Catullus 63 in a Roman Context

Author(s): Ruurd R. Nauta

Source: Mnemosyne , 2004, Fourth Series, Vol. 57, Fasc. 5, Catullus 63 (2004), pp. 596-628
Published by: Brill

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4433596

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT

BY

RUURD R. NAUTA

Abstract

In this paper,1) Catullus' intentions in writing the Attis poem and his pos-
sible use of a Greek model are deliberately left out of account. Instead,
the focus is on the meaning his poem may have had for his contempo-
rary audience. Attis is a gallus, a castrated devotee of the Mater Magna,
and thus a reconstruction is attempted of the mental picture that Romans
of Catullus' time had of galli. Special importance is given to Lucretius'
excursus on the Mater Magna, and his interpretation of castration as a
punishment for lack of pietas. Finally, a slighdy later source, Vergil's Aeneid,
is used to suggest that Catullus' poem may also have been read as par-
ticipating in a discourse about Roman national identity.

As some of the contributions to this issue bear witness, Catullus'

poem on Attis is markedly Greek in character. Stephen Harrison
has analysed the theme of ethnicity in the poem in terms of a con-
trast between Asia and Greece, and the theme of gender in terms
of a close engagement with female figures from Greek tragedy. Both
he and Annette Harder have shown that the question of the genre
of the poem needs to be discussed with reference to Greek Hellenistic
authors such as Callimachus and Theocritus. Neither of them has
drawn the inference that Catullus' poem is itself an instance of
Hellenistic poetry, translated or adapted from a Greek original, but
many other scholars have done so, although without reaching agree-
ment either on the identity of the original or on the extent of
Catullan modification.2) Yet whatever the kind and degree of Catullus'
originality may have been, the poem as it is?even if it were a lit-

1) For criticism and encouragement I thank the participants in the OIKOS day
from which this issue of Mnemosyne derives (and especially Prof. Jan Bremmer), as
well as my audience at the University of Florence, where I delivered a version of
this paper at the kind invitation of Prof. Mario Citroni.
2) The most important discussions are Wilamowitz 1924, Weinreich [1936] 1975,
Syndikus 1990, esp. 76-80, Gall 1999 and Fantuzzi & Hunter 2002, 550-9.

? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2004 Mnemosyne, Vol. LVII, Fase. 5

Also available online - www.brill.nl

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 597

eral translation?must have had meaning for Catullus and h

audience. In this paper I will try to identify some com
that meaning. In order to do so, I will first briefly pu
into the context of Catullus' work, and then, more extens
the context of the knowledge and ideology of his Roman a
in order to reconstruct the latter I will draw on contempo
also on slighdy later texts, and pay particular attention to
De rerum natura and Vergil's Aeneid?)

1. Catullus 63 in the Context of Catullus9 Wort Some Approach

In order to answer the question what meaning the extra

story of Attis, first castrating himself in a transport of religi
and then coming to his senses and bitterly repenting o
could have had for Catullus, scholars have generally tur
groups of poems from the Catullan corpus, the so-call
maiora (61-68) and the poems on Lesbia. Of the carmina
which poem 63 belongs) it has been remarked that the
to do with marriage: 61 and 62 are epithalamia; 64 is
wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and about Theseus br
promise of marrying Ariadne, who then becomes the
Dionysus; 65 is an introduction to 66, which celebrates
tal concord between Queen Berenice and her husband King
Euergetes; 67 is about a marriage failing through impo
adultery; and 68 is about Catullus' awareness that the r
with his beloved is adultery, and not marriage.4) In po
topic of marriage seems at first sight absent, but once w
tualise the poem within the carmina maiora this seem
becomes significant: Attis' condition is one which stand
opposition to marriage. I hope to show later on in this
this opposition was important to Catullus' contemporary r

3) If one wishes, one may describe this as an attempt to reconstru

zon of expectations' of 'the original audience', a project of which I h
the promises and problems in Nauta 1994.
4) On the marriage theme in the carmina maiora see Sandy 1971, w
raphy at 187, nn. 10 and 11; since then i.a. Most 1981, 118-20, E
1985, 87-101 and Holzberg 2002, 111-50.

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 598 RUURD R. NAUTA

But scholars have not been conte

within the carmina maiora, they hav
the carmina minora, especially with t
been felt that Attis is in a sense an a
for Lesbia: like Attis, Catullus was
dominant female, like him he tried t
and like him without success.5) This
currency outside the academic world
of Steven Saylor, The Venus Throw.
poem at a party given by Clodia on th
the Megalesia. The narrator wonder
remains expressionless:6)

Her face was blank. Did she consider

the opposite, an insult? Or could she n
poem about inescapable obsession, the o
dom by overwhelming passion, and t
a mere mortal with an aloof, uncaring

Now, although the conflict between

rational control is certainly an impor
reading poem 63 as autobiographical a
does occasionally describe his infatua
describes his love as an illness from
but he does not conceive of his lov
Attis' furor or rabies.1) Similarly, alth
domina and era ('mistress'), it is marr
metaphors with which he tries to m
rather than slavery; his condition i
jection as a f?mula ('slave girl') to h

5) The best brief statement of this position

elaboration in Lef?vre 1998. Further bibliogr
Roller 1999, 306 and Holzberg 2002, 132 m
6) I quote from the British paperback editi
lication in the USA in 1995). I thank Iris Sch
this book.
7) Vesanus: 7.10, 100.7; illness: 76.19-26. Furor and related terms in 63: 31, 54,
78, 79, 92; rabies and related terms: 44, 57, 85, 93; combined: 4 (furenti rabie), 38
(rabidus furor).
8) Domina: 68. 68, 156 (it should be noted that in both lines the word is com-

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 599

such an allegorical interpretation it is difficult to account

central motif of self-castration, undertaken Veneris nimio odi
excessive loathing of sex' (17).9) But this is not to say that th
no connections between poem 63 and Catullus' other poe
more general level.
In recent research, much attention has been given to t
cern of ancient men with masculinity: how to become, and h
remain, a 'real man'.10) This concern is obviously very m
sent in the work of Catullus as well.11) As one notorious
I mention poem 16, where Catullus counters suggestions t
not 'a real man', even someone playing the passive role (a
or a cinaedus), by threatening his adversaries with a demons
of his virility on them, thereby turning them into what the
him of being.12) In the context of this masculinist mentality,
tration must have been highly meaningful, especially as it w
merely a literary motif, but also occurred in real life. In
Saylor's novel, Clodia's reaction to Catullus' recitation is cont
with another one. The narrator becomes aware of "a stif
like the sound of a woman weeping". But he soon realises
person crying is not a woman, but a gallus, a castrated d
Cybele. Such galli could indeed be seen in Catullus' Rom
cially at the time at which Saylor sets the recitation, in the
the festival of the Megalesia. We may well ask how the ex
that Catullus' audience had of galli affected their receptio
poem on Attis.

bined with domus, and that its use is at least in part motivated by this
ical connection); era'. 136 (where likewise the connotation is rather 'mist
house' than 'mistress of the lover as a slave'). For Catullus' use of conce
from the institutions of marriage and amicitia see e.g. E.A. Schmidt 19
Attis f?mula: 63.68, 90; Cybele era: 18, 92, domina (of Mt Dindymon): 1
below, n. 35.
9) But some scholars have compared 11.22-4, where the imagery ca
as evoking castration, and as depicting Lesbia as a 'castrating woman'; c
1974 = 1982, 13-29, Janan 1994, 65, 106-7.
10) The bibliography is large; I mention only Gleason 1995, Hallett
(eds.) 1997, Williams 1999, Gunderson 2000.
11) See esp. Skinner 1997, Wray 2001, Holzberg 2002.
12) I have discussed this poem from a different point of view (that of
T) in Nauta 2002, 370-3.

