A Homeric Formula in Catullus (c. 51.11-12 gemina teguntur lumina nocte)* Alessandro Pardini Few classical texts have been studied as much as Catullus 51, yet this little poem is still puzzling in many respects. This paper examines a minor problem as a starting-point for reconsidering some important questions. It is well known that the first three strophes of c. 51 translate a famous fragment (31 Voigt) of Sappho describing the physical effects of a love-passion. The list of symptoms ends with two sentences concerning ears and eyes (lines 10-12): sonitu suoptetintinant aures, gemina tegunturlumina nocte. My ears ring with inward humming, my eyes are covered by a twofold night. As meter shows, gemina agrees with nocte rather than with lumina. Such a transferred epithet is unparalleled in Catullus, who elsewhere1 employs enallage in its common form, namely the agreement of an adjective with a substantive governing a genitive to which the adjective logically refers.2 In past times, this transfer seemed an oddity: transferred epithets are exceptional even in later Latin. Nevertheless, they do exist3 and especially in c. 51.11 such a transfer is [End Page 109] perfectly natural, since everything concerning both eyes can be considered as twofold in its turn. So, the problem should not be exaggerated: we are not entitled to remove the transfer by attributing to gemina unnatural and ill-documented meanings4 or altering the text. We can also observe that the proposed emendations do not improve the text: gemină integuntur (Lambinus), gemină obteguntur (Schwabe) and gemină et (Spengel) resort to unjustified metrical fillers. Schrader's aures geminae is sometimes recommended even nowadays,5 but seems even worse—an evident syntactic triviality.6 All things considered, the only conjecture not obviously implausible is Baehrens' gelida. Nevertheless, this should be rejected too, not simply because any emendation is unnecessary, but, as we will see below, because positive arguments prove that the transmitted text is sound. Metrical convenience does not suffice to explain why Catullus resorted to a transferred epithet. Such a skilful poet was surely able to avoid a figure of speech if he did not consider it suitable and effective, especially as his model, which is rendered very freely here, did not force him to use it. The freedom of lines 11-12 is also another puzzle. Generations of scholars have pointed out that many differences exist between Sappho's fragment and Catullus' poem. Some of them are inherent in the usage of the different languages; others are due to poetical taste. But Sappho's fragment as a whole has been translated very faithfully, and when Catullus modifies his model more deeply his purpose is always clear. So, soon after the beginning, the exaggeration contained in line 2 gives the poet's audience an interpretative hint. They should expect that the model, famous in antiquity for its simple style, will be translated with an extraordinarily emphatic tone. In the next stanza (line 7), the insertion of Lesbia7 prepares for the change of interlocutor in [End Page 110] the last stanza.8Misero quod omnis eripit sensus mihi (lines 5-6) was criticised as a weak translation of (Sappho 31.5-6),9 but it has since been recognized that Catullus shapes this sentence into a title for the list of symptoms that follows.10 Even in strophe 1, where the conspicuous insertions we have just mentioned forced the poet to abridge the translation in order to retain the same distribution of the matter as in the model, Catullus finds a way of following his model very closely through a refined play of numerical allusions. In line 4, the perception of the man is expressed by two verbs, spectat et audit, instead of one as in Sappho (31.4 ). On the contrary the two actions of the woman (Sappho 31.4-5 ) are condensed into one phrase (line 5 dulce ridentem), blending the internal accusative of the first action with the verb of the second one. These sophisticated allusions, resembling the plays made by Apollonius of Rhodes with Homeric hapax and dis legomena,11 prove, if proof is necessary, that a skilful and practiced poet...