Propertius 4.9

Amphitryoniades qua tempestate iuuencos egerat a stabulis, o Erythea, tuis, uenit ad inuictos pecorosa Palatia montis, et statuit fessos fessus et ipse boues, qua Velabra suo stagnabant flumine quoque nauta per urbanas uelificabat aquas.	In the season when Amphitryoniades man had driven young bulls from your stables, O Erythea, he came from cattle-rich Palatia to your unconquered mountains, and he, tired himself, set up tired cows, at the place the Vebabra was halting its flow and the sailor was sailing through urban waters.
sed non infido manserunt hospite Caco incolumes: furto polluit ille Iouem. incola Cacus erat, metuendo raptor ab antro, per tria partitos qui dabat ora sonos.	But Cacus, the unfaithful host did not leave them uninjured: he dishonored Jupiter with a theft. Cacus was a transplant, a robber from a fearful cave, who was making different sounds through three mouths.
hic, ne certa forent manifestae signa rapinae, auersos cauda traxit in antra boues, nec sine teste deo: furem sonuere iuuenci, furis et implacidas diruit ira fores.	He, lest certain signs of blunder were evident, dragged struggling cows by the tail into the caves, but not without the god as a witness: to denounce the thief of the bulls, rage pulled down the savage doors of the robber.
Maenalio iacuit pulsus tria tempora ramo Cacus, et Alcides sic ait: "ite, boues, Herculis ite boues, nostrae labor ultime clauae, bis mihi quaesitae, bis mea praeda, boues, aruaque mugitu sancite Bouaria longo: nobile erit Romae pascua uestra Forum."	Pounded three times by the Herculean club, Cacus lay down, and Alcide [Hercules] thus said: "Go, cows, go as cows of Hercules, the final labor of my cudgel, sought twice by me, twice my pillage, cows, and dedicate by mooing long and loud the Bovarian altar: your pasture will be the noble Forum of Roma."
dixerat, et sicco torquet sitis ora palato, terraque non ullas feta ministrat aquas. sed procul inclusas audit ridere puellas, lucus ubi umbroso fecerat orbe nemus, femineae loca clausa deae fontesque piandos impune et nullis sacra retecta uiris.	He had spoken, and thirst twisted his mouth with a dry palate, and the fertile land administered not any water. But nearby he heard that cloistered girls were laughing, where a wooded grove had formed a shady circle, a closed space for the feminine goddess, and with appeased fountains sacred things revealed to no man without punishment.
deuia puniceae uelabant limina uittae, putris odorato luxerat igne casa, populus et longis ornabat frondibus aedem, multaque cantantis umbra tegebat auis.	Crimson bands covered the remote threshholds, a putrid hovel was shining with smelly fire, a poplar tree adorned the temple with huge leaves, and shadows hid the multitude of singing birds.
huc ruit in siccam congesta puluere barbam, et iacit ante fores uerba minora deo: "uos precor, o luci sacro quae luditis antro, pandite defessis hospita fana uiris.	He rushed there, with dust thick in his dry beard, and said before the doors these less than godly words: "I pray to you, you who play in the cave of the grove, spread your welcoming temple to a tired man.
fontis egens erro circaque sonantia lymphis; et caua succepto flumine palma sat est. audistisne aliquem, tergo qui sustulit orbem? ille ego sum: Alciden terra recepta uocat.	A wanderer, in need of a spring and around the sounds of a spring; and the hollow of a hand is enough for accepting water. Do you hear of someone, who carried the world on his back? I am that man: the world accepted by me calls me Alcide.
quis facta Herculeae non audit fortia clauae et numquam ad uastas irrita tela feras, atque uni Stygias homini luxisse tenebras? [accipit: haec fesso uix mihi terra patet.]	Who has not heard the mighty deeds of Hercules club and his spear never useless against huge wildings, and that Stygian dark corners shone for the one man? [This land scarcely is open for weary me.]
quodsi Iunoni sacrum faceretis amarae, non clausisset aquas ipsa nouerca suas. sin aliquem uultusque meus saetaeque leonis terrent et Libyco sole perusta coma, idem ego Sidonia feci seruilia palla officia et Lydo pensa diurna colo, mollis et hirsutum cepit mihi fascia pectus, et manibus duris apta puella fui."	If you built holy places of altars to Juno, she herself, a stepmother, might not shut her doors. But if my face and leonine mane frighten anyone and my hair burned through by the Libyan sun, I am the same who worked in the official tunic of a Sidonian slave-girl and I work daily with a Lydian distaff, a soft ribbon binds my hair chest, and I was suited to be a girl with rough hands."
talibus Alcides; at talibus alma sacerdos puniceo canas stamine uincta comas: "parce oculis, hospes, lucoque abscede uerendo; cede agedum et tuta limina linque fuga. interdicta uiris metuenda lege piatur quae se summota uindicat ara casa.	With such words spoke Alcide; but at such words the nourishing priestess said, her gray hairs held back with a red ribbon: Spare your eyes, guest, and depart from our sacred grove; submit and leave and abandon this doorstep run away safe. It is designated pure of men and avengedy by a frightful law, that altar which is safe in this grove.
magno Tiresias aspexit Pallada uates, fortia dum posita Gorgone membra lauat. di tibi dent alios fontis: haec lympha puellis auia secreti limitis unda fluit."	Tiresias the prophet looked on Pallada to great cost, while she bathed her strong limbs with her Gorgone set aside. Let the gods give to you another fountain: this watery wave flows for girls of a secret path."
sic anus: ille umeris postis concussit opacos, nec tulit iratam ianua clausa sitim. at postquam exhausto iam flumine uicerat aestum, ponit uix siccis tristia iura labris:	Thus said the old woman: that man pounded the darkened doorposts with his upper arms, and the closed gate did not bear his angry thirst. But immediately after he quenched his passion with the tapped-out spring, with his lips scarcely dry, he promulgated this law:
"angulus hic mundi nunc me mea fata trahentem accipit: haec fesso uix mihi terra patet. Maxima quae gregibus deuota est Ara repertis, ara per has" inquit "maxima facta manus, haec nullis umquam pateat ueneranda puellis, Herculis aeternum nec sit inulta sitis."	This corner of the world now accpets me, dragging my fates: this land is scarcely open to weary me. This Greatest Altar is devoted to the discovered herd, the greatest altar of all those my hand made, this will ever be open for worship by no women, so that is not will be eternally unpunished for Hercules' thirst."
hunc, quoniam manibus purgatum sanxerat orbem, sic Sanctum Tatiae composuere Cures. Sancte pater salue, cui iam fauet aspera Iuno: Sancte, uelis libro dexter inesse meo.	This man, since with his hands he had dedicated the cleansed world, thus the Curian people had built the sacred temple of the Tatian. Farewll, sacred father, to whom bitter Juno now favors: Sacred one, wish favor to be with my book.

