Editing Catullus (section)

===Intellectual influences===
[[File:John_Reinhard_Weguelin_Lesbia.jpg|thumb|upright|''Lesbia'', 1878 painting by [[John Reinhard Weguelin]] inspired by the poems of Catullus]]
Catullus's poetry was influenced by the innovative poetry of the [[Hellenistic Age]], and especially by [[Callimachus]] and the [[Alexandrian school]], which had propagated a new style of poetry that deliberately turned away from the classical [[epic poetry]] in the tradition of [[Homer]]. Cicero called these local innovators ''[[neoteroi]]'' ({{lang|grc|νεώτεροι}}) or "moderns" (in Latin ''[[Neoteric#Latin Neoterics|poetae novi]]'' or '[[Neoteric#Latin Neoterics|new poets]]'), in that they cast off the heroic model handed down from [[Ennius]] in order to strike new ground and ring a contemporary note. Catullus and Callimachus did not describe the feats of ancient [[hero]]es and gods (except perhaps in re-evaluating and predominantly artistic circumstances, e.g. poem 64), focusing instead on small-scale personal themes. Although these poems sometimes seem quite superficial and their subjects often are mere everyday concerns, they are accomplished works of art. Catullus described his work as ''expolitum'', or polished, to show that the language he used was very carefully and artistically composed.

Catullus was also an admirer of [[Sappho]], a female poet of the seventh century BC. [[Catullus 51]] partly translates, partly imitates, and transforms [[Sappho 31]].  Some hypothesize that 61 and 62 were perhaps inspired by [[Lost literary work|lost work]]s of Sappho but this is purely speculative. Both of the latter are ''[[Epithalamium|epithalamia]]'', a form of [[wikt:laudatory|laudatory]] or erotic wedding-poetry that Sappho was famous for. Catullus twice used a meter that Sappho was known for, called the [[Sapphic stanza]], in poems [[Catullus 11|11]] and 51, perhaps prompting his successor Horace's interest in the form.

Catullus, as was common to his era, was greatly influenced by stories from Greek and Roman myth. His longer poems—such as [[Catullus 63|63]], [[Catullus 64|64]], [[Catullus 65|65]], [[Catullus 66|66]], and [[Catullus 68|68]]—allude to mythology in various ways. Some stories he refers to are the wedding of [[Peleus]] and [[Thetis]], the departure of the [[Argonauts]], [[Theseus]] and the Minotaur, [[Ariadne]]'s abandonment, [[Tereus]] and [[Procne]], as well as [[Protesilaus|Protesilaus and Laodamia]].