image of "taming the virgin." By avoidingthe yoke, Attis is shunning the experience of sexual love (Glenn 1973,61). (10) Yet ironically, Attis has already been "deflowered"through his own self-castration and in the process has submitted himselfto a binding commitment of another kind. Maria Carilli (2003, 92-93)argues that Catullus's deliberate changing of the original myth (inwhich the relationship between Attis and Cybele is portrayed as a kindof love affair and the goddess is madly in love with the youth) shiftsthe meaning of iugum from solely a metaphor for marital union to a moregeneric symbol of enslavement. (11) Both meanings, I suggest, are atplay here. When, in his morning-after lucidity, Attis realizes his stateof bondage, he rebels against Cybele and runs back to the shore, theboundary between his old life and the new. (12) Yet even before Cybelesends her lion to chase him back into the woods, Attis so much as admitsthat it is too late: "Shall I now be called a servant-girl of thegods and a lady's maid to Cybele?" (ego nunc deum ministra etCybeles famula ferar?, 68). The yoke Cybele lifts from her lions at theend of the poem (84) symbolizes the yoke that will tie him to herforever.

In seeking freedom Catullus's Attis has found perpetualslavery. Christian Fordyce (1961, 262) argues that contrasts of thiskind are fundamental to the poem as a whole: civilization versus nature,Western humanism versus Eastern fanaticism. (13) To this list CarlRubino (1974, 157) adds sea versus land, freedom versus slavery,identity versus loss of identity, male (Attis) versus female (Cybele).The most unsettling contrast in the poem, however, is found in theprotagonist himself: male versus female within the same psyche. Throughthe figure of Attis the poem draws attention to gender as a determiningelement in the construction of identity: when gender becomes ambivalentthe self is under threat (Janan 1994, 104). In this respect c. 63, likec. 51 where the speaker loses control of all his faculties when he looksat Lesbia, is concerned with the "dissolution of the subject"(Janan 1994, 102). With the forceful repetition of first-person pronounsin his regretful morning-after speech, Attis seems to be clutchingdesperately at a sense of self. (14) But as Micaela Janan (1994, 105)and Benjamin Stevens (2013, 244) also note, even language fails him. Notonly is Attis struggling to define himself as a being-in-language,unable to find words that could describe his new self (ego Maenas, egomei pars, ego vir sterilis ero? [Shall I be a Maenad, I a part of me, Ia sterile man?, 69]), but his utterances are ultimately met with thenoise of the wilderness. Although Cybele hears Attis's mournfulspeech (geminas deae turn (15) ad aures nova nuntia referens [(Thesound) bringing fresh news to the twin ears of the goddess, 75]), she'replies' not with words directed at him but with a command toher lion. Stevens (2013, 246) notes that the only 'response'to reach Attis's ear, and the final sound in the world of the poem,is the lion's roar (fremit, 86). Frightened back into a frenzy(demens, 89), Attis's reaction is also the animalistic one offlight (fugit, 89). This regression to the uncivilized is underscored byhis return to the woods, now for the first time in the poem described as"wild" (fera, 89). The return is an unwilling one:"he" (ilk, 90) is frightened into it, and into the life of amaidservant (famula, 90). The final image we see of Attis is of agender-ambivalent figure caught between his former male self and thefeminized servant he resists becoming.

The Attis of Catullus's poem is the ultimate liminary:identityless, sexless, submissive, and ultimately silent (Turner 1969,102-103). (16) In leaving his homeland he enters the stage ofseparation, the first phase of the ritual process. Next he castrateshimself, performing the initiation rites of Cybele's cult. In thisliminal phase he experiences communitas with his fellow initiates asthey sing and dance on their way to the goddess's house. This isthe stage of invisibility, wilderness, and "antistructure"where the initiates are ambiguous entities in between their former andnew selves. Attis and his companions have literally entered the darkwilderness (per opaca nemora, 32) and in their state of ecstasy they arenot yet able to grasp what they have become. However, the reaggregation,which should be the next and concluding stage in the ritual process,does not take place. Woken up to the shocking truth of his/her'new' life, Attis is not united with Cybele in a new phase ofstructure and stability, but instead finds himself unable to abide bythe behavioral code of this stage and accept the new identity that goeswith it. Attis's response is rebellion and he runs back to the sea,symbolically returning to the phase of separation. But unfortunatelythere is no turning back to the pre-liminal stage: the castration cannotbe reversed and the incorporation into Cybele's retinue ispermanent (cf. Van Gennep 1960, 72). This is the devastating realizationthat dawns on Attis as he looks across the sea, standing on the literalboundary of the shore. He is cut off from his homeland, both literallyand figuratively. Having scarred his former self, he cannot go back, buthe has not been able to embrace the new self either. This is underscoredby the many references to his identity crisis: "I a woman, I ayoung man, I a lad, I a boy" (ego mulier, ego adulescens, egoephebus, ego puer, 63); (17) "Shall I now be called a servant-girlof the gods and a maidservant to Cybele?" (ego nunc deum ministraet Cybeles famula ferar?, 68); "Shall I be a Maenad, I a part ofme, I a sterile man?" (ego Maenas, ego mei pars, ego vir sterilisero?, 69). This is in stark contrast with his former status as darlingof the sportsgrounds (64) and desired sexual object (65-67). WhatAttis's wavering between past and present in these linesaccentuates is the contrast between his current status and the marriageas the social institution that signifies the transition into manhood(Nauta 2004, 606-607). (18) He resisted that transition by castratinghimself and in the process he failed in his duty to his homeland. (19)Nauta (2004, 616) notes that Lucretius describes castration as theappropriate fate for those who show no gratia towards their parents, orthose who lack gratia and pietas in general. (20)

