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    Contents:
  • Poem 1: DEDICATION TO CORNELIUS NEPOS
  • Poem 2: LESBIA'S SPARROW
  • Poem 3: ON THE DEATH OF LESBIA'S SPARROW
  • Poem 4: ON HIS PINNACE
  • Poem 5: TO LESBIA, (OF LESBOS-CLODIA?)
  • Poem 6: TO FLAVIUS: MIS-SPEAKING HIS MISTRESS
  • Poem 7: TO LESBIA STILL BELOVED
  • Poem 8: TO HIMSELF RECOUNTING LESBIA'S INCONSTANCY
  • Poem 9: TO VERANIUS RETURNED FROM TRAVEL
  • Poem 10: HE MEETS VARUS AND MISTRESS
  • Poem 11: A PARTING INSULT TO LESBIA
  • Poem 12: TO M. ASINIUS WHO STOLE NAPERY
  • Poem 13: FABULLUS IS INVITED TO A POET'S SUPPER
  • Poem 14: TO CALVUS, ACKNOWLEDGING HIS POEMS
  • Poem 14b
  • Poem 15: TO AURELIUS—HANDS OFF THE BOY!
  • Poem 16: TO AURELIUS AND FURIUS IN DEFENCE OF HIS MUSE'S HONESTY
  • Poem 17: OF A "PREDESTINED" HUSBAND
  • Poem 18: TO PRIAPUS, THE GARDEN-GOD
  • Poem 19: To PRIAPUS
  • Poem 20: To PRIAPUS
  • Poem 21: To AURELIUS THE SKINFLINT
  • Poem 22: To VARUS ABUSING SUFFENUS
  • Poem 23: TO FURIUS SATIRICALLY PRAISING HIS POVERTY
  • Poem 24: TO JUVENTIUS CONCERNING THE CHOICE OF A FRIEND
  • Poem 25: ADDRESS TO THALLUS THE NAPERY-THIEF
  • Poem 26: CATULLUS CONCERNING HIS VILLA
  • Poem 27: TO HIS CUP-BOY
  • Poem 28: TO FRIENDS ON RETURN FROM TRAVEL
  • Poem 29: TO CAESAR OF MAMURRA, CALLED MENTULA
  • Poem 30: To ALFENUS THE PERJUROR
  • Poem 31: ON RETURN TO SIRMIO AND HIS VILLA
  • Poem 32: CRAVING IPSITHILLA'S LAST FAVOURS
  • Poem 33: ON THE VIBENNII-BATH-THIEVES
  • Poem 34: HYMN TO DIANA
  • Poem 35: AN INVITATION TO POET CECILIUS
  • Poem 36: ON "THE ANNALS "—A SO-CALLED POEM OF VOLUSIUS
  • Poem 37: TO THE FREQUENTERS OF A LOW TAVERN
  • Poem 38: A COMPLAINT TO CORNIFICIUS
  • Poem 39: ON EGNATIUS OF THE WHITE TEETH
  • Poem 40: THREATENING RAVIDUS WHO STOLE HIS MISTRESS
  • Poem 41: ON MAMURRA'S MISTRESS
  • Poem 42: ON A STRUMPET WHO STOLE HIS TABLETS
  • Poem 43: To MAMURRA'S MISTRESS
  • Poem 44: CATULLUS TO HIS OWN FARM
  • Poem 45: ON ACME AND SEPTUMIUS
  • Poem 46: HIS ADIEUX TO BITHYNIA
  • Poem 47: TO PORCIUS AND SOCRATION
  • Poem 48: TO JUVENTIUS
  • Poem 49: TO MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
  • Poem 50: TO HIS FRIEND LICINIUS
  • Poem 51: TO LESBIA