Propertius 1.22

Qualis et unde genus, qui sint mihi, Tulle, Penates,
    quaeris pro nostra semper amicitia.
si Perusina tibi patriae sunt nota sepulcra,
    Italiae duris funera temporibus,
cum Romana suos egit discordia cives—                 5
    sic mihi praecipue, pulvis Etrusca, dolor,
tu proiecta mei perpessa es membra propinqui,
    tu nullo miseri contegis ossa solo—
proxima suppositos contingens Umbria campos
    me genuit terris fertilis uberibus.

What kind of gods and of what race are the kind that belong to me,  Tullius,
you ask on account of our never-ending friendship.
If to you are known thee Perusian graves of our fathers,
the funerals of Italy in harsh times,
When Roman discord drove our cities--
thus to me sorrow especially, Etruscan dust,
you endured to the full the exposed limbs of my relative,
you cover up the bones of the miserable man with no soil--
Nearby Umbria, bordering on the subsitute plain
gave birth to me from her rich, fertile earth.

Propertius 1.21

Tu, qui consortem properas evadere casum,
    miles ab Etruscis saucius aggeribus,
quid nostro gemitu turgentia lumina torques?
    pars ego sum vestrae proxima militiae.
sic te servato possint gaudere parentes,                 5
    haec soror acta tuis sentiat e lacrimis:
Gallum per medios ereptum Caesaris enses
    effugere ignotas non potuisse manus;
et quaecumque super dispersa invenerit ossa
    montibus Etruscis, haec sciat esse mea.

You, who hurry to evade the common calamity,
a soldier, wounded, from the Etruscan ramparts,
why do you turn your swollen eyes to my groaning?
I, equally, am recently of your military campaign.
Thus let your parents able to rejoice in you, kept safe,
and let my sister sense of these events from your tears:
that Gallum, having broken through the middle of the sword gangs of Caeser,
was not able to flee to strange places;
And whatsoever bones she will have found dispersed
above the Etruscan mountains, that she might know these are mine.

Propertius 1.15:1-10

Propertius 1.15

Saepe ego multa tuae levitatis dura timebam,

hac tamen excepta, Cynthia, perfidia.

I was often fearing many harsh things of shallowness of yours, Cynthia, nevertheless, this betrayal was left out.

aspice me quanto rapiat fortuna periclo!
See that fortune might take me from such danger!
tu tamen in nostro lenta timore venis;
Nevertheless you come lazily to me, afraid.
et potes hesternos manibus componere crines 5

et longa faciem quaerere desidia,
And you are able to arrange yesterday's hair with your hands and to look at your own face with idleness.
nec minus Eois pectus variare lapillis,
.
ut formosa novo quae parat ire viro.