Duty to the homeland forms an integral part of pietas. When Attislooks across the sea and bemoans his lot as eunuch, his emphaticrepetition of the vocative patria in the opening lines seems to suggestthat he realizes his violation of pietas: patria o mei creatrix, patriao mea genetrix (O fatherland my creatress, o fatherland my birth mother,50) and again patria (55). However, Attis was not punished withcastration for forsaking his homeland: his willful act ofself-castration is what caused his failure of patriotic duty. (21) H.Wakefield Foster argues that Catullus presents the reader with two verydivergent images of Attis: on the one hand, he functions as a parody ofthe traditional, manly epic hero, and on the other, he is a"disturbingly realistic Greek or Roman 'Everyman', whoawakens from a hellish dream" only to find himself in a dreamscapethat is in fact very real (2009, 77-78). The self-castration of theAttis from myth was not likely to elicit any sympathy fromCatullus's contemporary readers, but by making his Attis a youthfrom the Greco-Roman world the poet-speaker is able to create anunsettling image of one of their own people gone mad (Foster 2009, 82).This Attis, for a Roman audience, is close to home.

In c. 63 Catullus therefore presents the reader with an ironicadaptation of the Attis story aimed at a contemporary audience. Attisrepresents an ordinary young man (22) who found himself unable to makethe transition from puer delicatus to married man, as expected of him bysociety (Quinn 1972, 250; Clay 1995, 145-146). (23) Shunning the yoke ofmarriage he physically and emotionally separated himself from thatsociety by seeking out the Phrygian goddess and performingself-castration, thereby removing any possibility of fulfilling the roleof husband. However, even though he willfully turned away from hisduties to the homeland, he fails in severing his connections with thesociety that shaped him. (24) Through his yearning for the culturalinstitutions of that society and the admiration he could only gain as amale, he also fails in the role he has chosen for himself in hisecstatic state at the start of the poem--eunuch devotee to an Easterngoddess. At the end of the poem Attis is frightened into obedience by acreature that is equally under her control, and we are left with animage of him forced into lifelong submission as a servant girl: ibisemper omne vitae spatium famula fait (There, for his entire lifetime,he remained a maidservant forever, 90). Panoussi argues that by means ofthe close correspondences between the cult of Cybele, Maenadism, andtraditional marriage rites, Catullus supplies Attis with "a new,stable gender identity as a virgin bride," but that he fails, evenin this new role, to pass into the next phase of marriage and so he mustremain "a perpetual [M]aenad, excluded from the social milieu anddevoid of a social identity" (2003, 114). However, he is a Maenadwithout the communitas of his fellow devotees because he has looked backfrom the wilderness and he yearns for what he has left behind. (25)Catullus's Attis is isolated from the society that shaped him as ayoung male, and he defies the new structure that forces him to befemale. His physical gender-ambivalence is also an emotional one thatthreatens his very self. (26) Alone in the knowledge of his mistake,Attis becomes the ultimate outcast, alienated both in body and mind:neither man nor woman, neither Greek nor foreigner, neither free citizennor willing devotee. He/she must remain forever in the in-between spacewhere the one self ends and another begins, but where they can never bereconciled into a stable whole.

