[73-130] The comparison of the warmth of Lesbia's love to that of Laodamia's. The episode is thoroughly Alexandrian in its length and complexity. It seems unnecessary and unfitting after observation of other similar mythological illustrations in Catullus to suppose the comparison to extend to the details of the unrighteous beginning (vv. 75, 76) and fatal effects (vv. 85, 86) of the passion, even if Catullus could have admitted to himself such an extension of the resemblance. —Part of the story is as old as Homer (cf. Hom. Il. 11.695 ff.), though nothing is said there of the final cause of the death of Protesilaus. Euripides in his Protesilaus appears first to embody the tale of the hero's return to earth for one day in accordance with his wife's prayer (cf. also Hyg. Fab. 103, and Wordsworth Laodamia). On the subject cf. also Ov. Her. 13.
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Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.
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