[3] numerus harenae: etc., here is united a simplicity of figure that is even ante-Homeric with a precision of geographical and mythological allusion that smacks of the Alexandrian school. The sands of the seashore, the leaves of the forest, and the stars of the heavens, are the first types of infinite number that occurred to early man; cf. Catul. 61.206 ff.; Gen. 13.16 “I will make thy seed as the dust of the carth;” Gen. 5.5 “look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to tell them; … so shall thy seed be;” Hom. Il. 11.800 “φύλλοισιν ἐοικότες ἢ ψαμάθοισιν” ; Hor. Carm. 1.28.1 “numero carentis harenae” ; Ov. Art. Am. 1.254 “numero cedet harena meo” , Ov. Art. Am. 1.59 “quot caelum stellas tot habet tua Roma puellas” ; Calp. Buc. 2.72 “qui numerare velit … tenues citius numerabit harenas.”
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Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.
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