What are we following right at the beginning of the poem?
Thetis and Peleus’ wedding
How does the poem divert from Thetis and Peleus’ wedding?
ecphrasis – story within a story
Ariadne on the tapestry on the wedding-couch
What is the order of how Catullus tells the story of Ariadne?
- Ariadne wakes
- Theseus and Ariadne meet and he slays minotaur
- takes Ariadne away and abandons her
- Ariadne curses Theseus (on the island)
- Theseus leaves Athens
- Theseus forgets to change sails and father dies
- Bacchus rescues Ariadne
How does Catullus play on Ariadne being in a tapestry?
- Ariadne describes as a stone statue of a Bacchant
- promised vows to gods with “silent lips” when she meets Theseus
- makes Ariadne speak, even though it isn’t able to be heard by the guests, when she is talking to Theseus sailing away
- Ariadne speaks about being Theseus slave instead and how she would put a crimson/purple sheet on bed – also colour on wedding couch; is this scene in tapestry as in mind?
- after this, says that he is unable to hear what is said and doesn’t have a voice to reply
What simile is used when Theseus kills the minotaur?
What is the simile referring to?
trees are ripped out by a relentless hurricane and the tree falls and shatters everything in its path
Hurricane – Theseus
tree – minotaur being killed
How does Catullus evoke sympathy for the Minotaur?
- Minotaur a tree – helpless?
How does Catullus link Thetis and Peleus’ story to Ariadne and Theseus’?
- marriage of a god to a mortal (relationship)
- Ariadne says “from now on let no woman believe a man’s oath” when shouting after Theseus, sailing away.
How does Catullus characterize Theseus through Ariadne and the narration? What rhetorical questions does Ariadne ask Theseus?
- uses many words meaning lustful when she is speaking to him sailing away
- calls him a cheat “fallaci”
- is called “immemori” (forgetful, neglectful – heavy)
- what lioness gave birth to you under a lonely rock?
- what sea conceived you and vomited you out of its foaming waters?
- What Syrtes, what voracious Scylla, what devouring Charybdis?
What metaphor does Ariadne use to describe the situation Theseus was in before she saved him?
whirlpool of death