And not less to adorn your breast with Asian stones so that you, beautiful, might obtain a new man.

at non sic Ithaci digressu mota Calypso

desertis olim fleverat aequoribus: 10

And thus Calypso had not wept to the empty waves, disturbed by the Ithacan's departure.

multos illa dies incomptis maesta capillis
Unhappy, she had sat for many days with unkempt hair,
sederat, iniusto multa locuta salo,

et quamvis numquam post haec visura, dolebat

illa tamen, longae conscia laetitiae.

nec sic Aesoniden rapientibus anxia ventis 17

Hypsipyle vacuo constitit in thalamo:

Hypsipyle nullos post illos sensit amores,

ut semel Haemonio tabuit hospitio. 20

coniugis Euadne miseros elata per ignes

occidit, Argivae fama pudicitiae.

Alphesiboea suos ultast pro coniuge fratres, 15

sanguinis et cari vincula rupit amor.

quarum nulla tuos potuit convertere mores, 23

tu quoque uti fieres nobilis historia.

desine iam revocare tuis periuria verbis,

Cynthia, et oblitos parce movere deos;

audax ah nimium, nostro dolitura periclo,

si quid forte tibi durius inciderit!

alta prius retro labentur flumina ponto,

annus et inversas duxerit ante vices, 30

quam tua sub nostro mutetur pectore cura:

sis quodcumque voles, non aliena tamen.

tam tibi ne viles isti videantur ocelli,

per quos saepe mihi credita perfidiast!

hos tu iurabas, si quid mentita fuisses, 35

ut tibi suppositis exciderent manibus:

et contra magnum potes hos attollere Solem,

nec tremis admissae conscia nequitiae?

quis te cogebat multos pallere colores

et fletum invitis ducere luminibus? 40

quis ego nunc pereo, similis moniturus amantes

non ullis tutum credere blanditiis.

Tibullus 1.9:1-28

Quid mihi si fueras miseros laesurus amores,
Foedera per divos, clam violanda, dabas?
A miser, et siquis primo periuria celat,
Sera tamen tacitis Poena venit pedibus.
Parcite, caelestes: aequum est inpune licere 5
Numina formosis laedere vestra semel.
Lucra petens habili tauros adiungit aratro
Et durum terrae rusticus urget opus,
Lucra petituras freta per parentia ventis
Ducunt instabiles sidera certa rates: 10
Muneribus meus est captus puer, at deus illa
In cunerem et liquidas munera vertat aquas.
Iam mihi persolvet poenas, pulvisque decorem
Detrahet et ventis horrida facta coma;
Uretur facies, urentur sole capilli, 15
Deteret invalidos et via longa pedes.
Admonui quotiens 'auro ne pollue formam:
Saepe solent auro multa subesse mala.
Divitiis captus siquis violavit amorem,
Asperaque est illi difficilisque Venus. 20
Ure meum potius flamma caput et pete ferro
Corpus et intorto verbere terga seca.
Nec tibi celandi spes sit peccare paranti:
Est deus, occultos qui vetat esse dolos.
Ipse deus tacito permisit lene ministro, 25
Ederet ut multo libera verba mero;
Ipse deus somno domitos emittere vocem
Iussit et invitos facta tegenda loqui.'

If you were to wound my wretched love, why did you give
me your word before the gods, only to break it secretly?
Ah sadly, even if perjury is hidden at first,
punishment will come later, on silent feet.
Spare him, gods: it’s right that beauty should offend
your divinity, once, and go unpunished.
The farmer yokes his bulls to the useful plough
and works the land hard in search of profit:
fixed stars guide the swaying ships, through seas
obedient to the winds, in search of profit.
My lad’s captivated by gifts. But may the god
turn those gifts to ashes or running water.
Soon he’ll make amends: dust will take his beauty
and his hair will be entangled by the winds:
his face will be burned, his tresses burned by the sun,
and the long road will blister his tender feet.
How many times have I warned him: “ Don’t let gold
sully your beauty: many evils often lurk beneath the gold.
Venus is bitter and difficult with anyone
who violates love, captivated by wealth.
Scorch my head with fire instead, attack my body
with steel, and scar my back with the twisted lash.
Don’t hope to conceal it when you’re planning sin:
the god knows, who forbids wrongs to be hidden.
The god himself has often allowed a silent servant
to babble freely due to strong drink.
The god himself has ordered a voice subdued by sleep
to speak and tell unwillingly of things better buried.”

"The Girl in the Fireplace" by Jacob Clifton

Rose stares at him as he works, brittle and quiet.

"Are you all right?"

And the Doctor looks up, and says something as incomprehensible, as painful, as ugly, as worthless--and as true, and as beautiful--as he's ever said:

"I'm always all right."


