3. opaca.

....

loca, 'the dark forest-bound demesne.'

4. vagus animis, 'lost in passion.'

5. ill, genitive, depending on pondera, 'with a sharp flint dashed his testicles to the ground.' Cf. Ov. Fast. IV. 241: 'Onus inguinis aufert

Nullaque sunt subito signa relicta viri.'

6. sine viro, ‘unmanned.' Cf. Lucan. x. 133 (quoted by Ellis):

'ferro mollita juventus,

Atque exsecta virum.'

7. etiam, 'still staining the surface of the earth.'

8. niveis, like teneris, 10,

= = womanish.

citata. Attis is henceforward spoken of indifferently as of either sex. Translate, 'the restless feminine shape.'

typanum is another form of tympanum, 'tambourine.'

9. tubam. As the trumpet is an instrument employed, not in Greek, but in Roman ritual, Ellis would render this word (very harshly) as in apposition to typanum, and somehow equivalent to avri oάλmiyyos, the tambourine which is in the rites of Cybele what the trumpet is in the rites of other gods, 'the tambourine that is trumpet to Cybele.'

Munro reads 'ac typum,' signifying a medallion of Cybele worn by her worshippers. A simple, but rather weak, alteration is to tuum Cybelle. The name has various forms, Kv¤ýλn, Κύβελλα, Κυβέλη, Κυβήβη.

mater. Cf. magna mater, Idaea mater, mater deorum.

initia, ‘ritual,' 'mystic instrument.'

12. Gallae. The emasculated priests of the Phrygian goddess were generally called Galli. Cf. Verg. Aen. Ix. 617: 'O vere Phrygiae, nec enim Phryges, ite per alta Dindyma, ubi assuetis biforem dat tibia cantum. Tympana vos buxusque vocat Berecyntia matris Idaeae; sinite arma viris.'

13. vaga pecora, 'wandering sheep.'

15. sectam, 'path.' Cf. Cic. Nat. Deor. II. 22, 'omnis

natura habet quasi viam quandam et sectam quam sequatur.' Ellis renders 'following my rule,' certainly adopting the commoner meaning of the word.

16. truculentaque pelagi, 'the savagery of ocean. Cf. Verg. Aen. IX. 81, 'pelagi petere alta.' Pelage is read, unnecessarily, by many editors.

17. aere, with wanderings fired by the clang of brass.' If erae be read, it will depend on animum, the goddess's soul.'

21. cymbalum, if vox be read, is genitive; if nox be read, it will be accusative after sonat, like hominem sonat, Verg. Aen. I. 328. But the evidence for the latter reading is very slight.

reboant, reverberate.'

22. curvo, when the Phrygian piper sounds his deep note on the horned reed,' i.e., his pipe has a horn-shaped extremity.

canit grave. Cf. dulce ridentem, LI. 4, turpe incedere, XLII. 8. 24. sacra sancta, 'with shrill screams wake their inviolate orgies.'

26. nos celerare, hasten our going with triple dancing step.'

tripudiis = the dancing step of religious processions. Cf. Liv. 1. 20, Salios ancilia ferre ac per urbem ire canentes carmina cum tripudiis sollennique saltatu jussit.'

27. notha mulier, 'counterfeiting womanhood.'

28. thiasus, 'rout.' LXIV. 253.

trepidantibus, 'tumultuous.'

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29. recrepant, crash in answer.'

P. 34. 31. Feverish, panting, wandering waywardly, pouring her soul in sighs, with nothing at her side but the tambourine, Attis leads through the dark woods.'

35. See General Introduction I.

39. oris aurei. It is not necessary to take this as a descriptive genitive ('golden-visaged sun,' Ellis), as it may depend on oculis.

40. lustravit, surveyed.' Perhaps brightened.' Cf. Verg. Aen. IV. 6:

'Postera Phoebea lustrabat lampade terras

Humentemque Aurora polo dimoverat umbram.'

41. vegetis, 'new risen.' Cf. Tennyson, Tithonus.'

6

43. And found a haven in the fluttering bosom of Queen Pasithea.' Hom. Il. xiv. 250. A possible variant is trepidantem.

45. ipse

recoluit, alone, within his soul, revived

what he had done.'

46. liquida mente, with purged understanding saw what he lacked, and where he was.' Sine queis, cf. vv. 5, 6.