For Attis, the liminal stage has gained an independency: it hasbecome a state of existence. Having left his homeland and crossed thesea in pursuit of a passion (like Medea), he wakes up the next day tothe horror of a new reality. As he looks longingly across the sea andgrieves for what he has lost and what could have been, he is broughtclose to the reader through the description of his state of mind. (27)It is this intimacy with the character which has led a number ofscholars to argue that there is a bit of the Catullan persona to bedetected in Attis. (28) Wiseman (1977, 177) remarks that Catullus"deliberately brings himself into the Arte" (63.91-93)--wherethe speaker directly addresses Cybele and asks to be overlooked byher--in the same way in which he brings himself into the Laodamia storyin c. 68b (77-78) where he similarly speaks to Nemesis, expressing thewish that he may never undertake anything rashly which would be againstthe will of the gods. (29) The fact that Catullus prays to be overlookednegates the argument of straightforward autoallegory; however, itsuggest that he perceives a sense of communitas between himself andAttis. The Catullan speaker is a liminary in his own right.

One of the few things we know for certain about Catullus is that hewas born in Verona into an influential family and came to Rome as ayoung man. Although his privileged position in Verona offered him accessto the Roman elite, inhabitants of Verona and the rest of TranspadaneGaul acquired full Roman citizenship only in 49 BCE (Wiseman 1987, 297).The only datable poems in his corpus fall in the period 56-54 BCE(Wiseman 1969, 47; Skinner 2003, xxi). Catullus thus arrived in Rome asa domi nobilis (noble at home), someone who was not yet fully integratedin the socio-political circles of the Roman elite (Gaisser 2009, 7).This made him, in many respects, a liminal figure in Rome. (30)

A recurring problem in Catullan scholarship is the poet'sself-definition and its relation to his "Italian identity"(Tatum 1997, 487). The tension between city and country, Rome and itsprovinces, finds expression in a number of Catullus's poems as henegotiates the identity of the Catullan speaker and unmasks aspiringsophisticates from the position of someone who has mastered the polishedhabits, appearance, and speech associated with long-term inhabitants ofthe city (e.g., cc. 12, 22, 37, 44). (31) The two sites of Verona andRome specifically become symbolically laden spaces in Catullus'swork when his subject matter appears to be more personal (cc. 65, 68a,68b). With the death of his brother in the Troad, the Catullan speakerexperiences a profound sense of displacement on an emotional, social,and also geographical level.

In c. 68a Catullus writes to Manlius in response to a request forpoetry, an obligation (officium, 12) which he is unable to fulfil. (32)As in c. 65, a similar 'cover letter' in response to a poetryrequest from Hortalus, Catullus's poetic abilities have beendiminished by the death of his brother: "I have driven from all mymind these undertakings and all the delights of the soul" (tota demente fugavi / haec studia atque omnes delicias animi, 25-26).Furthermore, he is in his hometown of Verona where he does not haveaccess to written sources that he could consult in writing his ownpoems: "To this place only one chest out of the many followsme" (hue una ex multis capsula me sequitur, 36). In questioningCatullus's absence from Rome Manlius has revealed a vulnerabilityin the Catullan speaker which is underscored by the latter'sreference to books: in order to remain part of Roman society he now hasto rely on writing instead of performance (Theodorakopoulos 2007, 320).The physical distance has become an emotional distance from his regularcircle of friends. Catullus's diminished agency as poet isaccordingly closely linked with the problem of 'home': he is aTranspadane poet with a successful literary career in Rome, a careerbased to a great extent on his effective appropriation of Greek literarymodels (Fitzgerald 1995, 202). The tension between belonging andnot-belonging, between home and non-home, resurfaces repeatedlythroughout cc. 68a and 68b. The domus becomes a symbolically loadedspace.