--Jacob Clifton, TWOP

"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced, nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

--William Ernest Henley

Catullus 68:119-160

119 nam nec tam carum confecto aetate parenti una caput seri nata nepotis alit, qui cum diuitiis uix tandem iuuentus auitis nomen testatas intulit in tabulas, impia derisi gentilis gaudia tollens, suscitat a cano uolturium capiti:	For it not so dear in the fulfilled life of a parent is the life of a grandson-come-lately an only daughter nourishes, who, with ancestral riches only barely, at the end, a youth enters his name on the will and testament, stealing impious joy from a scorned relation, rouses the vultures from the gray-haired head:
125 nec tantum niueo gauisa est ulla columbo compar, quae multo dicitur improbius oscula mordenti semper decerpere rostro, quam quae praecipue multiuola est mulier. sed tu horum magnos uicisti sola furores, ut semel es flauo conciliata uiro.	Not any wife was so gladdened  by a snowy dove, who they say always snatches kisses more than is prudent with a nipping beak, than a woman who is especially promiscuous. But you alone overcome their great love frenzies, as once you were bought and paid for by a golden-haired man.
131 aut nihil aut paulum cui tum concedere digna lux mea se nostrum contulit in gremium, quam circumcursans hinc illinc saepe Cupido fulgebat crocina candidus in tunica.	You to whom my worthy light conceded either nothing or very little, she brought herself into my lap, she who was shining forth, whome Cupid was circling here and there often, brilliant white in a perfumed tunic.
135 quae tamen etsi uno non est contenta Catullo, rara uerecundae furta feremus erae ne nimium simus stultorum more molesti. saepe etiam Iuno, maxima caelicolum, coniugis in culpa flagrantem concoquit iram, noscens omniuoli plurima furta Iouis.	And if she is nevertheless not satisfied by Catullus, I will bear the rare deceptions of a modest mistress lest we are too stupid in an aggravating manner. Even often Juno, the greatest of the female heaven- dwellers, stomachs the flaming wrath of a wife in blaming mode, knowing of the many affairs of the gallivanting Jupiter.
141 atqui nec diuis homines componier aequum est, * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *	But it is not fair for humans to be compared to the gods,
142 ingratum tremuli tolle parentis onus. nec tamen illa mihi dextra deducta paterna fragrantem Assyrio uenit odore domum, sed furtiua dedit mira munuscula nocte, ipsius ex ipso dempta uiri gremio.	to lighten the reluctant burden of a fearful parent. Nevertheless, she, led not by a parental hand, she comes to my fragrent house, smelling of Syria, but she gave me a marvelous present in the furtive night, herself, taken away from lap itself of her husband.
147 quare illud satis est, si nobis is datur unis quem lapide illa dies candidiore notat. hoc tibi, quod potui, confectum carmine munus pro multis, Alli, redditur officiis, ne uestrum scabra tangat rubigine nomen haec atque illa dies atque alia atque alia.	Wherefore that is enough, if that day is given to me alone which day she marks with a shining jewel. This, Allius, because I was able, gift made of a song  for many services is delivered to you, lest this day and that and some and others touch your name with a scabby blight.
153 huc addent diui quam plurima, quae Themis olim antiquis solita est munera ferre piis. sitis felices et tu simul et tua uita, et domus in qua lusimus et domina,	Here let the gods give out as many as possible, which gifts Thetis was once accustomed to give to ancient pious ones. May you be happy, both you and your life, both the house in which we played and our mistress,
157 et qui principio nobis terram dedit aufert, a quo sunt primo omnia nata bona, et longe ante omnes mihi quae me carior ipso est, lux mea, qua uiua uiuere dulce mihi est.	and he who first gave and brought the world to me, from which all good things are first brought forth, and before all, she who is dearer to me than him, my shinding light, for because she is alive, to live is sweet to me.

Catullus 110 - 114

Catullus 110


AVFILENA, bonae semper laudantur amicae:
     accipiunt pretium, quae facere instituunt.
tu, quod promisti, mihi quod mentita inimica es,
     quod nec das et fers saepe, facis facinus.
aut facere ingenuae est, aut non promisse pudicae,
     Aufillena, fuit: sed data corripere
fraudando officiis, plus quam meretricis auarae
     quae sese toto corpore prostituit.

Aufilena, good girl friends are always praised:
 They accept their price for that which they set out to do.
You, because you promised, you are enemy to me because you lied,
  Because you do not give and often carry off, you make an outrage.
Either it was right for a freeborn to do it,
 or it was not right for a chaste woman to promise.
Aufilena: but to steal the things given for services
by cheating, that is more given to  a greedy whore
 who sells herself with her whole body.

Catullus 111

AVFILENA, uiro contentam uiuere solo,
     nuptarum laus ex laudibus eximiis:
sed cuiuis quamuis potius succumbere par est,
     quam matrem fratres efficere ex patruo…

Aufilena, to live content with a single man
is the greatest glory out of all the extreme glories of married women.
But it is equal to succumb to the power of whomever,
than for a mother to produce brothers from an uncle...

Catullus 112

MVLTVS homo es, Naso, neque tecum multus homo
     te scindat: Naso, multus es et pathicus.

 You are a lot of man, Naso, and many a man does not
tear you: and Naso, you are quite a bottom.


Catullus 113

CONSVLE Pompeio primum duo, Cinna, solebant
     Maeciliam: facto consule nunc iterum
manserunt duo, sed creuerunt milia in unum
     singula. fecundum semen adulterio.

