Catullus 68 - Connections To Homer and Greek Myth

Connections To Homer and Greek Myth

Central to this poem is the story of Protesilaus and Laodamia from the Trojan cycle. Protesilaus and Laodamia were married shortly before the Trojan War, in which he was the first Greek to die. Daniel Garrison connects this story to Catullus’ relationship with Lesbia saying, “Catullus was separated from Lesbia by his brother’s death near Troy, Protesilaus from Laodamia by his own death in the Trojan War.” This connection that Garrison draws explains Catullus’ transition to the death of his brother, who died where the Romans believed Troy to be. Catullus returns to the theme of Lesbia’s infidelity when he compares her behavior to Laodamia’s faithfulness in lines 117 and 131.

Overall, Catullus portrays Troy as a negative place calling it “ill-omened,” “obscene," and “ill-fated." His negative description of Troy is not limited to his grief for his brother’s death but extends to his allusions of the entire war. Theodorakopoulos explains, “In both poems 64 and 68] it is clear that Troy is an abomination, not the glory that contemporary Romans may have been seeking to gain from connection with it. Troy stands for the strangeness of death, for the remoteness of the world of the dead from that of the living.”