Gaius Valerius Catullus (Verona, 84 BC \u2013 Rome, 54 BC), born into a family of extremely high rank and influence\u2014\nso much so that his father regularly hosted Julius Caesar\u2014moved to Rome as a young man.\nThere, Catullus chose not to pursue a traditional political career, preferring instead to devote himself entirely\nto poetry and social life.
\nHe became the leading figure of the *poetae novi*, a group of young intellectuals who revolutionized Latin literature\nby abandoning epic and civic themes in favor of private emotions and stylistic perfection.\nHe died at a very young age, leaving behind a poetic legacy that influenced centuries of European literature,\nmaking him the first truly \u201cmodern\u201d poet of Roman civilization.
\nThe central focus of his life and art was his troubled love affair with a woman named Clodia, a member of the\nRoman aristocracy whom he celebrated in his verses under the pseudonym Lesbia, in honor of the Greek poet\nSappho.
\nTheir relationship, marked by intense passion, betrayals, and reconciliations, is immortalized in his work, the\n*Liber* (1st century BC), a collection of 116 poems in which Catullus explores the full range of human emotions.
\nPoem 64, in particular, entitled *The Lament of Ariadne*, is one of the longest and most complex compositions\nin the *Liber*, also known as an *epyllion* (short epic poem).
\nAt the center of the poem is the famous episode of Ariadne\u2019s lament after being abandoned on the island of\nNaxos by Theseus, whom she had helped defeat the Minotaur.
\nIn this section, Catullus gives voice to Ariadne\u2019s sorrow as she expresses despair, anger, and a sense of betrayal.
\nHer lament becomes an intense reflection on unrequited love and infidelity, themes central to Catullan\npoetry. The figure of Ariadne, alone and betrayed, powerfully embodies the suffering caused by love, transforming\na myth into a profoundly human and timeless experience.
\nDuring her lament, Scylla is invoked as a symbol of cruelty and inhumanity: Ariadne cites her to emphasize how\nmonstrous Theseus\u2019 behavior appears, comparable to that of a savage creature.
\nThe reference thus reinforces the dramatic tone of the passage and intensifies the accusation of betrayal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich lonely lioness bore you beneath a solitary cliff,
\nwhich sea cast you forth once conceived amid its foaming waves,
\nwhich Syrtis, which ravaging Scylla, which devouring Charybdis,
\nyou who repay such gifts instead of a pleasant life?\u201d\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
In Poem 64, Catullus cites Scylla as a negative term of comparison during Ariadne\u2019s violent outburst.\nWhen the heroine realizes that she has been abandoned by Theseus on the deserted shore of Naxos, her grief\nturns into a furious invective. Ariadne questions Theseus\u2019 human origins, arguing that a man capable of such\nbetrayal\u2014and of such a lack of *pietas* and *fides* (loyalty)\u2014cannot have been born of mortal parents.\nAccording to Ariadne, Theseus was generated by the wildest and most brutal forces of nature; it is in this context\nthat Scylla appears.
\nBy explicitly mentioning the \u201crapacious Scylla\u201d (*Scylla rapax*) together with Charybdis and the Syrtes, Ariadne\nevokes symbols of a hostile and merciless nature that mirrors the betrayal she has suffered.
\nFor Catullus, Scylla is not merely a reference but a true literary *topos*, used to signify both the inhumanity\nof one who refuses to listen to the pleas of the suffering and a moral monstrosity born of a heart too hard to\nbelong to a human being.
\nFor the poet, Scylla represents the predatory monster *par excellence*: the creature that, according to Greek\ntradition, stationed at the Strait of Messina, tears apart and devours without remorse.
\nBy including Scylla in this catalogue, Catullus seeks to emphasize that Theseus\u2019 betrayal is not merely a human\nfailing but an act of bestial cruelty.
\nThe image of Scylla ultimately serves to heighten Ariadne\u2019s isolation: she has been betrayed by someone who\npossesses the same merciless nature as the rocks and sea monsters that now surround her.<\/p>\n<\/div>
Giuseppe Ribuffo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/i>Next page: 107. 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