Catullus and the tragedy of Ariadne

The well‐known allusions to tragic prologues in the proem to Catullus 64 raise questions about the generic relationships between tragedy, epic and epyllion which encourage the reader of the poem to see the entire ecphrasis of Ariadne as a tragedy. As Catullus presents it, Ariadne’s story has a scene‐setting prologue, central rhesis, tragic climax and deus ex machina ; it also has its own audience in MOSAÏQUE, revue des jeunes chercheurs en SHS Lille Nord de France‐Belgique francophone – 1, juin 2009 2 the shape of the Thessalian wedding‐guests. The didaskalos of this tragedy of Ariadne is the narrator of 64, apparently a version of the poet Catullus himself. Yet some of Catullus’ personal poems read like fragments of tragic speech with no equivalent figure to organise them into a coherent whole. The article goes further than previous work in exploring why the Ariadne presented in this ecphrastic tragedy is such a close parallel to the Catullus whose voice we hear in the personal poetry.