How do Catullus’s goals in writing his epyllion, or “little epic,” number 64 in the anthology, compare with those of Homer in The Odyssey and/or Virgil in The Aeneid? How and why are they similar or different?
While all epics wander, Catullus’s “little epic” wonders more than the rest. Catullus seems to lose the point he is trying to make multiple times, like The Odyssey and The Aendeid, but it feels as though it takes longer to get back to the main story. In The Odyssey and The Aendeid the authors used fate and other tools to bring the story back to it’s main plot. Although with Catullus, it is hard to even tell what is the main plot. Catullus talks about different myths, but he fails to relate them to the story. I am not sure Catullus had any goals in any of his writing, let alone in his “little epic”.