Rebecca Armstrong (2013, 43) notes that the recurrent theme oftravel and homecoming in the Catullan oeuvre reveals an ambivalence inthe poet-speaker, both a wanderer and a nostalgic, as well as in hisconception of home. The emotional side of these journeys--joy, grief, oranger--is closely linked with Catullus's own social as well aspoetic positioning and self-portrayal. (33) In cc. 68a and 68b thismanifests as a conflict between Rome as the seat of his poetic careerand his provincial roots in Verona and Rome (Fitzgerald 1995, 202).Catullus has returned to his hometown of Verona as a result of hisbrother's death in the Troad and the familial obligations broughtabout by this tragedy. He therefore corrects Manlius's descriptionof his absence from Rome as turpe and calls it rather miserum (30),explicitly stating that Rome is now his home. There is something almostdefensive in his threefold repetition of this "fact":"Because in Rome I live: that is my home; that my centre; there myage is spent" (quod Romae vivimus: ilia domus, / ilia mihi sedes,illic mea carpitur aetas, 68a.34-35). Yet in line 22 and in line 94 ofc. 68b, Catullus claims that his domus (or that of the Valerii Catulliclan as a whole) has been "buried" with his brother: tecum unatota est nostra sepulta domus. Domus, as already suggested above, canhave a variety of meanings. The Oxford Latin Dictionaiy defines as"house; home; country, town, etc., of one's residence orbirth; family, household, or dependants collectively of the head of ahouse," and so on. Throughout cc. 68a and 68b, the word domuscreates tension as it refers to the household of the Valerii Catulli, toCatullus's residency in Rome and Verona, to the home of Protesilausand Laodamia (inceptam frustra, 68b.74-75), and to the house that Alliusoffered to Catullus and Lesbia (34) for their secret rendezvous (68b.68)(Armstrong 2013, 65). The latter is a physical meeting place for thelovers to share an intimate moment, but becomes a symbol oftransgression. (35) The domus of Protesilaus and Laodamia representsboth the household and the building they would have created ifProtesilaus had not died. The domus of the Valerian Catullan clan"is the least substantial [of these three] since it refers not toCatullus's ancestral seat but rather to the ideal family unit forwhich the house stands as synecdoche" (Miller 2004, 53). What ofCatullus's reputed domus in Rome? Armstrong (2013, 66-67) contendsthat Rome has become Catullus's "intellectual and poeticcore," and this, combined with the grief over his brother, leadsCatullus to feel ill at ease in Verona. Fitzgerald, however, sees incarpitur an ambivalent attitude towards his Roman "home":"In the passive [the verb] is more likely to convey the erosion oflife (aetas) than the full enjoyment of it" (1995, 283 note 30).(36) And as it turns out at the end of c. 68b, the domus itself ismerely a product of wishful thinking: Catullus does not actually own ahouse there (Skinner 2003, 144, 168): "May you be happy, you andthe love of your life, and the house in which we had so much fun"(sitis felices et tu simul et tua vita, / et domus <ipsa> in qualusimus, 155-156). (37) Just as the initial image of his beloved--theCandida diva arriving at the borrowed house for a night of passion(70)--is deconstructed throughout the course of c. 68b, so the differentreferences to domus become increasingly sinister until finally the housein Rome is also revealed to be not quite positive. The Roman home whichCatullus claims to be his real home is in fact a non-home, a falsesymbol of belonging. (38)

With the death of his brother Catullus not only lost a loved oneand a family line--an integral part of his identity--but his veryessence as a poet is threatened as ultimately the speaker's wordsare met by the silence of death: advenio... frater... ut... mutamnequiquam alloquerer cinerem (I come, brother, to address in vain yourmute ash, 101.2-4). Poetry has become an obligation to friends,acquaintances, and the deceased and no longer the offspring of theMuses. His brother dies at Troy, the Romans' place of origin; as aconsequence Catullus has to leave his new life in Rome and go to his ownplace of origin, provincial Verona. In the process the Catullanspeaker's "complicated cultural affiliations" come to thefore (Fitzgerald 1995, 211) and his liminal position is revealed. Hebelongs in neither Rome nor Verona and is truly "betwixt andbetween."

On a more abstract level, personal relationships also have a centerand a periphery, the potential for liminality. When a relationship isnot balanced, one party is in the compromised position of being on thesymbolic periphery of that relationship at the mercy of the other in thecenter. This was true of many of Catullus's relationships--erotic,platonic, as well as professional--where his love and commitment turnout to be very one-sided (e.g., cc. 28, 30, 38, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 87).By interacting with the 'other,' Catullus reveals his ownliminal status in the relationship as well as the broader issues thatcause the relationship to be imbalanced in the first place. In c. 63 theliminal character of the mythic Attis allows Catullus to explore atlength imbalances in relationships as well as the problematic questionof home and its connection to identity, all issues that the Transpadanepoet in the power-hungry world of late Republican Rome faced.