  • Poem 52: CATULLUS TO HIMSELF
  • Poem 53: A JEST CONCERNING CALVUS
  • Poem 54: To JULIUS CAESAR(?)
  • Poem 55: OF HIS FRIEND CAMERIUS
  • Poem 56: TO CATO, DESCRIBING A "BLACK JOKER."
  • Head 57
  • Poem 57: ON MAMURRA AND JULIUS CAESAR
  • Poem 58: ON LESBIA WHO ENDED BADLY
  • Poem 59: ON RUFA
  • Poem 60: TO A CRUEL CHARMER
  • Poem 61: Epithalamium On Vinia And Manlius
  • Poem 62: Nuptial Song By Youths And Damsels
  • Epithalamium
  • Poem 63: THE ADVENTURES OF ATYS
  • Poem 64: Marriage of Peleus and Thetis
  • Poem 65: TO HORTALUS LAMENTING A LOST BROTHER.
  • Poem 66: (LOQUITUR) BERENICE'S LOCK.
  • Poem 67: DIALOGUE CONCERNING CATULLUS AT A HARLOT'S DOOR.
  • Poem 68: To MANIUS ON VARIOUS MATTERS.
  • Poem 69: TO RUFUS THE FETID.
  • Poem 70: ON WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY.
  • Poem 71: TO VERRO.
  • Poem 72: TO LESBIA THE FALSE.
  • Poem 73: OF AN INGRATE.
  • Poem 74: OF GELLIUS.
  • Poem 75
  • Poem 76: IN SELF-GRATULATION.
  • Poem 77: TO RUFUS, THE TRAITOR FRIEND.
  • Poem 78: OF GALLUS.
  • Poem 79: OF LESBIUS.
  • Poem 80: TO GELLIUS.
  • Poem 81: TO JUVENTIUS.
  • Poem 82: TO QUINTIUS.
  • Poem 83: OF LESBIA's HUSBAND.
  • Poem 84: ON ARRIUS, A ROMAN 'ARRY.
  • Poem 85: HOW THE POET LOVES
  • Poem 86: OF QUINTIA.
  • Poem 87: TO LESBIA.
  • Poem 88: TO GELLIUS.
  • Poem 89: ON GELLIUS.
  • Poem 90: ON GELLIUS.
  • Poem 91: TO GELLIUS.
  • Poem 92: ON LESBIA.
  • Poem 93: ON JULIUS CAESAR.
  • Poem 94: AGAINST MENTULA (MAMURRA).
  • Poem 95: ON THE "ZMYRNA" OF THE POET CINNA.
  • Poem 96: TO CALVUS ANENT DEAD QUINTILIA.
  • Poem 97: ON AEMILIUS THE FOUL.
  • Poem 98: TO VICTIUS THE STINKARD.
  • Poem 99: TO JUVENTIUS.
  • Poem 100: ON CAELIUS AND QUINTIUS.
  • Poem 101: ON THE BURIAL OF HIS BROTHER.
  • Poem 102: TO CORNELIUS.
  • Poem 103: TO SILO.
  • Poem 104: CONCERNING LESBIA.
  • Poem 105: ON MAMURRA.
  • Poem 106: THE AUCTIONEER AND THE FAIR BOY.
  • Poem 107: TO LESBIA RECONCILED.
  • Poem 108: ON COMINIUS.
  • Poem 109: TO LESBIA ON HER VOW OF CONSTANCY.
  • Poem 110: TO AUFILENA.
  • Poem 111: TO THE SAME.
  • Poem 112: ON NASO.
  • Poem 113: TO CINNA.
  • Poem 114: ON MAMURRA'S SQUANDERING.
  • Poem 115: OF THE SAME.
  • Poem 116: TO GELLIUS THE CRITIC.
    		•

