Catullus’ poem of The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis is written as an epyllion. Catullus uses allusion and similes throughout his work to focus and enrich certain parts of his story to emphasize their importance and meaning. Catullus starts his poem by dictating the story of Peleus falling for Thetis. But this is merely a frame story for the story of Theseus, his love tryst with the princess Ariadne and his conquering of the Minotaur. Catullus uses many styles to convey his purpose in his poem. The first that we shall look at is his set up of conflict. Catullus starts the main story with Ariadne having already been faulted and abandoned on the shore. He sets up the story so that you know that the “hero” of the story is in fact a villain as well. The images he uses gives the idea that this woman is abandoned with nothing. Even her clothes leave her, she stands there totally naked and vulnerable, the last thing she has is the gods. Even this story is somewhat of a frame story. As the fates say that Venus put the nettles of hurt in her heart when Theseus left his homeland, and then the story shifts to the beginning of Theseus’ story. The Heroic story then starts about the man who is willing to give his life for his people. He volunteers to take the place of one of the Athenians who will be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Ariadne then falls for him and with her help Theseus beats the Minotaur. At this point Catullus breaks the fourth wall of writing and switches to directly talking to the reader. Catullus openly questions his own poem saying that why would he digress so far from his original poem. He then answers himself thereby telling the reader why he is writing this as well as marking the importance of parts of the poem. He says the reason that he digresses is “to describe how the daughter left behind her sire’s gaze, her sister embrace and her mother’s”. This focuses on the separation of Ariadne from her family. The separation of family was obviously important to Catullus. Ariadne broke her natal relationships in favor of Theseus. Catullus now focuses on Ariadne’s loss of family. Restating how she choose her conjugal relationship to Theseus over her parents and sister. Because she helped Theseus kill the Minotaur who was also her brother (possible guilt of fratricide?) she can no longer return home to her other natal relations. Often the gods punish those who have killed their natal relations in horrendous ways but since the Minotaur was a half-brother-monster it appears she has not lost favor with the gods, although she is stranded for committing this act the gods see the injustice in her plight and acknowledge her prayers. Catullus is able to set up this story by introducing the characters in a way that you can know how they end up. He then tells the story of the character giving you the backstory of their deeds. This technique gives the reader a very bold and strong first impression of each character