Catullus 64

Catullus 64 (The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis; Ariadne on Naxos) is a long narrative poem written by Gaius Valerius Catullus in the mid-1st century BCE (c. 60–55 BCE). The poem outwardly celebrates the mythic marriage of Peleus and Thetis, but its emotional core centers on the embedded ekphrasis of Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos. Through this layered structure, Catullus explores themes of betrayal, gendered suffering, heroic unreliability, and nostalgia for a mythic past contrasted with moral decline in the present.

Originally circulated as part of Catullus’s poetic corpus in the late Roman Republic. The poem survives through medieval manuscript traditions and is preserved today in modern critical editions of Catulli Carmina. The work is in the public domain. Common modern editions are published by academic presses.