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 600 RUURD R. NAUTA

2. How Would Roman Readers in Catullus' Time Have Read Catullus 63?

As the first line immediately specifies, the poem is about some-

one bearing the name of 'Attis'. Attis is elsewhere a Phrygian god,
but here he is a youth who has come to Phrygia from Greece.13)
The city he has left is not specified, but the name 'Attis', which (as
'Atthis') could mean 'woman from Attica', might suggest Athens.14)
The Phrygia where he arrives and then remains (2, 20, 71) cannot
be the land-locked Phrygia around Pessinus, which was the home
of the mythical Attis, but must be the Troad, as is confirmed by
the mention of Mt Ida later on in the poem (30, 52, 70). This
region was associated with the cult of the Mother of the Gods
already in Euripides, where she is addressed as ?da?a?&te?.15) She
was also worshipped to the immediate Northeast of the Troad, at
Cyzicus, more specifically on Mt Dindymon, homonymous with a
mountain in the vicinity of Pessinus.16) Apollonius Rhodius narrates
how this cult was established by the Argonauts (1.1092-152), who
invoked the goddess as 'Dindymian Mother', 'inhabitant of Phrygia'
and 'Idaean Mother' (1.1125-9).17) So when in Catullus' poem the
goddess is called 'mistress of Dindymon' (13, 91), his audience will
probably have thought of the mountain on Cyzicus rather than of
the one near Pessinus.18) But in any case conflation of the two locali-

13) Cf. Harrison 2004, 520-2 (this issue). At Pessinus in Phrygia, 'Attis' was a
regular title for a high priest of Cybele (see Bremmer 2004, 554 (this issue)), but
there is no evidence that this was the case at Rome; at CIL 6.2183 = ILS 4161
archigallus Matas Deum Magnae Idaeae et Attis populi Romani, which is often cited in
support of this view (e.g. by Kroll (1923, 130), Syndikus (1990, 77, ?. 77), Thomson
(1997, 374)), Attis is a genitive (cf. ILS 4164, 4171, etc.).
14) Cf. Clay 1995, 149-50, Fantuzzi & Hunter 2002, 553; also Harrison 2004, 522.
15) Or. 1453. Further references for the title 'Idaean Mother' in Bremmer 2004,
551, n. 72.
16) This cult is already known to Herodotus (4.76), although to him 'the holy
mountain of the Dindymenan Mother' is in central Phrygia, at the sources of the
Hermus (1.80.1).
17) Apollonius may have followed Neanthes FGrH 84 F 39 (Str. 1.2.38; cf.
12.8.11).
18) Catullus uses Dindymi dominam as a synonym for Magna. . . Mater in describ-
ing a poem-in-progress of his friend Caecilius (35.13-8), and the association of the
goddess with Dindymon (or Dindyma) is current in Latin poetry after him; cf. e.g.
Verg. A. 9.617-20 and 10.252 (both in combination with Idaea Mater), Prop. 3.22.1-4
(in combination with Cyzicus), Ov. Fast. 4.249 (cf. 234), Stat. Theb. 12.224-7, etc.

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 601

ties was well-established in the imagination of the Romans: Cy

was said to have been brought to Rome from Pessinus, ye
official cult tide was Mater Deum Magna Idaea.19) In Catullus' p
she is not called Idaea (only the nominative would fit into the m
but Mater and Dea Magna, names which remind of the cult tid
well as Cybele and Cybebe, names which mainly occur in poetr
evoke the traditions of mythology.20)
After his castration, Attis miraculously assumes the physical c
acteristics of a woman: he now has snow-white hands (8), t
fingers (10) and rosy lips (74).21) Moreover, henceforward fem
forms are used for Attis, both by the narrator and by himself
herself). In the manuscripts, the practice is not consistent,
a few places masculine forms are still to be found, which
scholars would keep, whereas others wish to change some or
them into feminines; in any case, whenever a feminine form is
mitted (rather than restored), it is guaranteed by the metr
therefore not in doubt.22) Attis' companions, who are cal
comit?s (11, 15, 27), have apparendy castrated themselves to

19) In Livy the instruction given by the Sibylline books is from the s
bring the Mater Idaea from Pessinus (29.10.5; cf. 34.3.8, 35.10.9). In pros
ture the goddess is mostly called Mater Deum or Mater Magna (rather than
Mater, cf. Ziegler 1969) or Mater Idaea. In inscriptions Mater Deum, Mater
Mater Deum Magna are frequent alongside the full expression Mater Deum
Idaea.
20) Mater. 9. Dea Magna: 91 (on the punctuation of 1. 91 see Bremme
566). ?ybele: 12, 68, 76. Cybebe: 9, 20, 35, 84, 91. The manuscripts have
abelle throughout, but most editors print Cybebe, etc. wherever the form
cheus. The corruption of Cybebe to Cybel(l)e may be seen in the tradition o
A. 10.220 (cf. Serv. ad loc), Luc. 1.600 and elsewhere, but some editors o
poetry admit Cybelle (i.a. Ellis in Catullus) or Cyb?le (i.a. Friedrich, Schuster,
in Catullus, Delz in Silius Italicus, Hall in Claudian); see Hall ad Claud. Ra
1.212 for a survey of the evidence. In prose, Cybele/Cybebe occurs only in Ch
writers and grammarians (TLL Onomastkon s.v.); in inscriptions Cybebe see
absent (at ILS 4094 Cybelen should be read; see ILMN 1.561), whereas C
very rare, and is again associated with verse (CLE 467 = Courtney ML 1
= Courtney ML 183, 1110 = ILS 5172, 1529).
21) Wilamowitz (1924, 294) thought that Attis already had these features
his castration, being a pa?? ?a???. But as a frequenter of the gymnasium
he must certainly have developed a healthy sun-tan.
22) The manuscripts offer feminine forms (all metrically guaranteed) a
27, 31, 32, 49, 54, 58, 68, 90, and masculine forms (none metrically gua
at 42, 45, 51, 78, 80, 88, 89. Scholars who attempt to interpret the pa
include Weinreich ([1936] 1975, 343-5), Clay (1995, 146-8), Morisi (1999,

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602 RUURD R. NAUTA

with him (17); they too are referred to

by Attis (12, 15) and by the narrator (3
use of the term gallae (12, 34), a form
a fragment from Hellenistic galliam
Callimachus.23) Galli were castrated d
lar goddess), and I will try to reconstr
cle the mental picture a Roman audienc
it may be noted that galli regularly
though clothing is not explicidy men
readers will certainly have thought of t
But something more may be said on t
guistic phenomenon. Feminine form
times used contemptuously to characte
as unmanly; the prototype is the Ho
'??a??? (//. 2.235, 7.96), but the figur
invective, and is repeatedly to be fou
extended to eunuch priests of Cybele
in such a way that the reference to
not always been recognised. An exampl
contemporary Philodemus, which prese
one Trygonion ('little turtle-dove'), w
of the Gods; older commentators too
woman, in accordance with her name
the words applied to her, but the epigr
is actually a gallus.26) Another example

Kroon (2004, 643 with ?. 31), but Richmond

mission suggests that the feminines have been
this was metrically feasible (although he rightl
Attis speaks of his former existence).
23) Anon. fr. 1030 PMG = Call. fr. 761 Pf. (pl
auctoris), quoted and discussed by Harder (200
is known from a quotation by Hephaestion (39
and Nauta 2004 (this issue).
24) Female dress o? galli is mentioned e.g. i
HE, Var. Men. 133 C?be = 155 ?., 136 C?be =
elsewhere, and is also shown in art; see Sand
25) Some material is collected by Richlin (1
26) AP 7.222 = 3320-7 GPh = 33 Sider. For a
a gallus see the commentaries of Gow-Page a
gram in the AP, by Thyillus (= 364-71 FGE)

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 603

where Argia's wild determination is compared to the f

devotee of Cybele:
nocte uelut Phrygia cum lamentata resultant
Dindyma, pinigeri rapitur Simoentis ad amnem
dux uesana chori, cuius Dea sanguine lecto
ipsa dedit ferrum et uittata fronde notauit (12.224-7)
'as in the Phrygian night, when Mt. Dindymon resounds
ing, the crazy leader of the chorus is carried away to the
pine-bearing Simois, she to whom the Goddess herself, el
blood, gave the knife and whom she marked by ribboned

Because the comparison is applied to a woman, and be

adjective uesana ('crazy') is in the feminine form, the 'craz
has generally been taken as a woman as well, but the unm
echoes of Catullus 63 in dux (cf. 15, 32, 34) and chon
combination with the mention of blood (cf. 7), suggest that
rather think of a gallus, as the ancient commentator
Placidus already seems to have done.27)
A more certain instance of the use of feminines for eunu
of an oriental goddess is to be found in Apuleius' Metam
Here Lucius, transformed into an ass, is purchased by
the Dea Syria, who refers to himself using a feminine for
8.25.4), and upon coming home with his new acquisition
his companions as follows, again using a feminine form to
himself: puellae, seruum uobis pulchellum en ecce mercata perd
look what a pretty little slave-boy I've bought you' (8.26.1
Hanson).28) The companions take this up by calling thems
leader's palumbulae, 'little pigeons' (8.26.4), which recalls P

and likewise Rhian. 6.173 = 3236-41 HE; Leon. AP 6.281 = 2239-45 H

a little girl.
27) Lact. Plac. ad 224-5: sacra Mains nocte a Phrygibus celebrantur in monte Dindymo,
in quibus se Galli abscidere consueuerunt. Although the blood does not need to refer to
castration, but may rather evoke the practice of gashing one's arms with knives
(cf. below, n. 44), that practice is not mentioned in connection with women. The
only exception I am aware of is Tib. 1.6.43-50, on a priestess of Bellona, but here
too a eunuch may be meant (cf. Murgatroyd ad 43-4; Maltby ad 43 is wrong to
adduce Sen. Vit. Beat. 7.26.8 as referring to a priestess). Like the passage in Statius,
Ov. Ep. 4.48 quaeque sub Idaeo tympana colle mouent seems to refer back to Catul. 63.
28) In the parallel story in the pseudo-Lucianic Onos the equivalent of puellae is
????s?a (36). On the reading misera (rather than muer) at 8.25.4 see GCA 1985
ad loc.