    Gaius Valerius Catullus, Carmina (ed. Sir Richard Francis Burton)

    Editions and translations: Latin (ed. E. T. Merrill) | English (ed. Sir Richard Francis Burton) | English (ed. Leonard C. Smithers)
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    THE ADVENTURES OF ATYS

    O'er high deep seas in speedy ship his voyage Atys sped
    Until he trod the Phrygian grove with hurried eager tread
    And as the gloomy tree-shorn stead, the she-god's home, he sought
    There sorely stung with fiery ire and madman's vaguing thought,
    Share he with sharpened flint the freight wherewith his form was fraught.
    Then as the she-he sensed limbs were void of manly strain
    And sighted freshly shed a-ground spot of ensanguined stain,
    Snatched she the timbrel's legier load with hands as snowdrops white,
    Thy timbrel, Mother Cybele, the firstings of thy rite,
    And as her tender finger-tips on bull-back hollow rang
    She rose a-grieving and her song to listening comrades sang.
    "Up Gallae, hie together, haste for Cybele's deep grove,
    Hie to the Dindymnean dame, ye flocks that love to rove;
    The which affecting stranger steads as bound in exile's brunt
    My sect pursuing led by me have nerved you to confront
    The raging surge of salty sea and ocean's tyrant hand
    As your hate of Venus' hest your manly forms unmann'd,
    Gladden your souls, ye mistresses, with sense of error bann'd.
    Drive from your spirits dull delay, together follow ye
    To hold of Phrygian goddess, home of Phrygian Cybebe,
    Where loud the cymbal's voice resounds with timbrel-echoes blending,
    And where the Phrygian piper drones grave bass from reed a-bending,
    Where toss their ivy-circled heads with might the Maenades
    Where ply mid shrilly lullilooes the holiest mysteries,
    Where to fly here and there be wont the she-god's vaguing train,
    Thither behoves us lead the dance in quick-step hasty strain."
    Soon as had Atys (bastard-she) this lay to comrades sung
    The Chorus sudden lulliloos with quivering, quavering tongue,
    Again the nimble timbrel groans, the scooped-out cymbals clash,
    And up green Ida flits the Choir, with footsteps hurrying rash
    Then Atys frantic, panting, raves, a-wandering, lost, insane,
    And leads with timbrel hent and treads the shades where shadows rain,
    Like heifer spurning load of yoke in yet unbroken pride;
    And the swift Gallae follow fain their first and fleet-foot guide.
    But when the home of Cybele they make with toil out-worn
    O'er much, they lay them down to sleep and gifts of Ceres scorn;
    Till heavy slumbers seal their eyelids langourous, drooping lowly,
    And raving frenzy flies each brain departing softly, slowly.
    But when Dan Sol with radiant eyes that fire his face of gold
    Surveyed white aether and solid soil and waters uncontrol'd,
    And chased with steeds sonorous-hooved the shades of lingering night,
    Then sleep from waking Atys fled fleeting with sudden flight,
    By Nymph Pasithae welcomed to palpitating breast.
    Thus when his frenzy raging rash was soothed to gentlest rest,
    Atys revolved deeds lately done, as thought from breast unfolding,
    And what he'd lost and what he was with lucid sprite beholding,
    To shallows led by surging soul again the way 'gan take.
    There casting glance of weeping eyes where vasty billows brake,
    Sad-voiced in pitifullest lay his native land bespake.
    "Country of me, Creatress mine, born to thee and bred,
    By hapless me abandoned as by thrall from lordling fled,
    When me to Ida's groves and glades these vaguing footsteps bore
    To tarry 'mid the snows and where lurk beasts in antres frore
    And seek the deeply hidden lairs where furious ferals meet!
    Where, Country! whither placed must I now hold thy site and seat?
    Lief would these balls of eyes direct to thee their line of sight,
    Which for a while, a little while, would free me from despite.
    Must I for ever roam these groves from house and home afar?
    Of country, parents, kith and kin (life's boon) myself debar?
    Fly Forum, fly Palestra, fly the Stadium, the Gymnase?
    Wretch, ah poor wretch, I'm doomed (my soul!) to mourn throughout my days,
    For what of form or figure is, which I failed to enjoy?
    I full-grown man, I blooming youth, I stripling, I a boy,
    I of Gymnasium erst the bloom, I too of oil the pride:
    Warm was my threshold, ever stood my gateways opening wide,
    My house was ever garlanded and hung with flowery freight,
    And couch to quit with rising sun, has ever been my fate:
    Now must I Cybele's she-slave, priestess of gods, be hight?
    I Maenad I, mere bit of self, I neutral barren wight?
    I spend my life-tide couch't beneath high-towering Phrygian peaks?
    I dwell on Ida's verdant slopes mottled with snowy streaks,
    Where homes the forest-haunting doe, where roams the wildling boar?
    Now, now I rue my deed foredone, now, now it irks me sore!"
    Whenas from out those roseate lips these accents rapid flew,
    Bore them to ears divine consigned a Nuncio true and new;
    Then Cybele her lions twain disjoining from their yoke
    The left-hand enemy of the herds a-goading thus bespoke:
    "Up feral fell! up, hie with him, see rage his foot-steps urge,
    See that his fury smite him till he seek the forest verge,
    He who with over-freedom fain would fly mine empery.
    Go, slash thy flank with lashing tail and sense the strokes of thee,
    Make the whole mountain to thy roar sound and resound again,
    And fiercely toss thy brawny neck that bears the tawny mane!"
    So quoth an angered Cybele, and yoke with hand untied:
    The feral rose in fiery wrath and self-inciting hied,
    A-charging, roaring through the brake with breaking paws he tore.
    But when he reached the humid sands where surges cream the shore,
    Spying soft Atys lingering near the marbled pave of sea
    He springs: the terror-madded wretch back to the wood doth flee,
    Where for the remnant of her days a bondmaid's life led she.
    Great Goddess, Goddess Cybele, Dindymus dame divine,
    Far from my house and home thy wrath and wrack, dread mistress mine:
    Goad others on with Fury's goad, others to Ire consign!

