I had genuinely hoped that I would have more time before I hit one of those poems that I knew Catullus had written but personally hadn’t read. One of those poems with invective and pejorative vocabulary and sexual violence. Not a lepidus versus, no matter what Catullus might claim. So, I knew I was in trouble when I read the VROMA content warning and I hadn’t gotten any further than poem #6 in this undertaking.
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Catullus 5: An Easier Prose Story
After working through the difficulty of Catullus 4, I was immensely—immensely—grateful when I turned to Catullus 5 and immediately recognized the famous opening line. A somewhat simple poem! Indeed, let us live and love indeed! Still, I do remember when I first read this poem when I was a beginning Latin student. It’s straightforward to me now, but it wasn’t then. The genitive of value and those final lines with the cum clauses and negative purposes clauses and the dropping of ali- from aliquis left me scratching my head a little. Still, I thought it was a fun poem, and it is a fun poem. Every generation can relate to…
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Catullus 4: An Easier Prose Story
I’m going to sacrifice myself on the proverbial alter of dignity and tell you exactly what I felt while I was reading Catullus 4 for the first time: WHAT AM I EVEN READING? It didn’t help that I didn’t know the first word of the poem or that it took me far longer than I care to admit to realize that the boat was speaking. I went into Catullus 4 with absolutely no background knowledge of what I was going to read, and it won. Handily. For a rather long time.
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Catullus 3: An Easier Prose Story
Catullus 3 is a lament for the death of Lesbia’s sparrow, a lament that seems to focus more on the change in Lesbia’s physical appearance due to her grief than any genuine grief for the sparrow’s death on Catullus’ part. I wonder how Lesbia might have interpreted poems with this subtext about her lack beauty while she is grieving. I certainly would have been angry.
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Catullus 2B: An Easier Prose Story
Most scholars have separated Catullus 2 and Catullus 2B for reasons that are now, to me anyway, clear having (finally) read both poems. If joined, the last three lines are a weird ending to a poem addressed to a sparrow. They just don’t make sense together. These three lines also seem a little weird floating out in isolation from anything else: I want more backstory, Catullus! What exactly is so pleasing to you, darn it?!
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Catullus 2: An Easier Prose Story
Catullus 2, along with Catullus 3, are famous poems referencing Lesbia’s pet sparrow. While a sparrow may seem like an unusual pet today, they were common pets, especially as a gift from a lover. My cats would love for me to have a pet bird, but I imagine it would be a little much for everyone: me, the cats, the poor tormented bird, and my husband. I struggled some with this poem. Is it a sex metaphor? Maybe. Some people seem to have made that argument. Catullus doesn’t shy away from that topic. Though, I’m not sure I’m sold on that interpretation. Instead, I see some of the longing, the…
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Catullus 1: an Easier Prose Story
I must confess something that seems rather shameless in the world of people who read Latin: I have read very little Catullus. In fact, I’ve read maybe a handful of poems, only two that I remember in any detail. I have probably read the poems about Lesbia’s famous sparrow—maybe, anyway—but I do vividly remember both Catullus 51 and 101. I might have even agreed to memorize Catullus 51 for one of my student’s fundraisers, where I recited it on stage in a toga. Though I don’t remember what prompted me to read Catullus 101, its pain and grief are renowned. Maybe that’s what drew me to it, the sense of…
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Tiered Reading of Catullus 13
In Catullus 13, Catullus invites a friend to come to dinner–and bring the dinner. This tiered reading of Catullus 13 breaks the poem into successive tiers of difficulty to aid in reading comprehension before reading the unadapted poem. These tiered readings can be used in conjunction with this teaching activity about parasites, which can be used when teaching the Mostellaria. A translation of the poem can also be found here.