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 604 RUURD R. NAUTA

Trygonion. In the sequel, the ass ha

the eunuch priests as they go begging
and has to take a severe beating.29)
galli buy an ass to carry their belong
and cruelly beat him (in this case to d
(4.1) and Babrius (141), but there the
vice of Cybele.30) This association
articulated in the text of Apuleius itse
tions the Mater Idaea in one breath
and elsewhere calls her 'sister' of hi
in appearance and behaviour the eu
as described by Apuleius are virtually
of the Mater Magna.31) This syncreti
in the time of Catullus was probably
the worship of the Syrian Goddess
only in the course of the first centur
evant to the reconstruction of the r
because a practice attested later and/o
Dea Syria may have belonged to the cu
The reason that Catullus' Attis and his comit?s have unmanned
themselves is given by Attis himself: Veneris nimio odio, 'out of an
excessive loathing of sex' (17). In order to escape sex they go into
the woods (the word nemus occurs 8 times), which are dark, cold
and inhabited by wild animals.33) Moreover they are foreign, Phrygian,
and Attis has left his Greek fatherland to get there. So the flight
from sex is at the same time a flight from civilisation and from
playing a role in the Greek polis. What this role would have entailed
is suggested by the only comparison in the poem, illustrating Attis'

29) On this episode cf. Henrichs 1976, 276-83. On the mendicancy of the galli
see below (end of section 3).
30) She is called Cybebe in Phaedrus (4) and '?e?? in Babrius (9), where Attis is
also mentioned (7).
31) See Sanders 1972, 992 and Lightfoot 2002; 2003, 61-5, 506-7. Note espe-
cially Apuleius' description of the music made by the eunuchs: tinnitu cymbalorum
et sonu tympanorum cantusque Phrygii mulcentibus modulis (8.30.5), which recalls Catul.
63.21-2 and Lucr. 2.618-20.
32) On the Dea Syria at Rome see Lightfoot 2003, 77, n. 205, with refs.
33) Nemus (apart from 2 always in the plural: nemora): 2, 12, 20, 32, 52, 58, 79,
89; cf. siluis (3), siluicultrix. . . nemonuagus (72). Dark: 3, 31. Cold: 53, 70. Wild ani-
mals: 53-4, 72, as well as the lions in 76-89.

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 605

headlong course through the dark woods: ueluti iuuenca ui

indomita iugi, 'like an untamed heifer shunning the burd
yoke' (33). An unbroken heifer not yet bearing the yok
parison for a virgin girl in an ode of Horace (2.5), and the
is used in the same way by Catullus himself in his poem
addressing Laodamia on the subject of her marriage to
tuus altus amor. . ., / qui tarnen indomitam Jene iugum docuit
love . . ., which taught you, untamed though you were, y
the yoke' (117-8). So in poem 63 the heifer trying to avoid
may suggest Attis trying to avoid marriage. In the end
he will only find another yoke: that of subservience to C
76, 84).34)
When Attis, after a night's sleep, comes to his senses, he regrets
his absence from his fatherland, his possessions, his friends, his par-
ents, and also from the market-place, the palaestra, the Stadion and
the gymnasium (59-60). This characterises him as a member of the
elite of a Greek polis, a background which contrasts sharply with
his new role as a slave, a f?mula (68, 90) of a foreign mistress.35)
But Attis regrets more: he also regrets the sexual role he played as
an e???????, a youth desired by older men, honoured by serenades
and garlands at his door (64-7).36) This is perhaps the strongest
instance of the un-Roman frame of reference of the poem, because
in Rome, unlike in Greece, it was dishonourable for a freeborn
youth to have male lovers.37) Yet even in Greece it was honourable
only for adolescents, who were expected to assume another, 'active'

34) The image is thus interpreted by Sandy (1971, 192-3; not yet in 1968, 395),
Glenn (1973, who argues for a reference to 'sexual experience' rather than mar-
riage), Clay (1995, 151-2) and Holzberg (2002, 128), but Shipton (1986) and Morisi
(1999, 102-3) only want to see a reference to Attis' ecstatic movements of the head
(cf. 23 and see below, n. 46). Both Clay and Holzberg point out that the mytho-
logical reference in 42-3 (Somnus hastening to the embrace of his wife Pasithea,
a motif deriving from the Homeric scene of the ?e??? ????? of Zeus and Hera on
Mt Ida (!)) implicitly contrasts Attis' state with married love.
35) Catullus' audience will have recognised both famulus and era/domina as cur-
rent in the vocabulary of galli; cf. Henrichs 1976, 272-3, Bremmer 2004, 565. Note
esp. Cic. L?g. 2.22 Idaeae Matris f?mulos; at Var. Men. 140 C?be = 132 ?. famuli is
a conjecture by B?cheier (galli mss.), not accepted by C?be or Astbury.
36) See Harder 2004, 582.
37) Kroll (1923) ad 64 appositely quotes Nepos (Catullus' dedicatee in poem 1):
laudi in Creta (Valckenaer: Graecia mss.) dudtur adulescentulis quam plwrimos habmsse ama-
tores (prol. 4); after giving other examples of divergent norms in Greece and Rome,

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606 RUURD R. NAUTA

role on becoming a man. But Attis d

line 63 he sums up his development in r
adulescens, ego ephebus, ego puer, ? wh
adolescent, an ephebe, a boy'.38) Atti
end, because that end is anomalous: h
have been normal, a uir.39)
In this context it is relevant that in t
ical Attis his castration comes precisely
adult male sexuality. In the story as
doubdess after a Hellenistic source, A
remain a puer, but when he breaks h
nymph, he is punished by her with ?
him to castrate himself.40) In another v
(5.5-7), but going back to the early-Hel
it is at Attis' wedding with a king's
Cybele (here called Agdistis) causes his
tration.41) This second story again rem
marriage, and of the social compone
hood. Attis himself is painfully aware
having reminisced about his populari
ask himself: 'Shall I now be said to b
a slave-girl of Cybele?' (68). And then a

Nepos concludes: quae omnia apud nos partim infam

remota ponuntur (5). For comparable passages i
1999, 63-4.
38) Although Attis' rhetoric leads to a slight s
supplied with mulier, but fui (which I would k
there is no need to emend. JJ. Scaliger propos
(1983)?hence on the PHI 5 CD-ROM?and Tho
nis (adopted by Harrison), but this robs the vers
self more radically than the narrator, who call
39) Catul. 63 has been interpreted as a study
Skinner (1997, 133-42; the phrase at 137) an
P. Vidal-Nacquet's 'black hunter'). Both Skinn
marks by Quinn (1972, 250).
40) On Ovid's source see Knox 2002, 167-70
41) A simpler form of the same story is re
the other Hellenistic versions of the Attis m
3.58 (the latter probably going back to Dionysi
is not mentioned. See Bremmer 2004, 542-50, f

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 607

his castrated state: 'Shall I be a Maenad, a part of mys

ile man?' (69). The alternation in Attis' reflections un
contrast between his present condition and marriage, in
combination of the sexual and the social roles is institutionalised.
Attis' words of regret reach the ears of Cybele, who unleashes
one of the two lions drawing her chariot, and instructs it to frighten
Attis to such a degree that furor will drive him back into the woods
(74-83).42) The representation of Cybele as driving a chariot drawn
by two lions was familiar to Catullus' Roman audience, as will be
seen below, but also Cybele's instructions to the lion will have
evoked a well-known sight:
age caede terga cauda, tua uerbera patere,
fac cuneta mugienti fremitu loca retonent,
rutilam ferox torosa ceruice quate iubam. (81-3)
'Go, whip your back with your tail, bear your own beating, / make
the whole region resound with your booming roar, / shake your ruddy
mane fiercely from your sinewy neck.' (tr. Harrison)