Cinna, in the first consulship of Pompey, two men were accustomed
to Maeclia: now again with haim made consul
the two men remain, but a thousand in one sprang up from each.
His seed breeds adultery.

Catullus 114

FIRMANVS saltu non falso Mentula diues
     fertur, qui tot res in se habet egregias,
aucupium omne genus, piscis, prata, arua ferasque.
     nequiquam: fructus sumptibus exsuperat.
quare concedo sit diues, dum omnia desint.
     saltum laudemus, dum modo ipse egeat.

They report, truthfully,  that wealthy Mentula
is rich because of his land, who holds for himself so many outstanding things,
every kind of poultry, fish, fields, and wild growing lands.
In vain: in costs he surpasses his income.
Therefore I permit that he is rich, while he lacks everything.
Let us praise the pasture, while he alone is in need.

Questions and answers on "Catullus in Performance" by Skinner

1.         Does Quinn’s thesis that Catullus and the neoterics undertook the “writing of poetry as an artistic practice” reduce the neoteric poems to artifacts “that make one statement only, always the same statement”?  (Phaedrus, quoted in “The Hermeneutics of the Libellus,” page xxx).

I consider that there isn’t a text out there that exists on one level and makes only one statement. The other layers may not have been in intentional, but even if Catullus had written his poems for one audience, one performance, intending to produce one effect, they would still not be artifacts that made one statement only.  

2.         What effect did Catullus’ training in ancient rhetorical theory have on his poetry?  Should we appreciate his poems in the same manner as we appreciate the speeches of Cicero “with respect to the implied original performance”?  (Fitzgerald 6, quoted in “The Hermeneutics of the Libellus” on page xxi).

The context of the original poems presented in performance lend another shade to the possibilities of interpretation. Yes, when considering the poems, scholars should consider what they sounded like to an audience, in a knowledgable crowd, as well as the impression they may have made on a solitary reader.

 3.         If Lesbia is a scripta puella, “or symbol of the poetic product” (“The Hermeneutics of the Libellus,” page xxx), does Professor Skinner think that the Lesbia poems were never intended for performance?

The Lesbia poems may have been a deliberate cultivation of a persona rather than a outpouring of unbridled emotion, but if that were so, it would make them more likely to have been intended for performance. If you are going to fabricate a love affair, the whole point is that other people watch you do it. It seems possible that just as many of the friendships referenced in the poems were perhaps more aspirational than actual, the grand passion maybe have been a fabrication as well, and would necessitate public recognition.

 4.         Does Professor Skinner think the reader/listener/performer has an active role in a poem, or is that role limited to extracting the poet’s intentions from the text itself?  Upon consideration of her comments in “Catullus in Performance,” consider her comments in “The Hermeneutics of the Libellus” on pages xxxiv to xxxv) regarding the “authorial audience” “defined by the form and intentionality of the text.”

 Professor Skinner examines the effect that the poems may have had on the audience, and so consider the audience essential to constructing the meaning of the poem. She mentions Catullus 4, where the audience may have known Catullus’s history and could picture exactly the boat he was describing. Catullus may have crafted or performed that poem knowing what the audience would know, but even if he did, he could still not control how the poem would be received, nor guarantee that everyone listening would have the same level of knowledge.

5.         In her discussion of Catullus 16, Professor Skinner says that “[e]rotic versiculi were a contrasting way of relaxing inhibitions” and argues, citing Amy Richlin, that “[s]atire afforded a kind of catharsis for rage and anxiety.”  Is erotic elegy a literary form of Freudian therapy to relieve neuroses caused by repression of the “pleasure principle”?

There is an exquisite thrill in having one’s own thoughts expressed by someone else. I think the erotic elegies produce that kind of thrill, one that obviates Tennyson’s distress that he “would that he could find the words for the thoughts that arise in him.” However, the premise of this question rests on the assumption of repression of emotions is common and that it is detrimental. I am persuaded that the first is accurate. In other words, I don’t give credence to the idea that Roman men were stoppered volcanoes of emotion looking for a release of pressure in erotic elegy. I find it more likely that  they expressed a common feeling and emotion, and the value came from the thrill of those common emotions being expressed well.

6.         Like Shane, I offer a bonus question.  Would you teach Catullus 16 in a high school Latin class?

Yes, in translation, with the first and last lines softened.

Questions and Answers on the Skinner Overview of Scholarship on the Catullan Question

1) Although Skinner is summarizing the work of others in this chapter she still has a recognizable presence. How would you characterize that presence and what does it contribute?

Skinner continues to make her presense known through her style of writing, her references to her own work, and her commentaries on the authors. Her style of writing is in the first person, and she mentions in several instances her general opinions on Catullan scholarship. Concerning the “Catullan question”, she comments that it is absurd to imagine that there is only one, and she also brings in some sarcasm towards the end when she comments on how it has taken 150 years to get scholarship on the question to where it is today.

