Weaving Time: Ariadne and the Argo in Catullus, C. 64

Abstract

A reader of Catullus’s c. 64 is in for a perplexing, if captivating, experience. The poem, his longest by far, is often called an epyllion, or miniature epic.1 It opens with the voyage of the Argo, designated as the first ship at 64.11: illa rudem cursu prima imbuit Amphitriten (She first inaugurated inexperienced Amphitrite [i.e. the ocean] with her journey).2 After nymphs marvel at the innovative vessel (15–18), the narrative pivots to the wedding of the Argonaut Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis (19–49), which is itself interrupted by a lengthy ekphrasis of a tapestry showing Ariadne abandoned by Theseus (50–266). While describing the tapestry, the narrator recounts how Ariadne helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth by betraying her father, thus causing the death of her Minotaur half-brother (71–123). Ariadne’s ensuing complaint and curse are provided in direct speech (132–201), followed by their outcome in the death of Theseus’s father Aegeus (241–250). The description of the tapestry concludes with the arrival of Bacchus as Ariadne’s future husband (251– 264). Finally, the speaker returns to the opening narrative frame of Peleus and Thetis’s wedding, which is celebrated by the gods (269–302). The Parcae spin wool while performing a wedding song for the couple which predicts the birth of their son, Achilles (303–383). In the concluding lines of the poem, the narrator laments the end of the era when gods and mortals socialized together (384–408). The poem’s convoluted and counterintuitive narrative structure can at least be understood and charted.3 Its mythical chronology, on the