In Catullus's version of the Attis-Cybele story the religiousaspects hardly figure. Instead, the speaker is concerned with theemotions of his protagonist, which he analyses "with a degree ofpersonal passion" (Thomson 1997, 374). (39) Like Attis, Catulluswas also driven by a mad passion (vesano Catullo, 7.10; vesana flamma,100.7) to devote himself to Lesbia, and like Attis he regrets hisactions, realizing his mistake far too late. (40) Not only was he alsolike a slave to his mistress, but in pursuing a relationship with her hetoo turned his back on his familial duties (Wiseman 1985, 181). (41)Cybele, who castrates her devotees, is not too different from the Lesbiaof c. 11 who "bursts the loins" of her many lovers (iliarumpens, 11.20). And Attis, like the flower (flos) of Catullus'slove growing in the distant meadow that was "touched" inpassing by the unfeeling Lesbia-as-plough (11.22-24), used to be theflos of the gymnasium (63.64) before he fell under Cybele's spell,thereby robbing him of his manhood (Putnam 1974, 80; Janan 1994, 106).Janan furthermore suggests that the displacement of the flower on theedge of a field and away from Rome corresponds with the mentaldisplacement of the speaker in the same way Attis's separation fromhis Greek city answers his separation from his former identity (1994,106). As Attis looks across the sea that separates him from the life hehas now lost, he recalls the Catullan speaker who mourns for his deadbrother. In cc. 65 and 101, water is also the boundary between Catullusand his brother, first that of the unbreachable river Lethe in theUnderworld (namque mei nuper Lethaeo in gurgite fratris / pallidulummanans alluit unda pedem [For recently in Lethe's flood, therolling wave has washed my brother's palish foot, 65.5-6]) and thenthat of the sea he had to cross to reach his brother's grave(multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus [Through many nations andacross many seas I have been carried, 101.1]). Even though Catulluscould get across the latter, the futility of the'conversation' with his brother in c. 101 underscores theinefficacy of such a journey. The many tears he sheds as his bids hisbrother a final farewell once more establish water as a permanentdivide: accipefraterno multum manantia fletu (Accept [these gifts]drenched with the many tears of a brother, 101.9).

Through its mythical refiguring, c. 63 may therefore present boththe emasculating Lesbia from c. 11 as well as the intoxicating Lesbiafrom c. 51 and combines them in the figure of Cybele (Janan 1994, 107),thereby allowing us to draw parallels between the Catullan speaker fromthe love poems and Attis as Cybele's "lover." (42)Moreover, the sea as physical boundary symbolizes the liminal state ofboth the bereaved Catullus and the outcast Attis. The same liminalityapplies to the abandoned Ariadne who gazes from the shore of Naxos ather lover's receding ship; (43) her story is also one ofinfatuation turned into regret and may be compared to Attis's andCatullus's. (44) From the multidirectional correspondences betweenAttis and Catullus, Ariadne and Catullus, as well as Attis and Ariadne,a fellowship of the mind is revealed. (45) The mythical figure of Attis,like Ariadne, is therefore not an autoallegory of the Catullan speaker,but a fellow liminary with whom the Catullan speaker can experience asense of communitas.

On a more public level, as Panoussi (2003, 101-102) suggests, themythical figure of Attis allows the poet to explore the vulnerability ofgender identity in the turbulent socio-political world of lateRepublican Rome. This is a vulnerability the Catullan speaker himselfhas experienced as a result of the often uneven relationships typical ofthe time. In cc. 11 and 68b we see the speaker cast himself in thefemale role to comment on the corrupt state of traditional Romaninstitutions, as well as on the exploitation of their subjects byRome's politicians. (46) By inverting traditional gender patternsin c. 63 as well as in his shorter poems, Catullus is able to convey the"social alienation" threating an independent male in a timewhen individual autonomy was increasingly limited and a talentedprovincial was side-lined by the distorted socio-political system(Skinner 1997, 131, 142). Catullus achieves this by making Attis someoneclose to home (a young Greek instead of a Phrygian). Through Attis thepoet reflects on the threat to individual identity inherent in his timeand reaches his most in-depth analysis of the problem of liminality. Thenew initiate wakes up to a liminal phase that should have been over but,instead of the stable phase of reaggregation and joy in his new role andunion with Cybele, he is overcome by an acute awareness ofnot-belonging. His new 'home' is a non-home, a cold and darkwilderness. (47) For Attis the liminal stage turns out to have twophases. In the first there was joy and communitas induced by furor; inthe second, disillusion and the realization that reaggregation isimpossible. In the end Attis experiences furor of a different kind, afuror that does not come from within himself, but is enforced by hischanged circ*mstances. Perhaps the Catullan speaker is suggesting,through Attis, that for those who do not fit society's mold theliminal is the only way of life.

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Note

(1.) I use the Latin text of Thomson 1997. All translations are myown.

(2.) After the castration the speaker refers to Attis in thefeminine, although not consistently (see below).

(3.) See Bremmer 2004 for a thorough study of the development ofthe cult and the different versions of the Cybele-Attis myth in extantsources. Vermaseren (1977) offers an older, but still useful account.His study is broader than Bremmer's and includes visual art as wellas temples and shrines.

(4.) The cult appears in the writings of Varro (to be discussed) aswell as in Cicero (Bremmer 2004, 558). In c. 35 we also seeCatullus's poet-friend Caecilius wTiting (probably) an epyllion onthe Mater Magna.

(5.) Foster (2009, 72) argues that this "new twist" tothe myth serves to portray Attis's act as self-castration asparticularly shameful: contemporary Romans were familiar withCybele's cult and her eunuch priests, but that a civilized Greek orRoman youth would voluntarily commit such self-mutilation wasunthinkable.

