Mentula in Catullus 114 and 115

Catullus 114 and 115 slyly subvert surface praise of Mamurra’s Firmian estate and suggest numerous criticisms of the owner. I show how puns, etymological plays, semantic multivalence, figures of speech, and metrical effects imply trenchant sarcasm. The word modo, linking the profligacy of the man with the questionable merits of his estate, prepares for the transformation of Mentula to the common noun mentula in an ironic twist on the function of the phallus in priapic poetry. These epigrams look back to poems 43 and 44: Mentula’s aggressiveness toward Catullus is now repaid, with this adversary silenced forever in the text.