Classical World

In this new book, Michael Putnam pinpoints Catullus as a fundamental influence on Horace’s lyric poetry. The wealth of philological evidence—Putnam considers over forty Horatian pieces that show traces of Catullan influence—corroborates the work’s main argument, which is that the appropriation and rethinking of the Catullan heritage were important working principles in Horace’s lyric composition. In his examination of an array of Horatian responses to Catullus, Putnam sheds light on the means by which Horace integrated themes from and echoes of Catullan poetry into the texture of the Odes.

Throughout the work, Putnam identifies lexical and thematic allusions to the Republican poet in the Horatian text. It is not uncommon that within the span of a single ode “one clear reference to Catullus is . . . supplemented, and supported, by one or more others” (142–43). For example, Carm. 1.32 draws not only upon Catull. 50 (cf. Horace’s lusimus tecum [2] and Catullus’ lusimus [2] and ludebat [5]), but also upon Catull. 1, 2, 31, and 68 (51–54). On a grander scale, when it comes to Horace’s lyric corpus, Catullan echoes help to further a sense of cohesion among poems with common thematic denominators, as, for instance, in Carm. 1.15–1.17, a group of poems that refer, directly or implicitly, to Helen of Troy (72–89), as well as in the three odes to Vergil (Carm. 1.3, 1.24, and 4.12), in which Horace, while addressing Vergil, carries on, as Putnam puts it, “his colloquy with Catullus” (100).

In addition to cataloguing Horace’s references to Catullus’ poetry, Putnam studies the patterns according to which the Augustan poet organizes his Catullan allusions. Putnam probes several approaches to tracing Horace’s responses to Catullus: he examines Horace’s reaction to Catullus’ treatment of the motifs of time and space (ch. 1), as well as Horace’s silencing of Catullus’ poetic voice in (predominantly) convivial odes (ch. 2). Moreover, [End Page 557] Putnam explores Horace’s reconsiderations of Catullus’ calumniating verse (ch. 3) and traces Horace’s inclusion of references to Catullus in the three above-mentioned odes to Vergil (ch. 4). Finally, Putnam discusses Horace’s generic reevaluations of Catullus’ “Hymn to Diana” and the epithalamia, and examines the ways in which Horace recasts the dialogic form of the “Acme and Septimius” poem, Catull. 45 (ch. 5). Horace’s generic transformations of Catullan motifs are also analyzed earlier in the book, in chapter 3, in which Putnam contemplates the interplay between Catullus’ vituperative iambic verses and Horace’s complete recantation of this tradition of calumny, not only in content but also with respect to tone (72–89).

When it comes to borrowing from Catullus’ love poetry, Putnam maintains, Horace, while alluding to erotic imagery, nonetheless regularly suppresses or “ameliorates” the open eroticism of the Republican poet (141). For instance, Carm. 1.22 and its inspiration, Catull. 11, both contain travelogues, but Catullus makes Rome his destination and emphasizes the physical, sensual immediacy of his rift with Lesbia. Horace, on the other hand, considers a different, non-erotic destination: the realm of undiluted lyric, personified as Lalage, dulce loquentem, which is itself a clear reference to Catull. 51 (35–37).

According to Putnam, Catullus is preoccupied with “the actual and concrete” (8), whereas Horace “turns particular to universal” (23), as he explores the realm of “the abstract and symbolic” (8), an observation that can be supported by comparing Catull. 46 to Carm. 4.12. Here Catullus stresses the immediate effects of spring on nature and on himself, whereas for Horace, “the season carries within itself the incipience of its own demise” (99). It must be pointed out, however, that any interpretation of Horace’s responses to Catullus will be largely based on the way in which we read and interpret Catullus, who, one might add, is capable of being as abstract and symbolic (cf. the “flower” simile in Catull. 11) as the Augustan poet.

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