Catullus’ erotic poems to Lesbia are masterful in their economy of language and precision in representing the minute details of erotic fascination. The present analysis concentrates on one of the poet’s chosen literary tools: the comparisons of mortals to gods. Such a comparison appears three times in the corpus of Catullus’ short poems, namely in c. 51, 70 and 72. Even though the similes themselves may appear analogous, it may be argued that their function is different in c. 51 and different in two latter examples. In c. 51 (paraphrasing Sappho’s famous ode) the person compared to a god is Lesbia’s anonymous interlocutor. The fact that he is par deo, equal to a god, or indeed, better than the gods themselves (superare divos) is the only thing the reader fi nds out about him. The reason for such an elevated position for this anonymous man is simply that he can talk to Lesbia, Catullus’ beloved. Thus the comparison to a god is not aimed at exalting him; it is rather a subtle and elaborate complement for the beloved woman. Catullus also adds one more element, absent in Sappho’s ode: the element of pietas, respect towards the gods (si fas est). This piety becomes of special importance in c. 76, believed by many to be the closing poem in the Lesbia cycle, where Catullus points out the fact that, unlike Lesbia, he himself never broke the rules of fi des towards the gods or society; yet the latter term means for him not the Roman civitas, but rather the private society constituted by him and his beloved woman. Two other examples, c. 70 and 72, could be linked to the same concept of pietas. In both cases, it is the woman who makes the comparison and her lover who is the one compared to the gods. Yet in both cases the comparison is but a rhetorical exaggeration: Lesbia never truly means what she says; her words should be written down “on the wind and fast-fl owing water” and the fact that Catullus treats her words seriously and builds upon them will soon become his undoing. What he tries to build is a society replacing the traditional one, consisting of him and his beloved. This society does, however, honour traditional Roman values, such as pietas, loyalty, only their focus is shifted: the lovers are supposed to honour these values in relation not to the whole Roman nation, populus Romanus, but to each other. Theirs, as Catullus believes, is the love that constitutes social relationships, one that creates societies. But Lesbia will not, and in fact cannot, love like that. Her declaration that she prefers him and marriage to him than to Jupiter is just a rhetorical phrase, typical for the language of common love (cf. c. 72, ut vulgus amicam). Her lack of loyalty (fi des) towards her lover is symbolized by statements placing him over the gods; statements both empty and exaggerated, showing her lack of piety (fi des) towards the gods, just like her actions indicate a lack of reliability towards her lover.