The Pursuit of Happiness

Commager, Henry Steele

doi:10.1177/039219216501304903

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…29. [2][3] to the exposure of her as a worthless nymphomaniac. The poem begins with a highfiown ironic phrase disertissime Romuli nepotum (cf.…”

Section: The Polymetricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two kissing-poems are different from one another. The last part of the first (5) shows Catullus using finger-gestures which both represent the number of kisses and scorn of the old puritans, adoration of the beloved, the aversion of the evil eye while Lesbia keeps the tally with pebbles on a board, which she finally shuffles to confuse the issue. This is a poem of happy love.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The genius of the poem consists in the poet's capacity to distance himself from himself and observe his condition. 2 The other two poems are both poems of renunciation, set within a recognized genre. Here again Lesbia is not named; here alone is directly addressed puella; elsewhere she is mea puella.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is a marvellous piece of self-examination mightily expressed. 5 The next poem is something of a curiosity. The language is again the application of political terminology to personal relations, which fits it firmly into the Lesbia-cycle: bene uelle, mereri, pium, ingrata, fecisse benigne, unum atque unicum amicum.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

V. The Poems (1)

1988

New Surveys in the Classics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Catullus chooses to introduce his readers to the woman central to his life in the two poems about her pet sparrow. She is not there identified even by the pseudonym Lesbia, but, whatever other women there may have been in the poet’s life, there is no serious doubt that all the six love-poems in the first eleven refer to the same woman. We have come to appreciate that the first of these (2) is a hymn, the sparrow who drew Aphrodite’s carriage taking on her divinity, that it stands within Hellenistic traditions, and that the language is highly erotic in its details. There is one potent ambiguity: strouthos in Greek and its Latin equivalents, turtur and the like, are used of the male sex-organ. This gives a strong ambiguity to the second poem (3), where G. Giangrande has argued that the death of the sparrow has an underlying meaning of sexual impotence. Not everyone accepts this, but there is no doubt about the ambiguities of passer, pipiare, mouere, gremium, and mors. The point is not that the poem is about sexual impotence, but that it must be read at more than one level.

show abstract

“…29. [2][3] to the exposure of her as a worthless nymphomaniac. The poem begins with a highfiown ironic phrase disertissime Romuli nepotum (cf.…”

Section: The Polymetricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations