O'Bryhim examines Catullus 97 and reveals that Catullus' virulent attack on Aemilius' appearance is in fact a veiled criticism of his literary pretensions, precipitated by his claim to be venustus ...without regard for the full significance of this word for the novi poetae. The poem begins with Catullus' assertion that he did not think it mattered whether he was smelling a mouth or an anus. The last word of the sentence, Aemilio, reveals that this is not a pronouncement about the odors of mouths and anuses in general, but a specific reference to the mouth and anus of Aemilius.
A number of female figurines from the Cypro-Archaic tombs of Amathus have been identified as frame-drum players on the basis of the round objects they hold. However, a close examination of these ...figurines reveals that several of them carry spheres instead of frame drums. These spheres represent a type of baetyl that served as a cult image in some Cypriot sanctuaries of the Cypro-Archaic period. Therefore, the terracottas may depict participants in a funerary ritual in which a baetyl played an important role.
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