CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

77f. Catullus interrupts his narrative briefly to direct a prayer to the goddess Nemesis (Rhamnusia uirgo:
see ad loc.), whom he asks that he may never to have a desire that is contrary to the will of the gods.
Such interjected apotropaic prayers ( “ – may it never overcome me – ” ) go back as far as the Odyssey,
where one is uttered by the swineherd Eumaeus (15.359f.). The technique is also used by Hesiod (Op. 270-
272), but it becomes especially common in Hellenistic poetry: compare Theocr. 26.27-30 ο⎡κ λϒγϖ: μηδ
λλο! πεξψομϒνϖ Διον⎛!ϖι / φροντ⇔ζοι, μηδ ε⇒ ξαλεπ⊕τερα τ∩νδε μογ→!αι ... α⎡τ∫! δ
ε⎡αγϒοιμι κα⇐ ε⎡αγϒε!!ιν δοιμι and Callimachus Hymn. 1.69 !∩ν τερ ϖν· τ ⁄μο⇑!ι φ⇔λοι!
⁄νδϒϕια φα⇔νοι!, 3.129-137 ο∑! δϒ κεν ε⎡μειδ→! τε κα⇐ 〈λαο! α⎡γ !!ηαι ... π〉τνια, τ∩ν ε◊η μ′ν
⁄μο⇐ φ⇔λο! ⎟!τι! ληψ→!, / ε◊ην δ α⎡τ〉!, να!!α, μϒλοι δϒ μοι α⇒′ν οιδ→ (not quite apotropaic),
6.116f. Δ ματερ, μ↓ τ°νο! ⁄μ⇐ν φ⇔λο!, ⎟! τοι πεξψ→!, / ε◊η μηδ ⌡μ〉τοιξο!: ⁄μο⇐ κακογε⇔τονε!
⁄ξψρο⇔ and Aetia frg. 110.71f. Pfeiffer Παρψϒνε, μ↓] κ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯οτϒ!ηι[!, Ραμνου!ι !: ο⎣τ]ι! ⁄ρ⎛ϕει /
βο⎝! ƒπο!⎫ (the supplements of Lobel, Barber and Merkelbach are quite plausible: see Skinner 1984: 135f.).
The last of these prayers is translated by Catullus at 66.71, and he adds a similar prayer at the end of his
poem on Attis (63.91-93). Here Catullus conserves something of the chatty, conversational character of the
Hellenistic examples (see on tam ualde).
Trappes-Lomax (2007: 237f.) wants to delete these lines on the grounds that “it is impossible to parallel the
insertion of such a couplet” and that inuitis … eris would have to mean ‘against the will of my masters’. We
have seen the parallels; on inuitis … eris see ad loc.
77 tam ualde ‘So very much’: the phrase does not appear anywhere else in poetry, and in prose it is used
only by Cicero (1x orat., 4x rhet.-phil. and 8x epist.), Petronius (4x), Quintilian (1x in decl. min.), the
Augustan rhetor Porcius Latro (ap. Sen. Contr. 10.6.1), Seneca the Younger (3x) and Fronto (1x in a letter) –
a hyperbolic phrase with a colloquial colouring, as it seems. This makes it suited to the apotropaic prayer,
which often has conversational overtones (see on 77f.).
Rhamnusia uirgo A circumlocution for the goddess Nemesis (on whom see Arist. Eth. Eud. 1233b18-26,
RE and OCD s.v., and Finglass 2007 on Soph. El. 792), who had a well-known sanctuary at Rhamnus in
northeastern Attica; her local cult image was known to Catullus’ contemporary Varro (ap. Plin. N.H. 36.17),
who considered it one of the most beautiful statues in the world. Catullus also mentiones the goddess at 50.2,
where he simply calls her Nemesis, and at 66.71 pace tua fari hic liceat, Rhamnusia uirgo, another
interjected prayer that he has taken over from Callimachus (see on 77f.), where he uses the same
circumlocution as here. She is probably the goddess described as encouraging soldiers at 64.395, where the
readings of the principal MSS (ramunsia O: ranusia X) should probably be emended to Rhamnusia with the
editio princeps rather than to Baehrens’ Amarunsia (Skinner 1984: 134, n. 1 and Trappes-Lomax 2007:
204f.), in which case we have three Catullan hexameters ending with Rhamnusia uirgo.
According to Skinner (1984: 138), Nemesis matters here not only as the deity punishing irresponsible
behaviour, but also as a mythological character, whose rape by Zeus led to the Trojan War (Cypria frg. 9
197