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420 LEITERS IN CANADA 1997 The commentary occupies the bulk of the book, and it constitutes an·eagerly awaited complement to the critical text. The modem student of Catullus has relied principally on the very different commentaries by Kroll, Fordyce, and Quinn. Thomson has not simply taken over material collected by earlier commentators, but rather, for the most part, has preferred to build on their work. This practice has undoubtedly prevented an already big book from becoming even bigger, but there are times when one regrets the omission of some illustrative material. In general, however, Thomson is a most reliable and sympathetic guide to the poet. In addition to issues of text, he is especially concerned with matters of language and structure. It would be an easy task to compile a long list of points of interest, but one example must suffice here, the closing lines of poem J, which was written on the death of the pet sparrow of the poet's mistress (lines 13-18): at uobis male sit, malae tenebrae Orci, quae omnia bella deuorastis: tam bellum mihi passerem abstulistis · (o factum male! o miselle passer!); uestra nunc opera meae puellae flendo turgiduli rubent ocelli. In these lines Thomson departs from his earlier edition by offering a different choice of readings in line 17, and by incorporating a rethinking of the punctuation of line 16. The long note on lines 15-17 presents a meticulous defence of this text, first establishing 'uestra' (instead of the familiar 'tua') as a reading with manuscript authority, then showing that line 16 is most fruitfully and naturally nnderstood as a parenthesis embodying the poet's emotional outburst, and finally arguing persuasively that the girl's eyes are red with weeping because of the activity of the shades of Orcus ('uestra opera'), not the sparrow itself. Here a well-known poem appears in a new light and this is characteristic of the very considerable achievement of this edition. Thomson has made a significant contribution to the study of Latin poetry by producing a freshly considered and sharply illuminated text ofCatullus that is founded upon the sound practice of philology. (CHRISTOPHER G. BROWN) M. Owen Lee. The Olive-Tree Bed and Other Quests University of Toronto Press. xiC 174· $18.95 M. Owen Lee examines in separate chapters Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Wagner's Parsifal, and Goethe's Faust, and finds in each the theme of the heroic 'quest.' Using Jungian archetypes, Lee reads each text as a HUMANITIES 421 voyage of self-discovery into the regions of the 'collective unconscious.' Particular attention is paid to the symbols of the successful quest Odysseus 's olive-tree bed, the golden bough which allows Aeneas to enter the underworld, Parsifal's holy grail, and Faust's 'eternal feminine.' Lee mixes commentary on the texts with fragmented tales from his own life. We find out, for example, about his voyages through Europe in search of geographical referents for the fictional stories in the texts. He self-consciously juxtaposes his own intellectual and spiritual development as a scholar and ~professional Christian' (Lee is a Catholic priest) with the quests of the fictional heroes. As Lee admits, this is not a scholarly work. He spends considerable time reacquainting us with the plots, and highlights those aspects of the stories his Jungian framework suggests. Occasional asides comment, in a somewhat old-fashioned way, on the aesthetic merit of particular passages; rarely is there much argument for why these aesthetic judgments should be trusted. The effect is to provide a sight-seeing tour of the literature; the author acts as the tour guide who is responsible for showing us the highlights. Lee's Jungian framework often seems to be in fundamental tension with the authentically liberal and generous critical spirit which pervades the book. He tries to emphasize the individuality of the quest that each of us undertakes, but such individuality rests uneasily with the central Jungian notion of a collective unconscious, and the supposed {archetypes' which define it. The author never questions his theory, but it is hard not to recall the precise way Freud differed from Jung on these theoretical grounds. For Freud, any notion of...

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