Skinner references her own work on only a handful of occasions, most notably in the beginning, when she declares that she will not take a stand on the question since the overview is for students and she wishes to allow them room to form their own conclusions.

In addition, she evaluates the work of several of the contributers after summarizing their conclusions. While does not declare a verdict for them, her valuation of each’s contributions is inescapable.

2) If we took the liber Catulli as it stands today, and scrambled it, what would be lost?

Ask Gaisser stated in the article last week, each poem can change with the reader and with the context in which it is read. To our benefit or otherwise, the present liber Catulli carries meaning within its structure and changing that structure would lose that meaning. The variation can mean many things and may or may not be unintentional, but a book of Catullan poems in which each topic was covered thoroughly and then abandoned when paint a picture of Catullus as an obsessive who dropped completely a subject when it was done. The jumble of poems concerning Lesbia produces an effect similar to the movie 500 Days of Summer, where it was not the linear progression but the emotional moments that took turns raising themselves in the author’s memory or experience. A liber Catulli that placed the poem concerning his brother at the beginning would take on a different tone than the one where you encounter a grieving Catullus already after you have read him when he was joyful.

While much would be lost, I suspect a similar allotment would be gained. Our impressions of Catullus would be different, but not nonexistent. As we read Catullus and as we form theories about his style, education, and intention, we create an image of Catullus that we have no method of verifying. A different order would merely produce in us a different mental image, one perhaps equally accurate.

3) How would an editor’s arrangement of the liber Catulli be recognizably different from the author’s arrangement?

We may or may not know the author’s arrangement, so the present arrangement might, in fact, be an editor’s arrangement. But for the purposes of this question, it would depend on the editor. If you imagine that each scholarly contributor to the Catullan question was instead the editor of the poems instead of their analyst, I suppose some of the editors would place them in chronological order. Some ad hoc editors would group them thematically. At least one would amuse himself by arrange the poems by theme so the scheme resembles that of elegiac meter. And considering the state of other collections from around that time in history, at least one editor would put them in descending order of length.

4) Schmidt veiws 9, 12, and 13 as a “structural pivot” and part of an “architectonic design.” How do you evaluate this claim? (Yes, you can interpret this question in a couple of different ways… Take your pick.)

To evaluate the claim, you would first determine what precisely Schmidt intends by his criticism. Once that is determined, you would look at the other poems that resemble 9,12, and 13 and examine them for similar characteristics, and then look at the overarching design to see if the nature of collection truly hinges on those poems.

5) Let’s pretend that authorial intent for the present grouping and ordering of Catullus were proven beyond a shadow of a doubt tomorrow. What would the scholarly community do with that information? What would be the next intellectual step? In particular, how do you think our understanding of 51 would change?

The scholarly community, once it was convinced that the order was intentional, would then proceed to theorize as to the reasons behind the order of the poems. The next intellectual step might be to reexamine other poets and their works, to see if anyone else used a similar chaotic pattern. As for Poem 51, the otium stanza is presently occasionally discounted by scholars owing to the possibility that its placement is not deliberate. Were it known to be deliberate, it might be taken as a change of direction, a moment of self-flagellation, or a moment when Catullus give himself to self-loathing.

Presentation on Gaisser Chapter 6

Interpretive Approach: Reader Response Criticism

Textual citation contributes meaning, according to modern scholars who invoke reader response criticism to maintain that meaning is contributed when and if the reader recognizes the reference. The test of an interpretation’s validity is if it makes sense in the context of the poem and the work.

Gaisser’s Argument

Catullus’ poems are a system, and they are more powerful when taken as a whole. Catullus’ poems are not a closed system – they are filled with references and allusions to and translations of other poetry, both in Latin and Greek, and particularly the poetry of Sappho.

Textual citation contributes meaning, according to modern scholars who invoke reader response criticism to maintain that meaning is contributed when and if the reader recognizes the reference. The test of an interpretation’s validity is if it makes sense in the context of the poem and the work.

Vocabulary and meter

Poem 70

Uses the same meter, structure and vocabulary as the Callimachus poem

Differs from Callimachus poem by being present and personal and switches the gender of the actors. The differences are striking because of the established similarities.

Poem 101

Uses the same vocabulary as the opening of the Odyssey by Homer and similar vocabulary to a passage from the Aeneid. Aeneas is discoursing with the dead, but Catullus, in his less magical age, can only interact with ashes. Odysseus also had a partially failed journey as he made him home but did not bring his comerades home safely. The reference to Troy in the poem by Homer invokes the reader’s memory of Catullus’ brother’s death at Troy.

Translations

Poems 50 and 51

Poem 50 is a cover letter, reminding his friend of the fun they had with playing with poetry.Poem 51 is a translation from Sappho. The translation mimics Sappho’s meter, strophe, and narrative content. Catullus’ poem differs in the exact structure and is more personal, naming names. Catullus also changes the gender of the observer and adds an additional stanza. If we consider the cover letter and translation the opening moves of a poetry game, and giving Lesbia the name he does evokes both Clodia and Sappho. The final stanza sets the poem firmly in the frame of leisure.