(6.) Forsyth (1976, 555) points out that in other extant versionsof the myth Attis is driven to madness by a jealous Cybele and socastrates himself

(7.) This episode, concerning an unnamed Gallus and a lion, appearsin the Greek Anthology (Simonides 6.217; Alcaeus 6.218; Antipater 6.219;Dioscorides 6.220 in Paton 1916, 410-414). It does not traditionallyform part of the Attis myth.

(8.) This is picked up in Ariadne's lament in c. 64 whereMedean echoes lend an unmistakable ambiguity to the sympathetic,abandoned girl; see Clare 1997.

(9.) The theme of marriage is often seen as an overriding theme inthe longer poems. C. 63 is no exception although it portrays'marriage' of another kind; cf. Forsyth 1970 and Sandy 1971.

(10.) Shipton (1986, 268-270) reads the heifer's shunning ofthe yoke as essentially an enactment of the ritualistic head tossingassociated with Cybele's devotees, and regards the inherentmetaphor of submission as a side issue. However, the recurrence of theyoke at the end of the poem (76, 84) suggests that there is more to theimage than mere head tossing (pace Shipton).

(11.) This reading is supported by the two references to the iugawith which Cybele controls her lions (63.76, 63.84): Carilli 2003, 92.

(12.) In his act of running away, Panoussi (2003, 1 13) detectssimilarities between Attis and young Roman brides who ritualisticallyrun back to their families before they yield to their new circ*mstances.

(13.) Cf. Kroon 2004.

(14.) Ego appears fifteen times in lines 50-73, and its derivativessix times (mei, mihi); the possessive adjective mea appears twice (50,58).

(15.) Thomson (1997, 149, 384) prints the problematic deorum inkeeping with the manuscript tradition, calling this a"'generalizing' plural" comparable to deum of line68 (quoted and translated above). However, in line 68 the pluralsuggests a generic state the speaker foresees (that of being "aservant-girl of the gods"). This is then followed by a descriptionof his specific role as "a lady's maid to Cybele." Inline 75 the reference is clearly to Cybele alone, whose immediatereaction to the news is the focus in the next lines. In light of this Iprefer Harrison's conjecture deae turn (2004b, 518). For a detailedapparatus see Daniel Kiss's online repertory of conjectures on theCatullan text (http://www.catullusonline.org/CatullusOnline/index.php).

(16.) Even before his castration Attis was in a precariousposition. Skinner (1997, 136) notes that in Greek sources adolescence isoften portrayed as a liminal period in the life of a male citizen: he isboth desirable to adult males but himself a would-be male citizen. Thismakes him sexually ambiguous (1997, 136).

(17.) Thomson (1997, 383) prints puber in place of mulier, statingthat "the expression is surely strained; it is better to emend, inthe interests of consistency in Attis' list." Heyworth (1999,104-105), in a similar vein, refers to mulier as "an obviousinterpolation by a reader who could not wait for the contrasting accountof the present in line 68: ego nunc deum ministra." He goes on tosuggest iuvenis, originally proposed by Schwabe, in which case the linewould represent four stages of a man's life in reverse order. Iwould argue that mulier of the Veronensis manuscript is specificallysuitable to Attis's state of mind and gender confusion; cf. Nauta2004, 606 note 38. The latter is attested to by the switch between maleand female references towards the end of the poem (hum, 78; qui, 80;tenerumque, 88; ille, 89; famula, 90). The very fact that Attis isinconsistent underscores the loss of identity that accompanies a loss ofgender.

(18.) Procreation was regarded as the right of an adult malecitizen; cf. Carilli 2003, (87.)

(19.) Tuplin (1981, 119) suggests that c. 63 "contains thetheme of the wrongness of allowing furens rabies to carry one away fromone's fatherland, friends, parents, and proper socialinterests."

(20.) Lucretius 2.614-617: Galios attribuunt, quia, numen quiviolarint / Matris et ingrati genitoribus inventi sint, / significarevolunt indignos esse putandos, / vivam progeniem qui in oras luminisedant ([To Cybele] they assign the Galli, because they wish to show thatthose who dishonor the divinity of the Mother and have proved themselvesungrateful towards their parents should be deemed unworthy to contributeliving progeny to the shores of the light); and 2.261-263: telaquepraeportant, violenti signa faroris, / ingratos animos atque impiapectora volgi / conterrere metu quae possint numine divae (They carryweapons in the front, symbols of their violent fury, so that they mayterrorize the ungrateful minds and impious hearts of the masses intofear, aided by the goddess's power). I use the Latin text in Rouse1992, 142-144.

