Catullus 13: A nose is a nose is a nose

Helena Dettmer: Catullus 1375 Catullus 13: A nose is a nose is a nose Helena Dettmer Cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus, si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam cenam, non sine candida puella et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.5 haec si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster, cenabis bene; nam tui Catulli plenus sacculus est aranearum. sed contra accipies meros amores seu quid suavius elegantiusve est:10 nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque, quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis, totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum. "You will dine in style, dearest Fabullus, at my house in—if the gods are on your side—a day or soif you bring with you an expensive dinner and plenty of it And by the way don't forget a gorgeous girl, wine and wit and every sort oflaughter. I repeat, if you will bring these things, my charming expert on love, you will dine well; for your Catullus' money-purse is full—of cobwebs. As recompense, however, you will receive the essence of love or something sweeter and more exquisite, for I will give to you perfume which came to my lady, contributed by the Venus and Cupid contingent; one whiff of this heaven-s(c)ent, Fabullus, and you will ask the gods to make you an enormous -um, -er, nose." 76Syllecta Classica 1 (1989) Virtually ignored prior to 1975,l Catullus' poem to Fabullus recently has attracted much critical attention. The numerous exegeses that have appeared in the past fifteen years encompass a wide range of subjects, including studies of the poem's humor, structure, irony, purpose, and genre;2 of its relation to Hellenistic antecedents, the opening Lesbia sequence, as well as Poems 13 and 14;3 and of the specific meaning of meos amores and unguentum in verses 9 and ll.4 The broadness of these concerns suggests that C. 13, though ostensibly simple, possesses an underlying complexity. I propose that the poem possesses also an underlying purpose. This essay will examine the connection of Catullus 13 to Philodemus A.P. 11.44. Although it has long been noticed that the dinner invitations to Piso and Fabullus exhibit a thematic affinity,5 the significance of this affinity has not been fully explored. I will show how Catullus, by using the Greek poem as a model, is responding to it and, further, how recognition of the responsive relation heightens the wit and humor of the Latin poem. The important influence that Philodemus of Gadara had on the Latin poets of the first century B.C. is well documented in a 1941 Bryn Mawr dissertation by J.I.M. Tait.6 Poet, Epicurean philosopher, and contemporary of Catullus, Philodemus came to Italy during the 70's B.C. Here his charismatic personality and his facility as an epigrammatist par excellence gained him entree into the circle of Rome's elite and won for him the friendship and patronage of Lucius Calpurnius 1 Even as late as 1981 J.J. Helm observes: "The Fabullus poem of Catullus (c. 13) has been much neglected by scholars" ("Poetic Structure and Humor Catullus 13," CW74 [1980-81J 213). 2 Humor and Structure: Helm (above, note 1); R.L. Fitts, "Reflections on Catullus 13," CW 76 (1982-83) 41-42; and A. Richlin. "Systems of Food Imagery in Catullus," CW 81 (1988) 356-58. Irony: L Gamberale, "Venuste Noster. Caratterizzazione e ironía in Canillo 13," Studi di Poesía Latina in onore di Antonio Traglia vol. 1 (Rome 1979) 127-48. Purpose and Genre: B.Arkins, "Poem 13 of Catullus," 50 54 (1979) 71-80; L. Edmunds, "The Latin InvitationPoem : What Is It? Where Did It Come From?" AJP 103 (1982) 184-88; S.G.P. Small, Catullus: A Reader's Guide to the Poems (Lanham 1983) 12-13; W.H. Bernstein, "A Sense of Taste: Catullus 13," CJ 80 (1985) 127-30; and Richlin, "Systems of Food Imagery" 357. 3 Hellenistic antecedents: M. Carilli, "Le nugae di Catullo e l'epigramma greco," Annali délia Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 5 (1975) 942-45; and M. Marcovich, "Catullus 13 and Philodemus 23," QUCC 11 (1982...