Poem 11

Linked by meter to poem 51 and the two have been taken as the beginning and end of the affair. Both use identidem and both are translations from Sappho and change the gender of the speaker. Both characters in Catullus’ poem are double-gendered: Catullus is the victim twice and Lesbia the destroyer twice.

Poems 65 and 66

Cover letter to a translation to a friend; poem 66 is a translation from Callimachus. The intertexts of poem 65 are similes, invoking characters and stories told in other poems. The first simile refers to a character in the Odyssey, and the second refers to a story from Aetia by Callamachus. In poem 65, the translation of Callimachus poems also evokes the loss of Catullus’ brother. The themes of loss and grief in poem 65 recall the content of Catullus’ other poems.

Timelines

Poem 64

The intertext is the story. The story of the Argos, of Medea after Jason, of Ariadne and Theseus, and the how the Argo is the very first ship, but the poem ends with its maiden voyage. The story starts with dicuntur, which marks it as allusive from the beginning. The wedding night of a passenger on the Argos is covered with a tapestry that tells the story of Theseus and includes his swift ship. Time is jumbled here. The allusions superimpose “the chronologically impossible voyages of Theseus and Jason.”

• Specify the scholarly contribution that the study makes

Scholarly Contribution

·         Purposes and types of allusions in Catullus

·         Insight into the education and poetic style of Catullus

·         Model for an effective use of reader response criticism

Brief Critique

This is an excellent article. It is focused, clearly argued, and the structure is linear and foundational. The citations are relevant, support the argument, and the scope of the allusions follow a logical progression.

Questions

1. How does Gaisser back up her claims in this article?

·         By showing specific relationships (vocabulary, context, poetic structure) that clearly show that Catullus must have put some conscious effort in reflecting the themes and content of already existing poems and other works.

·         By side-to-side analysis of the Catullan poem and the poem he was trying to emulate. Intertextuality, in its purest form.

·         By assessing their alleged Greek and Roman models, showing us where a line might correlate to a Homeric of Sapphic line, where it might diverge and why. 

·         A very detailed textual exegesis of individual words and phrases, such as multa, examining allusions to writers such as Homer, Callimachus and Sappho.

·         Explores the importance of meter, poetic structure and Catullus’ creative translations with his own variations of Callimachus. 

·         Intertextual references (Sappho, Homer, Ennius, Vergil) and presents

·         A side-by-side comparison with Catullus to makes her points nearly indisputable.

·         By numerous citations of other ancient writers such as Callimachus, Vergil, Homer, Sappho, etc.

·         Presents them immediately following one another so the similarities cannot be ignored. 

·         Includes references to recent scholarship, as shown in her notes at the end of the chapter, but those are significantly fewer.

2. What is the utility to Catullus in changing the gender of the authorial voice?

·         To fully compliment an author who writes in one voice.

·         Make his poem more personal (less generic) and also more emotional, as men had the tendency to mask theirs.

·         Effectively display and or justify his frantic emotional state, and his readers no doubt familiar with this trope would appreciate it. 

·         Tipping his hat to his callimachian and sapphic models, whom he wants to reflect his appreciation for, and he displays his wit in the process

·         Conforms to the elegaic convention of a female domina and her submissive male counterpart.

·         An effort by catullus to earn some sympathy from his readers, in that he is the passive one in the relationship and is being pressed upon by the more persistent lesbia.

·         Allows him to identify with the female persona, and portray emotions through her thoughts and words.

·         Reflects his relationship with lesbia in his role as both victim and active agent. It displays how (much like in 85) he's femininely receiving the brunt of woe from lesbia.

·         Plays on his role as the victim of the unfaithfulness of lesbia.  This turns the tables on the gender roles of the romans, which were similar to the ones in place in our time.

3. Gaisser mentions multiple ways Catullus alludes to other works in his poems. What are some of the ways?

·         The Lesbia poems are a direct reference to Sappho (Lesbia a pseudonym for Clodia as well as a descriptive term for Sappho of Lesbos). 

·         Translated a Callimachean poem in Catullus 66 and

·         Treats Callimachean themes throughout his elegies.  He also

·         Uses the same syntax and structure as various poets throughout his work, as in the epic meter in Catullus 64, reflecting Vergil and Homer.

·         Alludes in the ekphrais of the coverlet in 64 to the works of Euripides, Apollonius, Ennius

·         Alludes to his own poems on numerous occasions. 

·         Metrically (Sapphic meters of 11 and 51),

·         Adjectivally (65 with variants of quanta for Homeric (polla) and Vergil (multa))

·         Thematically (Medea figures and Callimachean ideology).

·         Constant stressing of repetitious actions(multa/polla), along with the piety to his brother and Trojan locale of his brother's death. 