The hon is asked to whip itself, to produce a lot of noise, and to

shake its hair. All these actions, as Catullus' audience would have
recognised, are typical of gallig) Self-flagellation is not mentioned
in the poem itself, but is attested elsewhere as part of the behav-
iour of the priests of Cybele (and related goddesses).44) The mak-
ing of raucous music is likewise known from other descriptions, such
as that of Catullus' contemporary Lucretius (2.618-20), but it also
forms part of Catullus' own characterisation of Attis and his fol-
lowers (21-2, 29), in terms that are echoed in the verses on the

42) The scene with Attis and the lion inverts a motif of Hellenistic epigram (AP
6.217-20; cf. also Var. Men. fr. 358 C?be = 364 ?.), where a gallus frightens away
(or tames) a lion. On these epigrams see Gow 1960 (also the commentaries in
HE); on their connections with the poem of Catullus see Fedeli 1981, Courtney
1985, 88-90, Shipton 1987, Gall 1999, and Harder 2004, 577-9.
43) This was seen by Shipton (1986).
44) Eryc. AP 6.234 = 2259 GPh, Maec. fr. 6 FLP (Courtney) = 6 FPD, Plu.
1127c, all of followers of Cybele. Cf. Apul. Met. 8.28.2-3 ~ [Luc] Ann. 38, Lucian
Syr.D. 50, of followers of the Dea Syria, who combine self-flagellation with gashing
their arms with knives. The latter practice is also attested for followers of Cybele:
anon. AP 6.51.7-8 = HE 3838-9, Prop. 2.22.15-6, Sen. Ag. 687-90, V.F1. 3.20,
Stat. Theb. 10.170-5, Mart. 11.84.3-4, etc. It was also associated with the cult of
Bellona: Tib. 1.6.45-8 (where uerbera are also mentioned), Luc. 1.565-7, etc.; see
Sanders 1972, 992-3.

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 608 RUURD R. NAUTA

lion, where mugienti. . . retonent takes up

Finally, the shaking of heads and h
common motif in the description of
including that of galli, but also invok
urges his companions to follow him to
(20), 'where ivy-bearing Maenads viole
Even the characterisation of the li
significant in this respect, as there is
their hair blonde (and in Latin, the v
in this context).47) The association be
have been familiar to Catullus' audienc
who describes the followers of the Ma
quatientes numine cristas, 'with a nod
their heads' (2.632), which but for on
he says elsewhere of lions: terr?ficas capit
all sides shaking the frightful cres
However this may be, in Catullus' t
shown to behave as a gallus, and in th
existence that Attis will have to lead

45) With retonent cf. also the use of ton

Lucr. 2.618. The music of cymbals, tympana
passim in the context of galli; see Bremmer 2
of references.
46) Head- and hair-tossing is to be found pa
ers of Cybele; see e.g. Call. fr. 193.35 Pf.,
AP 6.173.2 = 3237 HE, Diosc. AP 6.220.2 = 1540 HE, 9.340.3-4 = 1687-8 HE,
Antip.Sid. AP 6.2?9.2, 18 = 609, 625 HE, anon. AP 6.51.8 = 3839 HE, Var. Men.
140 C?be = 132 B., Lucr. 2.632, Maec. fr. 5 FLP (Courtney) = 5 FPU, anon. fr.
112 FPD, Ov. Fast. 4.244, Phil. AP 6.94.4 = 2723 GPh, and many later passages.
It was also common in the cults of the Dea Syria and Bellona; cf. e.g. the pas-
sages of Apuleius (and the Onos) and Lucan mentioned at n. 44. Further refer-
ences are given by Bremmer (2004, 563, n. 142).
47) See 'Simon.' AP 6.217.10 = 3313 HE ?a???? . . . ???a?, anon. AP 6.51.8
= 3839 HE ?a?????.. . p????????, anon. p. 279 FPL (Courtney) = fr. 43 FPD:
r?tilos . . . cnnes.
48) Lucretius may here refer to the crests of the helmets of an armed band not
identical with the galli (cf. Bellandi 1975, 20-3), but that hardly invalidates the
point. One may also compare Ale.Mess. AP 6.218.7-8 = 140-1 HE, where the
behaviour of the gallus is taken over by the lion: e? d? te???t?? / ?????? ?????t??
?st??f????e f???? (which is verbally very close to ferox torosa ceruice quate iubam, as
noticed by Courtney (1985, 89) and Shipton (1986, 270)).

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 609

The poem ends with a short prayer, in which the spe

vendy begs Cybele that he may not become a victim of he
Such a conclusion is typical of a hymn; moreover, th
addresses the goddess as era, and he uses the galliambic me
was specifically associated with hymns written in her hon
there are difficulties involved in seeing the poem as a real
as a literary hymn. T.P. Wiseman has proposed that it
ten for performance at the official Roman festival of
Mother, the Megalesia, but this is improbable, becaus
information that we have about hymns sung to the godde
is that they were always in Greek.50) But it is also difficu
the poem as a literary hymn, because if it really honours
dess, then the fate of Attis must be a warning exampl
strating her dread power, in the way that the fate of
Callimachus5 fifth hymn demonstrates the power of Palla
or the fate of Erysichthon in his sixth hymn the power o
or the fate of Pentheus in Theocritus 26 the power of
Now, if Attis' fate is a warning example, the poem mu
as its background some such story as Ovid tells about t
cal Attis, in which his self-castration is a punishment by
infidelity.51) The only possible reference to such a story
poem is Cybele's description of Attis as mea libere nimis quifug
ria cupit, 'who too freely tries to escape my commands' (8
Catullus' poem Attis' castration is not otherwise presented
ishment for an offence against the goddess?on the con
undertaken out of devotion to the goddess, together with
tees. It seems better, therefore, to take Cybele's words as
usually taken: as referring to Attis' projected desertion fro
vice. Then the poem would not celebrate the severity of h

49) On hymnic features see esp. Fantuzzi & Hunter 2002, 550-2; a
2004, 528-30. The use of galliambics in hymns to the Mother of
attested by Heph. 12.1 (p. 38.15-6 C); see Nauta 2004.
50) See Wiseman 1985, 198-206. Serv. ad Verg. G. 2.394: hymni L
Graecos Graeca, apud Latinos Latina uoce dicuntur; hymni uero Matris Deum ubiq
id est Graecam, linguam requirunt. Of course, Servius' information may
reliable, but there are other difficulties with Wiseman's hypothesis,
won support.
51) Thus Hutchinson 1988, 311 (he does not, however, consider
be a hymn: 314, n. 74); Harrison 2004, 530.

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610 RUURD R. NAUTA

ment, but express abhorrence at t

her demands on her followers.

Such a reading would imply that the speaker is not himself a gal-
Jus, not even one who is having a moment of lucid regret: for a
gallus would have known, like Attis (57), that such moments cannot
last.52) Moreover, unlike Attis (58), the speaker of the poem still has
a domus, which he hopes will not be touched by furor: procul a mea
tuos sit furor omnis, era, domo, 'may all that frenzy of yours, mistress,
be far away from my home' (92). This means that the use of era
must be motivated by fear and flattery rather than by subjection,
and that the metre must have been chosen as fitting the theme.
One may compare Varro's Menippean satire Eumenides, where gal-
liambics seem to be used not only to report the song sung by the
galli, but also to describe their behaviour from the outside (fr. 139
C?be = 131 ?.).53) Moreover in that satire the narrator?who with
certainty is no gallus?exclaims apage in dierectum a domo nostra istam
insanitatem, 'off, straight away from my home with that insanity5 (fr.
142 C?be =133 ?.), which is clearly behind Catullus' formulation
just quoted. So Catullus' readers are not invited to construct the
speaker as a gallus, rather perhaps as the poet himself. This is impor-
tant, because they presumably could not easily identify with a gal-
lus, whereas they could with a young man who is fascinated, but
also repelled by galli It may be worthwhile to see what other sources
may teach about the attitudes of Catullus' readers.