    There are a total of 184 comments on and cross references to this page.

    Further comments from E. T. Merrill, Commentary on Catullus:
    poem 63 (general note)
    poem 63, line 1: celeri
    poem 63, line 10: teneris digitis
    poem 63, line 10: cava
    poem 63, line 11: tremebunda
    poem 63, line 12: agite
    poem 63, line 12: Gallae
    poem 63, line 12: Cybeles
    poem 63, line 13: Dindymenae dominae
    poem 63, line 13: vaga
    poem 63, line 13: pecora
    poem 63, line 15: sectam meam exsecutae
    poem 63, line 16: rapidum
    poem 63, line 16: truculenta pelagi
    poem 63, line 18: hilarate
    poem 63, line 18: erroribus
    poem 63, line 2: Phrygium nemus
    poem 63, line 2: citato cupide pede
    poem 63, line 21: cymbalum
    poem 63, line 21: reboant
    poem 63, line 22: Phryx
    poem 63, line 22: curvo calamo
    poem 63, line 22: graue
    poem 63, line 23: maenades
    poem 63, line 23: capita vi iaciunt
    poem 63, line 23: hederigerae
    poem 63, line 24 (general note)
    poem 63, line 25: illa
    poem 63, line 25: volitare vaga
    poem 63, line 25: cohors
    poem 63, line 26: tripudiis
    poem 63, line 27: simul
    poem 63, line 27: notha mulier
    poem 63, line 28: thiasus
    poem 63, line 28: trepidantibus
    poem 63, line 28: ululat
    poem 63, line 29: leve tympanum
    poem 63, line 29: recrepant
    poem 63, line 3: opaca
    poem 63, line 30: viridem Idam
    poem 63, line 30: properante pede
    poem 63, line 31: animam agens
    poem 63, line 32: comitata
    poem 63, line 33: veluti iuvenca
    poem 63, line 35: domum Cybelles
    poem 63, line 36: Cerere
    poem 63, line 38: quiete molli
    poem 63, line 38: rabidus furor
    poem 63, line 39: oris aurei
    poem 63, line 39: radiantibus oculis
    poem 63, line 4: ibi
    poem 63, line 4: furenti rabie
    poem 63, line 4: vagus animis
    poem 63, line 40: lustravit
    poem 63, line 40: aethera album
    poem 63, line 40: sola
    poem 63, line 40: dura
    poem 63, line 40: feram
    poem 63, line 41: sonipedibus
    poem 63, line 42: ibi
    poem 63, line 42: Somnus
    poem 63, line 45: simul
    poem 63, line 46: liquida mente
    poem 63, line 46: sine quis
    poem 63, line 46: ubique
    poem 63, line 47: animo aestuante
    poem 63, line 47: rasum
    poem 63, line 47: reditum tetulit
    poem 63, line 48: maria vasta
    poem 63, line 49: miseriter
    poem 63, line 5: ili
    poem 63, line 51: miser
    poem 63, line 52: tetuli
    poem 63, line 53: ferarum gelida stabula
    poem 63, line 55: reor
    poem 63, line 56: pupula
    poem 63, line 56: derigere
    poem 63, line 57: carens est
    poem 63, line 59: genitoribus
    poem 63, line 6: sine viro
    poem 63, line 60: foro
    poem 63, line 61: miser ah miser
    poem 63, line 61: etiam atque etiam
    poem 63, line 62: figurae
    poem 63, line 63: mulier
