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Nam unguentum dabo: Catullus 13 and Servius’ note on Phaon (Aeneid 3.279)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Ross S. Kilpatrick
Ross S. Kilpatrick
Affiliation:
Queen's University at Kingston
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Extract

Catullus' cunning dinner invitation to Fabullus continues to generate a rich variety of interpretations of its memorable central image, the promised gift of a certain unguentum Veneris (13.12). Three Latomus articles, by Littman, Hallett, and Case, have explored possible origins of and uses for that mysterious substance, suggesting, for example, that it might even contain female secretions with powerful aphrodisiac properties, or some other unmentionable sexual lubricant.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 303 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1998

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References

2 R. J. Littman, ‘The unguent of Venus: Catullus 13’, Latomus 36 (1977), 123–38;Google Scholar‘Divine unction: some further thoughts on Catullus 13’, Latomus 37 (1978), 747–8;Google ScholarCase, B. D., ‘Guess who's coming to dinner: a note on Catullus 13, Latomus 54 (1995), 875–6. For further comment on the literary aspects of Catullus 13, seeGoogle ScholarWilliams, G., Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry (Oxford, 1969), pp. 122, 127, 463.Google ScholarQuinn, K., Catullus. An Interpretation (New York, 1973), pp. 231–2, sees 13 as an invitation to meet Lesbia;Google ScholarGoold, G. P., Catullus (London, 1983), p. 239, reads cenabis bene (1) as a reply to Fabullus' invitation of himself to Catullus' house (comparing Cic. de Or. 2.246 for the formula):‘“My sweetheart‘ must be the Lesbia of happier days’; D. W. T. C. Vessey, ‘Thoughts on two poems of Catullus, 13 and 20’, Latomus 30 (1971), 45–55, at 48, saw the poem as a ‘compliment to Lesbia and her divine beauty’.Google Scholar

3 Merrill, E. T., Catullus (Cambridge, MA, 1893), p. 59: Merrill's view of the tone of 13 is ‘dignity and condescension. The lack of anything but happy feeling in the memory indicates that the poem was written while the love for Lesbia was still untroubled by disagreement of suspicion, therefore about 60 B.C.’CrossRefGoogle ScholarFordyce, C. J., Catullus. A Commentary (Oxford, 1961), p. 133.Google ScholarR. Ellis's support for Lesbia as the puella of 13 (A Commentary on Catullus [2nd edn, Oxford, 1889], p. 48) seems generally accepted. For Clodia Metelli, see nowGoogle ScholarGriffith, R. D., ‘The eyes of Clodia Metelli’, Latomus 55 (1996), 381–3.Google Scholar

4 The choice of MSS readings at 13.10 between meros (O: e.g. Kroll, Mynors, Quinn, Fordyce, Goold, Thomson) and meos (X: e.g. Littman) seems to vary with the interpretation of unguentum as either divine or profane.

5 K. Quinn, Catullus. The Poems (London and Basingstoke, 1970); see also his Latin Explorations (London, 1986), p. 176. Quinn cites Vergil, Aen. 1.403–4, and also Baudelaire's Le Chat: ‘Was the scent, in other words, not one presented to Catullus by his mistress, but the alluring fragrance of her person?’ (135).Google Scholar

6 Servii Grammatici quiferuntur in Verilii Carmina Commentarii, recens. G. Thilo, H. Hagen (Leipzig, 1881), I, p. 390. For the fragments of Turpilius' Leucadia,Google Scholar see Ribbeck, O., Comicorum Romanorum Praeter Plautum et Syri Quae Feruntur Sententiae Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1898), II, 113–18.The story of Phaon and Aphrodite is also told by Aelian (12.18) and Lucian (Dial. Mort.) without reference to the unguentum.Google Scholar

7 Also a theme on Etruscan mirrors: E. Gerhard, Etruskische Spiegel, bearb. A. Kliigmann und G. Koerte (Berlin, 1884–97), III, Taf. CDVII; IV, Taf. CCCXXIII; V, 5,40–2, Taf. 32.Google Scholar

8 See inter alios Lugli, G., Itinerario di Roma Antica (Milan, 1970), p. 525 (fig. 365).Google Scholar

9 Sappho, frag. 31L–P.

10 Cf. the onyx in Cat. 66.83 and Horace Carm. 4.12. Pliny the Elder (36.20) refers to the use of this stone: ‘quern cavant et ad vasa unguentaria, quoniam optime servare incorrupta dicitur’.