3. Contemporary Views: Lucretius and Others on galli

There is a fair amount of evidence for interest in galli in Late

Republican Rome.54) Varr? seems to have depicted their dealings
in several other Menippean satires apart from the Eumenides, and

52) That the speaker is a gallus identifying with Attis' regret is suggested by
Fantuzzi & Hunter (2002, 552).
53) Phrygius per ossa cornus liquida canit anima (fr. 140 C?be = 132 ?.). It cannot
be excluded, however, that this line formed part of the song of the galli. The
reconstruction of the satire is discussed in detail by C?be (1977, 543-65, 748-54).
For a helpful brief account see Wiseman 1985, 204-5, 269-72, who argues (rightly,
I think) that the satire is not set in Greece (as C?be believes), but in Rome.
54) See Bremmer 2004, 558. Add Met Her. 4.62, ThyiU. AP 7.223 = 364-71 FGE
(Thyillus was active at Rome in the 60s; see Wiseman 1974, 145-6), and perhaps

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 611

he also discussed the cult of the Mater Magna in his An

Rerum Dwinarum.00) Philodemus devoted at least two epigra
but also paid attention to them in his philosophical wor
treatise On Music he noted that the sounds of cymbals
bourines confuse the mind especially in 'women and w
men'.56) Galli also appeared on the stage. There were fabula
called Megalensia, and there was a mime called Galli (ev
that might have been about Gauls rather than eunuchs).57)
most interesting testimony is an anecdote told by Suetoniu
life of Augustus; the context is young Octavian's reput
effeminacy:

populus quondam uniuersus ludorum die et accepit in con

eius et adsensu m?ximo conprobauit uersum in scaena pron
de gallo Matris Deum tympanizante: "uidesne ut cinaedu
digito temp?r?t?" (68)
'one day at the games the entire populace took as an insu
and at the same time approved with loud cheers a verse
the theatre about a eunuch of the Mother of the Gods pl
tambourine: "Do you see how the catamite with his finge
the drum/the world?'" [playing on a double meaning of
orb?]

The verse (which might be from afabula palliata, a togata or a mime)58)

calls the gallus a cinaedus, i.e. someone playing the passive role in
sex between men. The idea that galli were cinaedi could easily arise,

Eryc. AP 6.234 = 2256-61 GPh (Erucius was a contemporary?and wrote an epi-

gram (AP 7.368 = 2232-7 GPh) on a woman called Atthis who came to Cyzicus?, but
was not certainly active at Rome; see GPh 2.278-9).
55) Cf. Men. fr. 79 C?be = B. (Cycnus), 358 C?be = 364 ?. ("???? ???a?) and
perhaps 540 C?be = B. (Testamentum). Ant. Rer. Div.: see esp. fr. 267 Cardauns
(August. CD. 7.24), partly quoted below; in this passage the galli are mentioned,
although Augustine asserts in the sequel that Varr? nowhere wrote de mollibus... Mata
Magnae. . . consecratis (7.26), just as he did not mention Attis (7.25).
56) Epigrams: AP 7.222 = 3320-7 GPh = 33 Sider (discussed above), Hor. S.
1.2.120-2. On Music: p. 49 K.:... mi ta?ta ???a??a? ?? ?p? t? p??? ?a? ???a?[??de??
??d?a? suppl. B?cheier]. Philodemus also discussed Cybele in the second part of
On Piety (p. 19 G, Henrichs 1972, 84-5).
57) Megalensia: Afranius 219-20 CRF\ Atta 10-1 CRF\ Galli: Laberius 49-50
CRF2 ? 63-4 Bon. Bonaria only considers the possibility that the play was on
Gauls, but the topic of squandering one's patrimony, with which the fragment is
concerned, might be relevant to the mendicant existence of galli (cf. below).
58) As noted by Ribbeck in his annotation (pall. inc. 62, p. 122 CRF2; it is^r.
dub. 213 in Bonaria). A scene from New Comedy in which a man plays the tarn-

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612 RUURD R. NAUTA

and is often exploited in satirical c

graphic description of the sexual prac
the Dea Syria (calling them cinaedi)
exploited in Catullus' poem, and wil
readers' interpretation, apart perhaps
the abandonment of the 'active' male sexual role.
But the verse quoted by Suetonius is relevant in another respect
too, and that is the implied allegorisation of the tympanum. The
theatre audience took the word orbis, meant to denote the disc-
shaped drum, as referring to the world, and they will have been
the more ready to do so, if they were familiar with an allegorical
interpretation of the cult of the Mater Magna in which the tam-
bourine represented the orbis terrae. Precisely such an interpretation
was discussed by Varr? according to St. Augustine (CD. 7.24):60)
eandem (seil. Tellurem) dicunt Matrem Magnam; quod tympanum
habeat, significan esse orbem terrae (Ant. Rer. Diu. fr. 267 Cardauns)
They also call her (Earth) the Great Mother; and the tambourine
she holds signifies (according to them) that she is the world'

Varr? goes on to explain other features of the representation of the

Great Mother, systematically developing her identity with the earth.
She is depicted with a mural crown, because the earth bears cities.
The galli are castrated in order to teach that whoever lacks seed,
should follow the earth, and they dance in order to demonstrate
the incessant activity of those who cultivate the earth; their music
symbolises the clashing of agricultural implements. And the tame
lions in the service of the goddess (which we already encountered
in Catullus) are also specifically connected with agriculture:

bourine is depicted in a famous mosaic from Pompeii (Charitonidis et al. 1970,

pi. 6.2); this mosaic is close to one from the House of Menander at Mytilene (ibid.,
pi. 6.1), which illustrates the Theophoroumene (a comedy which in all probability fea-
tured a hymn to Cybele), but there the instrument sometimes identified as a tam-
bourine is more likely to be a cymbal; see Charitonidis et al. 1970, 46-9.
59) Galli as cinaedi: PI. Poen. 1317-8, Mart. 9.2.13. Satirical contexts: e.g. Mart.
3.81, Juv. 2.110-6, Apul. Met. 8.24-6, 29 (cf. [Luc] Asm. 35-6, 38); dnaedus: 8.24.2,
26.2 (and ???a?d?? passim in Ann).
60) J. Schmidt (1990, 126-30) argues that a similar allegorisation of the tym-
panum must have stood in a lacuna before Lucr. 2.601, but he takes insufficient
account of the arguments of Bailey (ad loc.) against the existence of such a lacuna.

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 613

leonem, inquit, adiungunt solutum ac mansuetum, ut ostenda

lum genus esse terrae tarn remotum ac uehementer ferum, q
subigi colique conueniat. (ibid.)
'And a lion (he says) is placed beside her, unleashed and
order to show that there is no kind of earth so remote o
wild that it is not suitable to be subdued and cultivated.'

Comparable interpretations of the cult of the Mater Magna are

given by other authors, but without Varro's emphasis on agricul-
ture. The Stoic Annaeus Cornutus, who in the first century CE (but
using older sources) wrote a textbook on the allegorical interpreta-
tion of the Greek myths, refers the cult to natural phenomena, e.g.
explaining the sounds of cymbals and tympana as representing thun-
der.61) Ovid, on the other hand, in his description of the Megalesia
in the Fasti, prefers mythological explanations: the self-castration of
the galli is in memory of the mythical Attis (4.221-46), and their
music evokes the story about the birth of Zeus from the Cretan
goddess Rhea (who had long been identified with Phrygian Cybele):
in order to hide the existence of the boy from his father Cronus
(who was intent on devouring him), armed young men, Curet?s or
Corybantes, drowned his wailing by making raucous noises with
their weapons (193-214).62) But Ovid is close to Varr? in his inter-
pretation of Cybele's mural crown (the earth gave towers to the
first cities: 219-21) and her lions (testifying to f entas molata, 'fierceness
mollified': 215-8). Quite similar allegorisations are to be found in
Lucretius, and his text needs to be considered somewhat more
closely, because it is highly relevant (I will suggest) to the interpre-
tation of Catullus.

61) ND 6 (p. 5.9-6.19 L.). On Cornutus and his sources see J. Schmidt 1990,
131-40 (who follows Boyanc? (1941, 155-6, 160-1 = 1972, 214-5, 219-20) in believ-
ing in a common source for Cornutus and Lucretius), and more in general Ramelli
2003.
62) For the syncretism between the (Cretan) Curet?s and the (Phrygian) Corybantes,
concurrent with that between Rhea and Cybele, cf. Borner and Fantham ad 210,
with refs. The temple of the Mater Magna on the Palatine as restored by Augustus
had akroteria in the form of armed Corybantes/Curetes, as is shown by its depic-
tion on a relief in the Villa Medici in Rome (formerly believed to belong to an
'Ara Pietatis Augustae'); see e.g. Vermaseren 1977, pi. 33 (and cf. also the statue
base from Sorrento: ibid. pi. 59). Martial mentions a Cybeles picto . . . Corybante tho-
lus (1.70.10), which may or may not be identical with the temple on the Palatine;
see Pensabene 1996, 206-8.

