Gaius Valerius Catullus (Verona, 84 BC – Rome, 54 BC), born into a family of extremely high rank and influence—
so much so that his father regularly hosted Julius Caesar—moved to Rome as a young man.
There, Catullus chose not to pursue a traditional political career, preferring instead to devote himself entirely
to poetry and social life.
He became the leading figure of the *poetae novi*, a group of young intellectuals who revolutionized Latin literature
by abandoning epic and civic themes in favor of private emotions and stylistic perfection.
He died at a very young age, leaving behind a poetic legacy that influenced centuries of European literature,
making him the first truly “modern” poet of Roman civilization.
The central focus of his life and art was his troubled love affair with a woman named Clodia, a member of the
Roman aristocracy whom he celebrated in his verses under the pseudonym Lesbia, in honor of the Greek poet
Sappho.
Their relationship, marked by intense passion, betrayals, and reconciliations, is immortalized in his work, the
*Liber* (1st century BC), a collection of 116 poems in which Catullus explores the full range of human emotions.
Poem 64, in particular, entitled *The Lament of Ariadne*, is one of the longest and most complex compositions
in the *Liber*, also known as an *epyllion* (short epic poem).
At the center of the poem is the famous episode of Ariadne’s lament after being abandoned on the island of
Naxos by Theseus, whom she had helped defeat the Minotaur.
In this section, Catullus gives voice to Ariadne’s sorrow as she expresses despair, anger, and a sense of betrayal.
Her lament becomes an intense reflection on unrequited love and infidelity, themes central to Catullan
poetry. The figure of Ariadne, alone and betrayed, powerfully embodies the suffering caused by love, transforming
a myth into a profoundly human and timeless experience.
During her lament, Scylla is invoked as a symbol of cruelty and inhumanity: Ariadne cites her to emphasize how
monstrous Theseus’ behavior appears, comparable to that of a savage creature.
The reference thus reinforces the dramatic tone of the passage and intensifies the accusation of betrayal.
“Which lonely lioness bore you beneath a solitary cliff,
which sea cast you forth once conceived amid its foaming waves,
which Syrtis, which ravaging Scylla, which devouring Charybdis,
you who repay such gifts instead of a pleasant life?””
In Poem 64, Catullus cites Scylla as a negative term of comparison during Ariadne’s violent outburst.
When the heroine realizes that she has been abandoned by Theseus on the deserted shore of Naxos, her grief
turns into a furious invective. Ariadne questions Theseus’ human origins, arguing that a man capable of such
betrayal—and of such a lack of *pietas* and *fides* (loyalty)—cannot have been born of mortal parents.
According to Ariadne, Theseus was generated by the wildest and most brutal forces of nature; it is in this context
that Scylla appears.
By explicitly mentioning the “rapacious Scylla” (*Scylla rapax*) together with Charybdis and the Syrtes, Ariadne
evokes symbols of a hostile and merciless nature that mirrors the betrayal she has suffered.
For Catullus, Scylla is not merely a reference but a true literary *topos*, used to signify both the inhumanity
of one who refuses to listen to the pleas of the suffering and a moral monstrosity born of a heart too hard to
belong to a human being.
For the poet, Scylla represents the predatory monster *par excellence*: the creature that, according to Greek
tradition, stationed at the Strait of Messina, tears apart and devours without remorse.
By including Scylla in this catalogue, Catullus seeks to emphasize that Theseus’ betrayal is not merely a human
failing but an act of bestial cruelty.
The image of Scylla ultimately serves to heighten Ariadne’s isolation: she has been betrayed by someone who
possesses the same merciless nature as the rocks and sea monsters that now surround her.
Giuseppe Ribuffo
