CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

• Solon frg. 26 West ƒργα δ′ Κυπρογενο⎝! ν⎝ν μοι φ⇔λα κα⇐ Διον⎛!ου / κα⇐ Μου!ϒϖν,
τ⇔ψη! νδρ !ιν ε⎡φρο!⎛να! Solon expresses his liking for the ƒργα of Aphrodite, Dionysus and the
Muses, the works or actions proper to each of them – that is, presumably, making love, drinking and reciting
poetry.
Isolated instances (A i) apart, ‘the gifts of the Muses’ and ‘the gifts of Aphrodite/Venus’ were used in ancient
literature not for anything that these goddesses happened to have given to a man, but for their characteristic
or stereotypical gifts to mankind. This may well be illustrated with the help of Solon’s fragment 13 West.
This is the first part of the poem, at the start of which Solon prays to the Muses (lines 1-8: Μο⎝!αι
Πιερ⇔δε!, κλ⎝τϒ μοι ε⎡ξομϒν⊗: / ⎞λβ〉ν μοι πρ∫! ψε∩ν μακ ρϖν δ〉τε etc.). He asks them for divinely
sanctioned wealth, for a good reputation among men, for being pleasing to his friends and vexing to his
enemies, and somewhat repetitiously that he may possess riches, attained righteously. However, he does not
use the phrase Μου!ϒϖν δ∩ρα for any of these gifts: he reserves that for the gift of being able to compose
poetry (see lines 51f., quoted under A iia above). By this time Μου!ϒϖν δ∩ρα has become a shorthand term
not for whatever the Muses might give to a man, but for their principal gift to mankind: poetry, or the poetic
art. In Hesiod’s Theogony ‘the gifts of the Muses’ is used once in this sense and once for the persuasive
eloquence of a king; in later Greek literature it is found in this sense alone. Zicàri was right to say, then, that
“in 68.10 munera Musarum repeats a well-known formula” (“ripete una nota formula”, Zicàri 1965: 237 =
1977: 148).
In the case of ‘the gifts of Aphrodite/Venus’ the situation is slightly more complex. The phrase δ∩ρα
Αφροδ⇔τη! is used first in the Iliad (B i) for Paris’ sex-appeal. It is well known that Paris owed his
powers of seduction to Aphrodite, and the poet of the Iliad seems to have thought that the goddess had
simply given the hero stunning good looks. In later times the phrase is used on four occasions for lovemaking
(B ii) and once each for sex-appeal, as in the Iliad (B i), for marriage (B iii), for a partner (B iv) and
apparently for pleasurable thoughts of love (B v). Apparently it could be used either for love-making itself or
for what could lead to it or was otherwise associated with it.
‘The gifts of the Muses’ and ‘the gifts of Aphrodite’ are set expressions in ancient literature for two distinct
groups of items, and consequently it is impossible to take munera et Musarum et Veneris here to mean ‘the
gifts that come both from the Muses and from Venus’. But could they manifest themselves together – could
Manlius have asked one thing from Catullus (e.g. love poetry) that would have provided him both with the
gift of the Muses (poetry) and with the gift of Venus (love)? After all, Anacreon writes in frg. 2 West of
‘mixing’ the gifts of the Muses and those of Aphrodite, evidently by reciting love poetry (see C above).
Catullus may well be echoing that passage here. Could he too be thinking of mixing together the gifts of the
Muses and those of Venus?
This can be answered with the help of a detailed analysis not of this passage alone, but of all of poem 68a. At
the end of this letter in verse Catullus expresses his regret that he could not give Manlius both things that he
had asked for. The key word is utriusque in line 39 (see ad loc.). Likewise, in the introductory distichs he
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