Catullus 60: Lesbia, Medea, Clodia, Scylla

Although Catullus 60 is widely dismissed as an incomplete scrap tacked on to the end of the polymetra, it is a complete and ingenious poem that contains an erudite and punning allusion to Euripides’ Medea, an acrostic and telestic formation, and a Callimachean play on the name Scylla, all of which taken together identify the recipient, Lesbia, as a fellatrix and associate her with the name Metelli. A better appreciation of poem 60 and the thematic cohesion of the final poems of the polymetra, their employment of closural techniques, and indications of structural design modeled on Callimachus and Meleager, show that poem 60 can be read as a devastating farewell to Lesbia and a close to the polymetric collection.