(21.) Bremmer (2004, 564) notes the irony of Attis's choice ofwords creatrix and genetrix: they underscore the reality that Attishimself would never be able to have offspring.

(22.) Cf. Elder 1947, 395.

(23.) Skinner (1997, 137) suggests that Attis'sself-mutilation may be seen as an attempt on his part to preserve hisstatus as puer delicatus.

(24.) Rubino (1975, 293) argues that, in this respect, he is notthat different from the Catullan speaker of the erotic poems who employsin his love poems the very values of the Roman system he defies. In cc.50 and 51 Catullus openly rejects the male world of negotium(traditionally Roman serious business) and opts for the insignificanceof otium (leisure and idleness); cf. Segal 1970 and Greene 2007,138-141. In c. 5 he makes light of the disapproving talk of the oldergeneration when he indulges in kisses shared with Lesbia. Yet he callshis relationship with Lesbia "an eternal treaty of sacredfriendship" (aeternum... sanctae foedus amicitiae, 109.6),recalling the sociopolitical alliances that shaped the lives of Romanmen, and lays claim to the traditional values which accompany suchamicitiae: fides, pietas, officium, gratia, and benevolentia (cc. 72,75, 76, 87); cf. Ross 1969, 80-90.

(25.) In discussing the role of Attis's companions throughoutthe poem Carilli (2003, 107) notes that they disappear from the scenetowards the end, representing a dehumanized group's passiveacceptance of dominance in contrast with the individual who resists thedisintegration of the self.

(26.) Examining exile in Catullus, Cicero and Seneca, Citroni(2001, par. 1, 19) highlights the connection between theindividual's detachment from a community, which shapes bothpersonal and gender identity, and his/her loss of self

(27.) Cf. Forsyth 1976, 559.

(28.) Cf. Harkins 1959; Forsyth 1970, 69; Putnam 1982, 64; Carelli2003, 98-99; Stevens 2013, 206. Similar arguments are made for Ariadnefrom c. 64.

(29.) Nil mihi tam valde placeat, Rhamnusia virgo, / quod temereinritis suscipiatur eris.

(30.) With regard to his peripheral position in Roman society,Catullus is described in various ways in recent scholarship: having"a social handicap" (Fitzgerald 1995, 10); "amicusinferior" (Tatum 1997); "a decentred identity" (Konstan2000); the master of a Roman discourse that he "possesses fully bymastery, but never fully owns bv membership" (Wray 2001, 45);"domi nobilis" (Gaisser 2009, 7); and possessing an"outsider perspective" (Stevens 2013, 9).

It is not improbable that Catullus could have acquired Romancitizenship. If his father had been a magistrate in Verona he would haveobtained citizenship for himself and his closest family members (Konstan2007, 72). Catullus's stint in Bithynia, where he served underMemmius (cc. 10 and 28), seems to support this theory (Skinner 2003,xxii). However, this would not diminish his liminal position in Rome. Asan 'honorary' Roman citizen, hailing from the provinces, hewas still not a member of the Roman elite and not on equal footing withthose citizens who had been born into old Roman families.

(31.) Tatum 1997, 483: "Literary texts [are] locations for thecontesting and negotiation of societal dynamics."

(32.) Manlius's request for "gifts of the Muses and ofVenus" (muneraque et Musarum hinc petis et Veneris, 68a. 10) hasbeen a point of contention in Catullan circles. The scholarship on thisline is overwhelming, ranging from arguments for hendiadys, thus"love poetry" as Manlius's request (e.g., Sarkissian1983, 46-47 and Nisbet 1995, 92), to arguments in favor of a request forboth a poem and a girl, either Manlius's own girl restored to himor a share of Catullus's (e.g., Wiseman 1974, 95; Tuplin 1981, 115;King 1988, 388; Powell 1990, 206; Simpson 1994, 565), to arguments forManlius requesting a poem and an erotic liaison with Catullus himself(Kinsey 1967, 41-42 and Forsyth 1987, 180). In more recent scholarshipthe focus is on the recurring overlap between the erotic and theaesthetic in the Catullan oeuvre when an individual or a poem hasvcnustas, the crucial neoteric element of charm (e.g., cc. 12, 35, 36,50, 86); see Fitzgerald 1995, 34-37 and Theodorakopoulos 2007, 318.Lowrie (2006, 120) argues for a deliberate blurring between the Musesand Venus in line 10, underscored by the elision between Musarum andhinc (thereby crossing over the caesura), as a reflection of theinterwovenness between poetry and life. Skinner (2003, 168-169) likewisedraws a link between Catullus's erotic and poetic life. The deathof his brother necessitated a change of the sensual lifestyle which hadserved as the inspiration for this poetry: "Catullus'renunciation in whole or part is poetic activity."

