Shall live, though high for heavenly beauty prized,
By youths unhonoured, and by maids despised.”
One of the lines in the passage of Catullus,
“Multi illum pueri—multæ optavere puellæ,”
and its converse,
“Nulli illum pueri—nullæ optavere puellæ,”
have been copied by Ovid in his Metamorphoses[499], and applied to Narcissus,
“Multi illum pueri, multæ cupiere puellæ.
Sed fuit in tenerâ tam dura superbia formâ,
Nulli illum juvenes, nullæ tetigere puellæ.”