47. animo aestuante, 'in a surge of passion.' Cf. LXIV. 62, fluctuat.

48. maria vasta, 'the wilderness of waters.'

53. To be in the land of snow, where the wild beasts have their chilly stalls, and to visit all their ravening lairs.' Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. 179, Stabula alta ferarum.'

55. locis, 'quarter.'

reor, am I to think?' I. 1 note.

59. abero, shall I be lost to market-place, wrestling-school, race-course, and gymnasium?'

P. 35. 61. miser a miser

anime, 'twice unhappy soul!

again and again must I make my moan.'

62. genus figurae, 'what fashion of comely person have I not filled?' Another reading is habuerim, which is easier, and so far less likely to be original.

64. olei, 'the oiled ring.'

65. tepida, warm' with the feet of lovers.

68. ministra, famula, serving woman,' 'handmaid.'

69. mei pars, but half myself.'

vir sterilis, 'a man unmanned.'

70. nive amicta, 'snowy-mantled.'

71. columinibus, 'pinnacles,' peculiar pointed rocks of Phry- ́ gia. See Ellis' note.

dolet, 'pains me,' active. Cf. Prop. I. 16, 24:

Frigida Eoo me dolet aura gelu.'

Or, perhaps, impersonal. Cf. Plaut. Men. II. iii. 84:

'mihi dolebit non tibi si quid ego stulte fecero.'

74. hinc. Ellis reads huic . . . . abiit, against the MSS.

...

celer. A word is wanting in the MSS., and Lachmann thus supplies it from the redundant celeri of v. 14.

75. Geminas deorum. Cf. deum, 68. After Lachmann matris is read for deorum, which was thought to be an explanatory gloss. Munro suggests deae tam. It has been proposed to transpose vv. 75 and 76, and read eorum = leonum; but this alteration, though attractive, is unjustified by any evidence not internal.

nuntia. Lucr. Iv. 704, 1032, where, however, the word is not an undoubted substantive.

77. laevum, 'the lion to the left,' or less well, 'goading on the left side.'

pecoris hostem

ταυροκτόνου λέοντα,

78. agitet, 'drive.' Not in the MSS.

79. ictu, 'under the lash of frenzy.'

80. libere nimis, 'in presumptuous freedom.'

84. religat, bound up the loosened harness.'

85. Summoning all his might, the beast roused himself to speed in his soul." See General Introduction I.

ferus, substantive. Cf. LXIV. 176 note.

P. 36. 93. rapidos. Ellis (against the weight of the MSS.) reads rabidos.

LXIV.

In this Epyllion Catullus has made extensive use of his wide knowledge of Greek literature: on the subject of his debts to the Greek poets, see Quaestio I. He has also been largely imitated by later Latin writers: see Quaestio II. For an account of the Catullian Hexameter, see Appendix I.

This poem has been much criticised for the inordinate disproportion of its parts,' and 'want of artistic finish at the junctures.' These are discoveries of the numbered tape and critical nail which cannot be grudged to the discoverers. They are made, however, by the same scholars who maintain, alii alio modo, the rigid mathematical symmetry of Catullus' other poems. These scholars will therefore be ready to admit that Catullus could not have committed these faults unconsciously. He must have intended the alleged 'disproportion of the parts,' he must have meant to be careless of artistic finish at the junctures. In fairness, then, we should examine his purpose before condemning the means he took to work it out, and if the purpose be poetically good, then judge the means by their effect; for there may, perhaps, be a higher unity than is attained by the observance of the unities, and its parts may be organically connected, requiring no 'callida junctura.'

The simple argument of the poem has been told in the General Introduction I. The purpose of the poem is equally simple. It is to give a picture of the 'golden prime of the ages,' when man walked with gods. Man was frail índeed, even then; but suffering followed close as the medicine of sin, and wronged innocence was exalted. An earthly hero was welcome to the gods, who honoured him with affinity to themselves, with gifts, and with their presence at his table. For men were then of pure, good birth; and from the union of god and man sprang the brightest patterns of chivalry.

The general sentiment is similar to that of the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil. In one particular, the blessedness of family purity a feeling much stronger and more predominant in Rome at the fall of the Republic than we can well understand now-appears in Catullus' address to the heroes (22-24)