Sulla genesi del canto delle Parche (Catull. 64,303-383)

The Catullan narrative of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis is characterised by two particularly evident traits. On the one hand, Apollo’s exclusion as the agent of the wedding paean, as he is substituted by the Parcae; on the other, the dissonance of the song – which announces violence and grief – with its joyous context. Catullus 64 positions itself within a group of texts that consider problematic Apollo’s presence at the wedding, and offers its own solution. Partly belonging to this group is Paean VI Maehler (= D6 Rutherford), a poem that shares some traits with another paean in Pindar’s book (see fr. 64Maehler = F9 Rutherford), in which the gift and the first rendition of the Lydian harmony – in a sad tone – at Niobe’s wedding are also mentioned. As we know, this wedding introduced mournful events, in which Apollo appeared as a vengeful god. Catullus sees this whole tradition through the lens of Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo, in a passage of which we read, by way of subtle and ironic allusions, that even the pain of Thetis and Niobe stops when the παιάν-cry is heard. Catullus derived the idea of the paradoxical epitalamy sung by the Parcae from this tradition, in which, from his point of view, the two Pindaric paeans had dealt with the theme of the god’s vengeance upon Thetis’ and Niobe’s descendants in a particularly original and incisive manner.