    poem 63, line 63: adulescens
    poem 63, line 63: ephebus
    poem 63, line 64: gymnasi flos
    poem 63, line 64: olei
    poem 63, line 65: ianuae frequentes
    poem 63, line 65: limina tepida
    poem 63, line 66: corollis
    poem 63, line 67: linquendum ubi
    poem 63, line 67: esset
    poem 63, line 68: deum ministra
    poem 63, line 68: ministra, famula
    poem 63, line 69: maenas
    poem 63, line 7: terrae sola
    poem 63, line 70: viridis Idae
    poem 63, line 71: altis Phrygiae columinibus
    poem 63, line 72: silvicultrix, nemorivagus
    poem 63, line 73: iam iam
    poem 63, line 73: iam iamque
    poem 63, line 74: roseis labellis
    poem 63, line 75: geminas
    poem 63, line 75: deorum aures
    poem 63, line 75: nuntia
    poem 63, line 76: iuga resolvens
    poem 63, line 77: laevum
    poem 63, line 77: pecoris hostem
    poem 63, line 77: stimulans
    poem 63, line 78: agedum, age
    poem 63, line 78: fac ut
    poem 63, line 79: reditum ferat
    poem 63, line 8: niveis manibus
    poem 63, line 8: citata
    poem 63, line 8: lene
    poem 63, line 8: typanum
    poem 63, line 81: caede terga cauda
    poem 63, line 82: fac retonent
    poem 63, line 84: minax
    poem 63, line 84: religat iuga
    poem 63, line 85: rabidum
    poem 63, line 86: pede vago
    poem 63, line 87: albicantis
    poem 63, line 87: loca litoris
    poem 63, line 88: tenerum
    poem 63, line 88: marmora pelagi
    poem 63, line 89: demens
    poem 63, line 9: tubam Cybelles
    poem 63, line 9: mater
    poem 63, line 9: initia
    poem 63, line 90: famula
    poem 63, line 91 (general note)
    poem 63, line 91: dea magna
    poem 63, line 91: domina Dindymi
    poem 63, line 92: procul
    poem 63, line 93: age

    Cross references from E. T. Merrill, Commentary on Catullus:
    * [Journey to Bithynia.]
    * [Poems.]
    * [Poems.]
    * [Poems.]
    * [Metres.]
    * [Metres.]
    *
    *
    *
    *: rapidum salum
    *
    *
    *
    *: piger oculos sopor operit
    *
    *
    *: trepidante sinu
    *
    *
    *: reditum tetulit
    *
    *: miseriter
    *
    * [Prosody.]
    * [Metres.]
    *
    *: derigere aciem
    *: carens est
    *: genitoribus
    * [Metres.]
    *
    *: gymnasi flos
    *
    *: silvicultrix
    *
    *
    *
    *
    *: reditum ferat
    *
    *
    *

    Cross references from Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus:
    212

    Cross references from George W. Mooney, Commentary on Apollonius: Argonautica:
    * [Commentary]: Dindymena domina
    * [Commentary]
    * [Commentary]

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Catul.+63.1

    The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    Catullus. Carmina. Sir Richard Francis Burton. trans. London. For translator for private use. 1894.
    OCLC: 878062


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