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These few verses on the same theme as 55 are evidently a fragment, and were inserted here by the original editor of the liber Catulli quite in accordance with his usual habit of separating poems on similar themes by two or three others of a different character. See Intr. 48, and introductory note to 58.—Meter, Phalaecean.

custos ille Cretum: i.e. the bronze giant Talus, devised by Daedalus and made by Hephaestus for King Minos, who strode from headland to headland, making the circuit of the island thrice daily; cf. Apoll. Rh. 4.1638ff.; Apollod. 1.9.26.3ff.

fingar: be molded into; cf. Catul. 66.50ferri fingere duritiem.

[2] Pegaseo volatu: for the story of the winged horse, Pegasus, who sprang from the blood of Medusa as her head was severed by Perseus, see Apollod. 2.4.2.9; Apollod. 2.3.2.1.

[3] Ladas: Pausanias mentions by this name two victors in the Olympic foot-races, one of Sparta, and the other, less famous, an Achaean (Paus. 3.21.1; Paus. 10.23.14); cf. Mart. 10.100.5habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladae” ; Juv. 13.96pauper locupletem optare podagram nec dubitet Ladas” . There is a manifest anacoluthon; the idea of v. 1 si fingar is the one in mind.

[3] pinnipes Perseus: in order to attack Medusa in safety, Perseus had borrowed of the Nymphs the winged shoes like those of Hermes as well as Pluto's helmet of invisibility and the magic wallet; see Apollod. 2.4.2. Cf. Prop. 3.30.3non si Pegaseo vecteris in aere dorso, nec tibi si Persei moverit ala pedes. pinnipes” is ἅπαξ λεγόμενον.

[4] Rhesi: Rhesus was the king of Thrace whose famous horses Ulysses and Diomed stole on the night of his arrival to help the Trojans; cf. Hom. Il. 10.438ff.; Ov. Met. 13.249ff. There is a similar anacoluthon to that in v. 3; si ferar fills out the idea.

[5] plumipedes: ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; the reference is clearly not to flying men like Daedalus and the sons of Boreas (for Perseus in v. 3 is a type of such swiftness), but to birds, thus interposed between horses and winds.

[5] volatiles: carrying further the picture in the preceding adjective; feather-footed (Ben Jonson) and flying fowl.

[7] vinctos: with reference to the story of Aeolus and Ulysses (cf. Hom. Od. 10.17ff.); the idea being only that if he were by their master put in possession of the winds to rule them at his pleasure, their unwearied swiftness would not suffice him.

[7] dicares = dares, as in Verg. A. 1.73propriam dicabo.

[8] defessus omnibus medulus: cf. Pl. Stich. 340at ego perii, quoi medullam lassitudo perbibit” . With defessusquaeritando cf. Pl. Amph. 1014sum defessus quaeritando, nusquam invenio Naucratem.

[9] langoribus peresus: cf. Serenus Samm. 62languore peresus” .

[10] essem: with this sequence after v. 1 fingar and v. 2 ferar cf. Catul. 6.2n.


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hide References (13 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (13):
    • Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, 1.9.26
    • Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, 2.3.2
    • Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, 2.4.2
    • Homer, Iliad, 10.438
    • Homer, Odyssey, 10.17
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10.23.14
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3.21.1
    • Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.1638
    • Catullus, Poems, 66
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses, 13.249
    • Plautus, Stichus, 2.2
    • Vergil, Aeneid, 1.73
    • Plautus, Amphitruo, 4.1
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