In both poems, female resistance to marriage eventually gives way to the joys of the new life awaiting the bride and groom. In the conclusion of poem 62, the bride is urged to comply with social demands that require that she enters the state ofmarriage willingly (60-5):
Non aequom est pugnare, pater cui tradidit ipse, ipse pater cum matre, quibus parere necesse est. uirginitas non tota tua est, ex parte parentum est, tertia pars patrist, pars est data tertia matri,
Tertia sola tua est: noli pugnare duobus, qui genero sua iura simul cum dote dederunt.
It is not right to vie with him to whom your father himself gave you, your father himself with your mother, whom it is necessary to obey.
Your virginity is not all your own, part of it belongs to your parents, a third belongs to your father, a third was given to your mother, only a third is your own: do not vie with two,
Who have given to their son-in-law their rights along with the dowry.
Regardless of who speaks these final lines,19 the arithmetic used to define the woman’s identity20 focuses on her obligations vis-a-vis her family and by extension on the reciprocity fundamental to the proper function of social relations. Personal attachments or other concerns, such as those voiced by the chorus of maidens in the course of the contest, must be abandoned. The language of arithmetic and ownership is accompanied by legal terminology (sua iura, dote),21 thus validating the line of argument the boys have employed all along.
Marriage necessitates female submission to social constraints because its main purpose is socially determined. Through marriage the continuation of the family line, whose significance for society at large hardly needs mention, is ensured. Poem 61 takes special note of the importance of reproduction for the survival of the household while it also stresses the ideal ofreciprocity governing the relationship between parents and children: just as the children depend on their parents in order to grow and reach adulthood, so the parents rely on their children in their old age: nulla quit sine te domus/ liberos dare, nec parens/ stirpe nitier; at potest/te uolente, ‘‘no house can give children without you, nor a parent rely on his offspring; but it can if you are willing’’ (66-9).
Furthermore, marriage is the only framework within which familial felicity may be achieved, as the tender image of young Manlius on his mother’s lap, reaching over to his father smiling (209-13), attests. Important reminders follow: legitimate children alone secure continuity within the family (214-23):
Sit suo similis patri Manlio et facile insciis noscitetur ab omnibus, et pudicitiam suae matris indicet ore.
Talis illius a bona matre laus genus approbet, qualis unica ab optima matre Telemacho manet fama Penelopeo.
Let him look like his father Manlius and be recognized easily by all strangers, and by his face declare the chastity of his mother.
May such praise from a virtuous mother prove the worth of his family like the unparalleled fame that endures for Penelope’s Telemachus from his honorable mother.
Continuity is particularly crucial in the case of the Torquati, a family famous for saving the Capitol from the Gauls and perhaps even more famous for putting a son to death, an action that appears to have rendered them in the eyes of their fellow Romans both heroic and inhuman.22 The image of the young child reaching over to his father has therefore particular resonance. Without children this noble family, as well as any other family, is bound to face extinction (see also Newman 1990: 206-7).
Familial continuity, however, rests wholly upon female fidelity. The paradigm of Penelope is pivotal in making this point.23 The magnitude of her contribution to her family’s lasting fame may also be seen in the poet’s naming of Telemachus. While one would expect a patronymic, Telemachus is instead defined as the son of Penelope ( Telemacho... Penelopeo). Female fidelity is the sole means by which legitimate children may guarantee not only the family’s survival but also its good standing in the community. It constitutes therefore an integral part of the greater network of social relations. The woman’s willing participation in marriage is indispensable for the proper functioning of society as a whole.
Family in Roman thought often serves as a microcosm for the state, and poem 61 is no exception. In enumerating the blessings of marriage, the poet also makes a brief yet critical mention of the intimate relationship between procreation and the safety of the state: marriage produces soldiers who will defend the land (quae tuis careat sacris,/non queat dare praesides/terra finibus: at queat/te uolente, ‘‘the land which should lack your sacred rites could not give guardians for its borders: but it could if you are willing,’’ 71-4). Rome’s military and political power is therefore contingent upon this vital social institution.
Yet despite the positive view of marriage and its focus on social demands, hints of resistance persist. Poem 62 may assign two-thirds of the woman’s identity to others but the final third belongs to herself. And though the boys’ perspective may appear to prevail, many readers claim that the girls’ arguments have greater resonance (Stehle [Stigers] 1977: 97; Thomsen 1992: 229) and fit neatly with the theme of the failure of marriage in the other long poems. Most importantly, the images of female resistance and vulnerability deployed in these poems find their starkest expression in the image of another flower touched by a plow in poem 11.22-4 (Stehle [Stigers] 1977: 98; M. J. Edwards 1993: 185-6; see Greene, this volume). The male narrator’s self-identification with the delicate flower lends greater gravity and poignancy to the absence of a true integration of female anxieties and social constraints in 61 and 62.
Catullus’ wedding poems have such a lasting impact on their readers precisely because they mobilize the emotive power of ritual in order to give expression to female anxiety over the violence connected with the act of defloration. Ritual context and poetic content validate female resistance to marriage as a powerful manifestation of the conflict between individual needs and societal demands. But unlike ritual ceremonies, where anxieties are expressed in order to be assuaged so that the new phase in the life of the couple can be duly celebrated, Catullus’ poems are often most remembered for their haunting delineation of female fragility.
World History
