ABSTRACT
With a keen eye, Catullus describes the spinning Parcae in his epyllion. By rendering it “on the thumb”, it is not further elucidated. Instead of using the technical verbs ducere, deducere or trahere Ovid elaborates it through repetere longo tractu, and mollire varies formare referring to the smoothing of the thread. Irrespective of whether the drawing of the wool or the handling of the spindle is concerned, the instrumental ablative is regularly used in describing the hand’s (the fingers’) activities. There is one passage, though, that seems to offer a parallel to prono in pollice in the Catullan passage: Apuleius De mundo. The finished part of the work, gathered as it is on the spindle (in fuso), corresponds to the past, whereas what is being twined on the fingers symbolizes the laps of the present moment.
