The typical style of the polymetrics is short and vernacular, inspired in part by the language of the Roman stage but also reflecting the tendency of the noui poetae to give Latin poetry a native idiom and liberate it from the tyranny of high Greek literature. The other side of Catullus is the one that could not rest until he had proven that Latin poetry could achieve the same effects as Greek. The college classroom is the appropriate place to cultivate a sense of the difference between the vernacular and the high literary modes. This is why the longer masterpieces of the middle section, such as the poem about Attis in galliambic meter, c. 63, should not be excluded. Not only does Catullus essay the high poetic diction of Greek poetry, but he projects his enslavement to Lesbia into an ancient myth about a religious fanatic who unmans himself to serve a cruel goddess. He also begins the long process of dismantling the sentimental locus amoenus tradition which had already produced some dull Greek poetry and would soon produce some even duller Latin. The dark forests of Bithynia, seen at first hand by Catullus during his colonial service in 57-56 bc (and the European forests seen by countless Roman soldiers during Caesar’s conquests in Transalpine Gaul), are the sinister backdrop of this unique poem, which opened paths into the many gruesome groves of later Latin poetry (Garrison 1992).
The other long poem that should be considered required reading at the college level is c. 64, of which a portion (50-253) is in the AP prescription. This homage to the Hellenistic epic is easier to fit into a semester's work than a quarter's, but at least a portion such as Ariadne’s lament (132-201, mentioned earlier) should be accommodated. Taken as a whole, this epyllion displays a Hellenistic temper in oblique approaches to a story and the skeptical view of traditional epic heroes. Ariadne’s lament is more performative than narrative. As Attis in 63 resonates with the Catullus of the Lesbia cycle, Ariadne is a transsexual projection of Catullus; tags from earlier lyrics support this reading, one again illustrating the use of myth as a vehicle for present-day experience. The poetic justice that overtakes Theseus is like the justice that Catullus invokes upon Alfenus in c. 30.11-12:
Si tu oblitus es, at di meminerunt, meminit Fides, quae te ut paeniteat postmodo facti faciet tui.
And on his own behalf in c. 76.17-19:
O di, si uestrum est misereri, aut si quibus umquam extremam iam ipsa in morte tulistis opem, me miserum aspicite.
Compared to the polymetrics, Catullus’ hexameters in c. 64 have a ceremonial aspect, felt in the several golden lines (59, 129, 163, 172, 235, 351) and neargolden lines found here as well as frequent hyperbaton, epanalepsis (61-2, prospicit, eheu,/prospicit), polyptoton (19-21, tum Thetidis...tum Thetis...tum Thetidi), anaphora (255, euhoe bacchantes, euhoe capita inflectentes) and other techniques of the high poetic style. There are also the compounds avoided by the neoterics - fluentisono (52), Nysigenis (252), unigenam (300), ueridicos (305) - and learned circumlocutions such as the metonymic Amphitriten for the sea (11) and Amar-unthia uirgo for Artemis (395). Yet we seldom feel that the poet is contriving to push all the buttons of high poetry. Moreover, this elevated rhetoric is important because it is sometimes folded into other poems that are not in the epic mold and must be recognized as a change of tone when used in a non-epic context (see further Sheets, this volume).
World History