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 614 RUURD R. NAUTA

In his second book, Lucretius explai

within itself all the seeds for the vario
(rivers, volcanoes, crops, etc.), and is f
other things) Magna Deum Mater (588
is unexpected, but it gives Lucretius th
sus on the cult of this goddess. He be
pretations of ueteres Graium dodi. . . po
of the Greeks' (600). The reference is
was itself allegorical, but rather to the
poetry as it was practised by philosophe
Such allegoresis was firmly rejected by
introduces it here only to reject it a
can be seen to develop an emphasis of
to his Roman audience. Thus in reporti
of the lions he writes:

adiunxere feras, quia quamuis effera proles

officiis d?bet mollili uicta parentum. (604-5)
They have yoked in wild beasts, because any offspring however wild
ought to be softened and vanquished by the kindly acts of the par-
ents.' (tr. W.H.D. Rouse and M.F. Smith)

Varro's agricultural orientation is here replaced by a moral one: it

is not land that is shown to be subject to cultivation, but people.
Children have a duty to reciprocate the care bestowed upon them
by their parents. Lucretius here introduces the central Roman value
of pietas.
After explaining the mural crown more or less as do the other
authors (606-7), Lucretius continues:
quo nunc insigni per magnas praedita terras
horrifice fertur diuinae Matris imago. (608-9)
'which emblem now adorns the divine Mother's image as she is car-
ried over the great earth in awful state.' (tr. W.H.D. Rouse and M.F.
Smith)

63) SeeJ. Schmidt 1990, 125-6, 135-40.

64) The reconstruction of Lucretius' intentions in the excursus is difficult and
contested; see e.g. West 1969, 103-14, Schrijvers 1970, 50-9, Jope 1985, J. Schmidt
1990, 113-44, Gale 1994, 27-32, Craca 2000.

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 615

Here the syntactical dependence on the utterances of

poets is broken, and Lucretius adds in his own name t
the Great Mother is carried around in processions. He
these processions take place per magnas. . . terras, 'throug
lands' (and later magnas. . .per urbes, 'through the great c
but the most relevant procession for Lucretius and h
would be that taking place in Rome during the festival of
Mother, the Megalesia, in April. This procession is the s
section of Ovid's Fasti (4.179-372), and the correspondence
the two accounts suggest that most of what Lucretius descr
be seen in the streets of Rome.65) In any case this hol
galli, who also feature prominendy in the account of O
221-44), and whom both poets call the comit?s of the g
does Catullus.66) Lucretius offers an interpretation of
castration which he does not attribute to the Greek po
uariae gentes, 'various peoples' who practise the rites (610),
one supposes, the Romans. This suggests that his audien
only familiar with the phenomena that he describes, but
the interpretations of these phenomena that he reports. A
holds for Lucretius' audience must also hold for Catullus'
Lucretius explains the self-castration of the galli as follo
Gallos attribuunt, quia, numen qui uiolarint
Marris et ingrati genitoribus inuenti sint,
significare uolunt indignos esse putandos,
uiuam progeniem qui in oras luminis edant. (614-7)
'They give her eunuchs, as wishing to indicate that those
violated the majesty of the Mother, and have been found un
to their parents, should be thought unworthy to bring living
into the regions of light.' (tr. W.H.D. Rouse and M.F. Sm

The violation of the majesty of the Mother has been

reference to a story about Attis' infidelity, such as tol

65) Cf. also D.H. 2.19.3-5, quoted below (section 4). For Roman
Lucretius' excursus see esp. Summers 1996 (against i.a. J. Schmidt (1
66) Lucretius: 612, 628; cf. 640. Ovid: Fast. 4.185, 212, 341. Catu
27. Also Maec. fr. 6 FLP (Courtney) = FPD. Note Paul, ex Fest. p
qui uocantur Matris Magnae comit?s.
67) This means that the reconstruction I am offering is not depen
hypothesis that Catullus' audience knew (a version of) the De rerum n
must remain uncertain.

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 616 RUURD R. NAUTA

but the plural ('those who') rather sug

ceived as the protectress of the pietas
ents, in accordance with the interpre
the lions.68) Such a reading is support
pietas somewhat later, where it is e
weapons:69)

telaque praeportant, uiolenti signa furoris,

ingratos ?nimos atque impia pectora uolgi
conterrere metu quae possint numine diuae. (621-3)
'martial arms show a front of violent fury, that they may amaze the
ungrateful minds and impious hearts of the vulgar with fear through
the goddess's majesty.' (tr. W.H.D. Rouse and M.F. Smith)

In these two passages we find the same close connection between

the sexual and the social order that we found in Catullus: in Catullus
the castrated Attis regretted his parents (59) and his patria (49, 50,
55, 59), in Lucretius lack of gratia towards one's parents and lack
of gratia and of pietas more generally is said to deserve castration.
That this lack of pietas also includes the patria is suggested by the
end of Lucretius' description, devoted to a band of armed young
men making loud noises by clashing their weapons. Lucretius states
that 'the Greeks' (Grai, 629) have this refer to the story of the birth
of Zeus that we already encountered in Ovid,70) but he then adds
another possibility:

aut quia significant diuam praedicere ut armis

ac uirtute uelint patriam defendere terram
praesidioque parent decorique parentibus esse. (641-3)
'or else because they indicate the command of the goddess that with

68) Cf. Bailey ad loc. Boyanc? (1941, 152-6 = 1972, 210-5), followed by
J. Schmidt (1990, 133), argues that the reference is to a story, attested in a late
source (S Luc. JTr 8, p. 60 R.), that Attis was the son of Cybele and tried to
rape his mother, and that the punishment of the galli is for incestuous passion.
But that crime seems hardly widespread enough to explain Lucretius' generalising
plural. Sharpies (1985) quotes evidence ([Plu.] Fluv. 9.5, [Arist.] Mir. 162, 846b3-
6) that Cybele was associated with e?s??e?a towards parents in the region of Mt
Sipylon (I could not procure the article and am dependent on the summary in
J. Schmidt 1990, 134).
69) These are probably the knives with which they gash themselves: see above,
n. 44.
70) In Ovid the story is an aetiology of the music of tambourines and cymbals
(as is the armed dance of the Argonauts in A.R. 1.1134-9), and it may have been

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 617

arms and valour they be ready to defend their native land,

be both protection and pride to their parents.' (tr. W.H.D.
and M.F. Smith)

Pietas towards parents and fatherland belongs together, and

castrated state of the galli may be interpreted as a punishme
the failure to fulfil one's duties towards both. In Catullus
the relationship of cause and effect is reversed: Attis first ca
himself, and then he realises that he is forever removed f
parents and his fatherland. Yet an audience familiar with
gorisation such as Lucretius' may well have realised that Atti
never have had to regret his condition if he had not aba
his patria in the first place. Such a sentiment is articulated in
ment from a Menippean satire by Varr?, the Z?# Maenia:71)
si qui patriam, id est maiorem parentem, extinguit, in eo es
quod facit pro sua parte is qui se eunuchat aut alioqui liberos
producit (fr. 236 C?be = 235 ?.)
'If someone annihilates his fatherland, i.e. his greater paren
guilty; and this is what is done for his part by someone who ca
himself or otherwise does not produce children*

Self-castration is here seen as forsaking one's duty to one's f

land, and Catullus' Roman audience must have felt that
what is done for his part by Attis.
There is yet another feature of Lucretius' description of th
that is relevant to a reconstruction of the meanings attac
Catullus' audience to the Attis poem. According to Lucre
soon as the goddess is carried in procession, the spectators be
the road with copper and silver (624-8), largifica stipe ditantes,
ing her with generous alms' (627). In practice, of course, i
galli rather than the Mother herself who are enriched. Th
ation o? galli with mendicancy was deeply entrenched in the
world.72) In Greek they were often called ??t?a???ta? or

thus in Lucretius' Grai. The armed dancers seem different from the unm
(cf. Verg. A. 9.620 unite arma uiris, discussed below, section 4), but Cr
84-93) argues for identity; Bellandi (1975) proposes that they were in fa
ers of BeDona (for the syncretism of the two cults cf. ?. 44 and 46).
71) The fragment was adduced by Ellis (1889, 269 ad 49). On text an
pretation see the editions of Astbury and C?be (1985, 1086-7, 1102-9)
mentioned in the same satire at fr. 235 C?be = 238 ?.
72) See Graillot 1912, 312-6, Sanders 1972, 1016-7. Mendicancy is often implied

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 618 RUURD R. NAUTA

????ta?, 'beggars of the Mother'. They

countryside, begging for alms in exchan
and the giving of prophecies; a vivid
impression is given by Apuleius' story
Goddess.73) But also the galli attached
Magna in Rome went out to beg, as
them during the Megalesia?which is pr
describes.74) So Catullus' Roman audienc
life as a gallus with mendicancy, and w
this in Attis' regret for his bona, his
comes immediately after his regret for
the sexual and the social order also e
nomic order.

