Chommoda and hinsidias: Catullan c. 84 and the Shaming of the Parvenu Between Antiquity, Renaissance, and Modernity

Abstract

In his poem 84, Catullus presents Arrius, a parvenu of humble origins, who compulsively aspirates his words to appear educated; he thus pronounces chommoda and hinsidias instead of commoda and insidias. There were strong social implications and speakers of Latin who dropped their aspirates incurred a social stigma; as Nigidius Figulus remarked, rusticus fit sermo si aspires perperam. However, why commoda? Why insidias? These might be two random words, and indeed some of the commentators argue that there is no reason to search for an additional level of meaning; entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. The poem has a long history of less-than-exciting interpretations and translations; it was only renaissance editors who understood that the manuscripts lacked the aspirates and it was only in the twentieth century that the pun at the end of the epigram was discovered. Building on this tradition, the paper will argue that the poem hides another layer of meaning which provides a unique insight into the Catullan understanding of the human nature.