(33.) E.g., cc. 4, 9, 10, 11, 31, 44, 46, 63, 64, 84, 101.

(34.) I follow the majority of scholars who accept Lesbia to be theCandida diva of c. 68b.70.

(35.) There are jarring notes in the lovers' arrival atAllius's house. Apart from providing the physical building, Alliushad to make the house accessible by opening up an enclosed field with abroad path (is clausum lato patefecit limite campum, 68b.67): Catullusand Lesbia are entering a private space where they do not belong. Thelimes (lata... limite) is itself indicative of boundaries anddemarcation, denoting a pathway that divides land. When Lesbia thensteps on the threshold the transgression is confirmed, both by thedeliberate nature of the act (constituit, 73) and the ill omen itbrings.

(36.) Tuplin (1981, 115) also notes the ambiguous note of "tobe alive" inherent in vivimus (quod Romae vivimus, 68a.34); theCatullan speaker is in survival mode ever since his brother'sdeath.

(37.) C. 68a is subsequent in time to 68b, although it is presentedas a pre-script: Hubbard 1984, 39 and Skinner 2003, 167.

(38.) See Lotman 1990, 191.

(39.) Wiseman (1977, 177-178) argues that it is precisely inCatullus's handling of the emotions of his characters in cc. 63 and64 that he is unmatched by any of his predecessors.

(40.) C. 75.1: hue est mens deducta tua mea, Lesbia, culpa (To thispoint has my mind been diminished, Lesbia, through your fault);76.17-18: o di... si quibus umquam I extremam iam ipsa in morte tulistisopem (O gods, if ever you have brought help at the end, to those on thevery brink of death). Forsyth (1976, 558) makes a similar argument: inthe case of both Catullus and Attis an overwhelming furor has turnedinto regret.

(41.) C. 58.3: plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes ([Lesbia whomCatullus] loved more than himself and all his clan); 79.1-2: quernLesbia malit / quam te cum tota gente, Catulle, tua (Lesbia prefers himto you and your whole family, Catullus). A number of scholars detect asimilar tension between the speaker's realization of familyobligations and his overpowering love for a married mistress in theapple simile at the end of c. 65; see, e.g., Fitzgerald 1995, 189;Skinner 2003, 18-19; Stevens 2013, 171.

(42.) Skinner (1997, 133) makes a similar argument, stating:"The same sequence of passion, self-destruction, and remorsenarrated as mythic event is re-enacted as putative autobiography in thelove poems."

(43.) In c. 68b the lines between the loss of a lover and the lossof a brother become blurred as the Catullan speaker draws parallelsbetween himself and Laodamia, both of whom have lost a loved one in theTroad; cf. Hubbard 1984, 34 and Janan 1994, 126.

(44.) E.g., Sandy 1971, 188-189; Forsyth 1976; Putnam 1982, 54;Martin 1992, 55; Skinner 1997, 145; Stevens 2013, 206.

(45.) Miller (1994, 111) refers to "a swirling vortex ofmutual identifications, all of which take place within the territorydelimited by the Catullan poetic ego."

(46.) C. 11 starts with an elaborate list of far-off placesconquered by the Roman imperialist machine. By referring to the peoplesinstead of the places, the subjugated are cast as victims of rape(penetrabit, 2). At the end of the poem, Catullus's love is aflower cut down (that is, destroyed and deflowered; cf. Miller 1994, 66)by Lesbia in the role of ploughshare, a symbol of colonization thatrecalls the conquering Rome from the beginning of the poem. In c. 68bCatullus compares himself to Juno in her supposed tolerance ofJupiter's infidelities (138-140). By casting himself in the femalerole of Juno, Lesbia is equated to the "all-desiring"(omnivoli, 141) and adulterous Jupiter. This enables the speaker tocomment on the distortion of Roman marriage ideals in contemporary Rome:Vinson 1992, 177.

Cc. 10, 28, and 47 comment on the corrupt state of the patronagesystem, shedding light on those individuals who are both products of andoutsiders to that system. In the process Catullus's own peripheralposition in the socio-political system, as well as that of his dearfriends Veranius and Fabullus, is revealed.

(47.) In his furor-induced state, Attis referred to Cybele'shaunt as "home" (domum: 63.20, 63.35). Having woken up fromhis delirium he longs for the home he has left behind in his homeland(domo, domus: 63.58, 63.66) and now perceives his new surroundings asalarmingly hostile: egone a mea remota haec ferar in nemora domo? (Cutoff from my home am I to be carried into these woods?, 58); cf. lines70-72, quoted and translated above.

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