4. The Cult of Cybele and Roman Identity

In my discussion until now, I have argued that Catullus' Roman

audience saw his Attis as a gallus, a eunuch servant of the Mater
Magna, and that they associated galli with behaviour (self-castration,
abandonment of parents and fatherland, beggary) in conflict with
their own norms and values. But I have also had occasion to men-
tion that the Mater Magna was honoured by official ludi, the Ludi
Megalenses or Megale(n)sia; in addition to the procession that I
have been discussing, these ludi comprised sacrifices, banquets, the-
atrical performances and chariot races, and were characterised by
Cicero as maxime casti, sollemnes, religiosi, 'to a high degree chaste,
solemn, religious' (Har. 24).75) So there was an ambivalence at the

even where it is not explicitly mentioned; cf. e.g. Petr. 117.3 (with Tandoi 1992;
a reference I owe to Mario Labate), Tib. 1.4.67-70 (with Murgatroyd ad loc), and
Call. fr. 193.34-39 Pf. (where Kerkhecker (1999, 79-80) sees the economic refer-
ence, but connects it with 'the wealth of the Galli' (quoting Rhet. Her. 4.62) rather
than their poverty).
73) Apul. Met. 8.24-9.10 - [Luc] Ann. 35-41; cf. Phdr. 4.1 and Babr. 141; both
the Onos and Babrius call the galli ????ta?. In one of the Greek epigrams on the
gallus and the lion (above, n. 42) the gallus is called a ??t??? a???t?? (Alc.Mess.
?? 6.218.1 = 134 HE).
74) See Cic. Leg. 2.22, 40, Ov. Fast. 4.350, Pont. 1.1.40 (all these texts use the
same word stips as does Lucretius) and D.H. 2.19.4-5 (here the verb ??t?a???te??
is used).
75) For a brief account of the Megalesia see Scullard 1981, 97-101. Cicero of

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 619

heart of the cult, which was on the one hand a tradition

cult, and on the other hand exhibited disturbingly 'un-Roma
tices.76) The ambivalence was articulated by Dionysius of Halic
a Greek writing the history of Rome in the early Augustan
in a well-known passage:
e? t??a ?at? ???s???? ?pe?s????et? ?e??, t??? ea?t?? a?t? t??? (seil
???????? ?pasa? ???a???sa te???e?a? ???????, ?spe? ta t?? ?da?
?e??. T?s?a? ??? ??? a?t? ?a? a???a? ????s?? ??? p?? ?t?? oi st
?at? t??? '???a??? ??????, ?e??ta? d? a?t?? ???? F??? ?a? ????
?a? pe??????s?? ??? t?? p???? ??t?? ??t?a???t???te?, ?spe? a?t?
t?p??? te pe???e??e??? t??? st??es? ?a? ?ata?????e??? p??? t?? ep?
ta ??t?fa ???? ?a? t??pa?a ???t???te?? '???a??? d? t?? a????e
??t?a???t?? t?? ??te ?ata?????e??? p??e?eta? d?a t?? p??e?? p
??ded???? st???? ??te ??????e? t?? ?e?? t??? F??????? ????as?
????? ?a? ??f?s?a ??????. (2.19.3-5)
'Any rites Rome has introduced in response to oracles, such as
of the Idaean Goddess, she celebrates according to her own
tions, rejecting all fabulous claptrap. The annual sacrifices and
that the praetors hold for the Goddess are according to the
Rome. Her priest and priestess, however, are Phrygians; it
who carry her through the city, begging alms in her name as
custom is, wearing pectoral images and beating tambourines as
acolytes play the Mother's hymns for them on the pipes. B
contrary to the law and the senate's decree that any native
should process in a spangled robe begging alms to the musi
pipes, or celebrate the Goddess's orgies in the Phrygian manne
Wiseman 1984, 117)

Somewhat earlier (2.19.2) Dionysius had said that Rome

?e?f???se??, ?? ?????a?t?as????, ??? ????????, etc., 'no e
transports, no Corybantic frenzies, no begging under the co
religion' (tr. Spelman-Cary), but he is refuted by his own st
on the Megalesia, where he explicidy speaks of ??t?a???te
ging alms') and where the 'ecstatic transports' and 'Corybant
zies' are implied by the mention of the music of tambour
flutes and the use of the words ??????e?? and ????as???.

course had an axe to grind (the games of 56 had been disturbed by C

Wiseman 1974, 159-69), but his utterance must have been credible to
torial) audience.
76) This has been well discussed by Wiseman (1984) and (for the E
Beard (1994).
77) Wiseman (1984, 117 with n. 4) refers to Men. Theoph. 25-8. Add the hymn

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 620 RUURD R. NAUTA

Dionysius must have known the galli, e

them, and even though he claims tha
such stories as the castration of Uranus
Even if the ecstatic rites of the Mater
eigners, they still occurred within th
festival.79)
The ambivalences inherent in the cu
also to be seen in Vergil's Aeneid. Th
role in the epic, in accordance with the
given to her by Augustus, who built h
her temple on the Palatine (and rebu
destroyed by fire in 3 CE).80) At one
compare the future city of Rome, felix
offspring of men', to the Mother of the
in her progeny of gods' (6.783-7), thus
some of these men (Romulus, Caesar
or are destined to become gods.81) E
mentions Cybele as a characteristica
derives her and her Corybants from C
cretism with Rhea and the Curet?s). He
out the epic connected with her suppor
she allows Aeneas to construct his ships
pines on Mt Ida, and obtains from Jup
are changed into sea-nymphs, who th
dangers threatening him; Aeneas respo

to Cybele that should probably be assigned to

read of ?????a?te? (8), t??pa?a (11) and a??e?
278-80.
78) Note Corn. ND 6: ? t?? ?????? . . . pa?ed??a t??a t? t????t?? ??fa????sa,
?p???? ?a? pa?? t??? "????s? pe?? t?? t?? ???a??? ??t???? ?e???e?ta? (?. 6.16-
9 L.).
79) I have purposefully limited myself to the Megalesia. According to Wiseman
(1985, 203, n. 86), Fasce (1978) argues "convincingly" that certain rites in hon-
our of Attis, which are attested only in the Empire (see Vermaseren 1977, 113-
24, Lightfoot 2003, 500-1, with refs.), were already practised privately during the
Republic (but see against: Summers 1996, 355-8). I could not procure Fasce's book
in Holland, but in any case these rites concern the death (and resurrection) of
Attis, of which there is no hint in Catullus' poem.
80) See Wiseman 1984, Becher 1991 (who also discusses the treatment of the
cult of Cybele in the other Augustan poets).
81) See Norden ad 784.

