Under the Great Mother's Sway: An Excursion through Martial Book Three

Abstract:Recurring motifs are a well-noted structuring and meaning-making device in Martial's epigrams. In this article I demonstrate how the word Gallus and its cognates create specific significance in book three, engendering both a tangible architecture within the book and facilitating intertexts between these poems and those of Catullus and Ovid. Moreover, by blurring the discrete meanings of Gallus (both as the not fully-male devotee of Cybele and as the non-Roman Gaul) and gallus, (the non-human rooster) Martial can present himself as a challenging but non-threatening poet—cocky but ultimately domesticated—and invite the reader to consider their own status and identity in turn.