·         The Sapphic allusions give physical-through Clodia- and literary, through supposed interest in Sappho- drive to his own poetic inspiration. 

·         Homer and epic most notably in poem 64, which carries on epic themes. 

·         He also transmits the poems of Callimachus, 65 and 116, into Latin and changes them to fit in with his work. 

·         He also alludes to Sappho as Gaisser shows in her side by side comparison of the two. 

·         By fitting his poems in with the language, meter, and subject matter of previous writers stating that he deserves to be placed in their midst.

·         Repetition of certain key words ("multa" being the main).

·         Sapphic meter.

·         Callimachean theme.

4. What does the intertextuality in Catullus 64 add to a reading of the poem?

The intertextual allusions in Catullus 64 add a depth and richness to the poem that would not exist.  By mimicking the style and structure of the epic poems of Homer and Vergil, Catullus gives 64 a weight that his other poems seemingly do not have.

Catullus mocks Callimachus by writing the same kind of poem - a mini epic that isn't epic. It was perhaps laughable, while at the same time read as a very good book. Much like Twilight was a laughable, but serious, homage to Dracula.

Catullus 64 is an especially learned poem. Gaisser’s investigation of the allusions to the Medea story and to Euripides, Apollonius, Ennius add a great deal to our understanding of the literary background and the emotional nuances of the poem.

Catullus alludes to his own poems in reference to poem 64. His description of Ariadne’s madness, for example, seems to be related to his description of the madness of Attis in 63. Please indulge me, the literary treatment of madness is a favorite topic of mine. Ariadne laments the family and culture of Crete she has left behind in Crete, while Attis laments the state, his family, and the cultural institutions he has abandoned. Both poems demonstrate the creative use of words related to madness, including the coining of new words; a prayer to send madness or disaster to other people; and the use of meter (frequent dactyls in one, the galliamabic meter in the other) to convey an aspect of madness.

It really highlights Catullus' mastery of poetry and even his likeness to Callimachus. Catullus, like Callimachus, shows in 64 that he could have written epic but chose not to. As Gaisser points out, he successfully imitates Homer, Vergil, Ennius, and Apollonius -- probably the most major four names in epic. So, in a sense, even though 64 is an epyllion it possesses a concentration of epic themes that is beyond impressive.

64 is a formidable poem and a intense study of the heroine, which is the dominant motif of the epyllion genre.  Through an attentive use of different sources, Catullus creates a fantastical rendering of the stories of Peleus and Thetis, the Argonauts, and of Ariadne.  The greatest effect seems to be that characters, such as Medea and Ariadne, and chronological impossibilities converge to create a highly charged and multi-dimensional narrative.

As we saw in the Clausen article, Catullus is using clearly epic themes without actually writing an epic.  The characters of Theseus and Ariadne bring up mythoological references and epic themes, but his meter and the focus on the heartbreak and love place him in the realm of elegy.  Gaisser points this out to show how unique and skillful this poem was.

5. How do Catullus' translations of Sappho interpret, allude to, and mimic the original Greek?

First and foremost, Catullus translates Sappho in her original, Sapphic, meter in Catullus 51.  Additionally, Catullus’ translation of Sappho 31 in his 51^st poem very closely mimics the original, save for the fact that the gender roles are reversed for the observer and an additional stanza is added, which is not clearly related to the other three.

I can't contribute any new information (the three or four guys before me beat me to it). But yes, the meter is uniquely the same, and the gender reversal, and also the scene with the godly man and the woman are all similar.

First and foremost, Catullus translates Sappho in her original, Sapphic, meter in Catullus 51.  Additionally, Catullus’ translation of Sappho 31 in his 51^st poem very closely mimics the original, save for the fact that the gender roles are reversed for the observer and an additional stanza is added, which is not clearly related to the other three.

Catullus 51 is a creative translation of a Sapphic poem, using the same meter of Sapphic strophes. There are numerous minor variations, but the last stanza of Catullus 51 has no counterpart in the Sappho original. Part of Gaisser’s effectiveness in comparing Catullus’ and Sappho’s poems lies in her argument that Catullus 51 not only imitates Sappho, but resonates with other poems in the Catullan corpus, e.g., 50.

His use of the Sapphic meter is perhaps the most obvious similarity. As has been said, gender role reversal does occur (appropriate for poets both with homo/bisexual preferences), but both poems are also structurally and thematically linked but Catullus add his own additional stanza.

As both Phil and Gaisser state, the affinities between Sappho 31 and Catullus 51 are very close, both composed in the same meter with similar themes, and their concern with "delirious passion."  Catullus interprets this poem through his translation and of using it as a front-piece for his own emotional problems.  Gaisser does not work actively enough with the Greek text to make a more learned comparison. 

The Sapphic translations of Catullus fit in with the Sapphic meter and form.

If we look at Gaisser's example, we can see the obvious counterparts in Catullus.  Although there are minor variations, this again shows the skill of Catullus in mimicking a poet whom few were able to imitate skillfully.