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 621

he asks the alma parens Idaea deum to protect her 'Phrygi

Trojans are regularly called in the Aeneid).*2)
Yet the adversaries of Aeneas have a different view o
or rather of the Trojans as servants of Cybele. The Numid
characterises Aeneas as ilk Paris cum semiuiro comitatu (4.2
comitatu evokes the word comit?s regularly used of the gall
uiro means not just 'effeminate', but specifically 'castrated'
uses the same adjective to refer to Aeneas himself (12.9
most elaborate statement is put into the mouth of Numanu

O uere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges, ite per alta

Dindyma, ubi adsuetis biforem dat tibia cantum.
Tympana uos buxusque uocat Berecyntia Matris
Idaeae; sinite arma uiris et cedite ferro. (9.617-20)
? you who are really Phrygian women, not Phrygian men
the heights of Mt Dindymon, where the double pipe sou
familiar tunes. The tambourines call you and the Berecyn
wood of the Idaean Mother. Leave weapons to the men an
iron.'84)

Even if this is the tendentious utterance of an adversary (and even

if it is immediately refuted by Ascanius' killing of that adversary),85)
orgiastic effeminacy is still presented as a component, or at least a
possible component, of Trojan, and hence of Roman identity. In
that respect it is relevant that at the very end of the Aeneid Jupiter

82) Construction of the ships: 9.80-9 (cf. 3.5-6; the beak of Aeneas' own ship
carries the images of Ida and of Cybele's lions: 10.156-8); transformation: 9.90-
122, 10.219-28; warning: 10.228-45; Aeneas' prayer: 10.251-5; alma parens Idaea
deum of course paraphrases the official cult tide Mater Deum Magna Idaea; cf. ?. 19.
Another prayer at 7.139. Cf. also 2.788, where Creusa is whisked away by the
magna deum genetrix.
83) Comit?s: ?. 66. Semiuir. the word appears for the first time in Varr?, with
reference to the galli: Men. fr. 140 C?be = 132 B. (cf. further OLD s.v.). Ovid calls
the galli semimares (Fast. 4.183).
84) Cedite ferro may carry a hint of castration (Horsfall [1971] 1990, 307, Dingel
ad loc.)\ Hardie (ad loc.) refers to Catul. 66.47 cum ferro talia c?dant, with reference
to Berenice's hair. But it may be doubted whether the self-castration of galli was
associated with iron: it was normally carried out by a sharp stone (acuto . . . silice
in Catullus (5), saxo . . . acuto of Attis in Ov. Fast. 4.237) or a potsherd (e.g. Lucil.
fr. 280-1 M., M. Caelius according to Plin. Mt. 35.165, Mart. 3.81.3, Juv. 6.514),
although knives are also mentioned and iron is even specified at Mart. 2.45.2 (cf.
Stat. Theb. 12.227, discussed above); see Graillot 1912, 296, Sanders 1972, 1004,
Bremmer 2004, 559 with nn. 121-2.
85) On the significance of Ascanius1 reaction see Hardie ad 621-71.

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622 RUURD R. NAUTA

grants Juno's request that in mixing w

may lose their uox and uestis, and th
powerful through Itala uirtus (12.821-4
tory, and particularly in the time that
the anxiety of moral decay through the
ental' luxury.86)
Now it is very significant that the
refer back to the poem of Catullus: i
Attis' exhortation to his companions: a
nemora simul, / simul ite, Dindymenae do
the heights, gallae, together to Cybele'
dering sheep of the mistress of Dind
is located in the region of Mt Ida, i.e
Attis has taken upon himself the role t
out for the Trojans. Would Catullus'
read his treatment of the cult of the M
course about Roman national identity?
regarded the Mater Magna as a godd
the place of origin of the Romans. It
indeed the case, but some qualificatio
The Mater Magna was brought to Rom
in 204 BCE, with the co-operation of Ki
But in the story as told by Ovid in t
dess comes from Mt Ida (264), and A
over is that in Phrygios Roma refertur
Phrygian ancestors' (272). A ship is bui
trees that have been used for the fle
goddess finally follows her ward to Lat
to do (251-4). The story is clearly desig
Mater Magna is an ancestral goddess
be said that in all other versions no mention at all is made of

86) For the connection of the passage with the Roman discourse on decay see
Horsfall [1971] 1990, 311.
87) The main source is Liv. 29.10.4-11.8, 14.5-14; Var. L 6.15 claims that the
stone representing the goddess came from Pergamum itself. For detailed discus-
sion see Gruen 1990, 5-33, Roller 1999, 263-85, and Erskine 2001, 205-24; cf.
also Bremmer 2004, 557-8.

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 623

Troy.88) It seems that Ovid has introduced the Trojan

from Vergil, by way of associating the ships of Aeneas
by Cybele, with the ship that carried Cybele herself. Yet,
dess had her temple on the Palatine, a place strongly
with the origins of Rome, and her name had been Mater I
the beginning.89) This tide is also to be found in Lucr
repeatedly in Cicero,90) and we may conclude that the i
Trojan origin of the goddess was available in the time o
and could well have been triggered in the mind of his a
his poem.
Connected with this is the question in how far the Trojan ori-
gins of the Romans formed part of the Roman collective con-
sciousness before Vergil made them central to his conception of the
Aeneid. It has been argued that even in the Late Republic, they were
hardly important (being almost absent, e.g., from Cicero's volumi-
nous writings), and in any case subordinate to the foundation story
of Romulus and Remus.91) But on the other hand, the Late Republic
was a period in which the idea was being put to new uses. Julius
Caesar had started to assert his descent from Venus (through Aeneas)
as early as 68 BCE, when he delivered the funeral oration on his
aunt Julia; the culmination of this policy was the dedication, in 46
BCE, of the temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum Julium.92) But
the Julii were not the only family to assert Trojan descent, and in
the 40s Varr? was to compile four books Defamiliis Troianis, which

88) The only exception is the third-century CE Greek historian Herodian, who
has the Romans motivate their request to 'the Phrygians' (Attalus is not men-
tioned) from s?????e?a? . . . ?a? t?? ?p' ???e??? t?? F????? e? a?t??? d?ad????
(1.11.3). Gruen (1990, 15-9) supposes that Ovid's story is substantially correct, but
cf. the scepsis of Erskine (2001, 205-24), who argues that the Trojan connection
was only used in Rome's 'kinship diplomacy' with King Attalus and played no
significant role in Rome itself.
89) On the meaning of the Palatine location see Wiseman 1984, 123-7; on the
name Mater Idaea see above, section 1.
90) Lucretius: 2.611. Cicero: Ver. 5.186, Har. 22, Leg. 2.22, 40; cf. Fin. 5.22,
Sen. 45.
91) Erskine 2001, 15-43. The only Trojan references in Cicero are Ver. 4.72
and Div. 4.72 (both on Aeneas).
92) A brief survey in Erskine 2001, 19, with refs. Caesar also celebrated the
Megalesia with particular splendour when curule aedile in 65, according to Cassius
Dio (37.8.1). It has been proposed (Boyanc? 1954, 340 = 1972, 198-9, taking up

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 624 RUURD R. NAUTA

doubdess reflected an interest that had

ing decades.93) One of the families conce
and it was to honour the aspirations to
icatee Memmius that Lucretius began h
Venus Aeneadum genetrix. So precisely a
there was renewed interest in the Troj
But in the poems of Catullus himself, T
reason: it is the place where his brothe
In poem 68 this is given a mythical
with the Trojan war:
Troia (nefas!) commune sepulcrum Asi
Troia uirum et uirtutum omnium ac
Troy (horror!), common grave of Euro
Troy, bitter ash of men and every ma

Read together with poem 63, these w

the theme of the loss of physical and m
to show in the previous section that
in poem 63 a comment on the typica
spite of the emphatically Greek setting
gested that that audience may also h
ing to their concerns about Roman n
read by Vergil, and in Catullus' time
Romans was sufficiendy established t
even then. For a Greek Hellenistic po
barbaric wildness, contrasted with Gree

a suggestion by P. Lambrechts) that this was t

had in common with the Mater Magna, but th
tain, as Dio mentions the Ludi Romani in th
not connect a portent involving the statue of
suggests).
93) See Erskine 2001, 34-5, with refs.
94) 65.8, 68.99-100. In poem 101, Multas per gentes et multa per aequora uectus, the
Trojan setting is not mentioned, but evoked by the intertextual reference to the
Odyssey (see Conte 1974, 6-7, 11, ?. 18).
95) Some very brief remarks to this effect are to be found in Beard, North, and
Price 1998, 165.
96) On the Trojans being called 'Phrygians' in connection with their represen-
tation as barbarians see Hall 1989, 38-9, Erskine 2001, 73-5, 256-7.

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 CATULLUS 63 IN A ROMAN CONTEXT 625

Phrygia was a component of their ethnic identity. But this c

nent was charged with ambivalence, being associated with
the symbol o? pietas (the Phryx pius, as Ovid calls him: Fast.
but also with the mythological Attis (the Phryx puer. ibid. 2
with the galli, punished for lack of pietas by the loss of man
both physically and socially.97) Even though Catullus5 poe
tains no Roman references, it still was highly meaningf
Roman audience.

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen,
Afdeling Griekse en Romeinse Studies
R.R.Nauta@let.rug.nl

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