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Catullus 17 and 67, and the Catullan Construct

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Judy Deuling
Judy Deuling*
Affiliation:
The Victoria University of Wellington
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Extract

In Love by the Numbers Helena Dettmer suggests that poem 17, which begins o Colonia, quae cupis ponte ludere longo, belongs to a disparate group of poems within the Catullan corpus, which contains poems with personified inanimate objects. Yet two of that larger group, poem 17 and poem 67 (addressed to a house door or ianua), are more closely drawn together by their settings, which the author hints are northern and specific while leaving them undefined and general. Furthermore, the two represent personified wooden objects, a bridge (poem 17) and a door (poem 67), while the broader group of poems includes personified estates and poetry. Finally, the metre of poem 17 is unique within the Catullan corpus. It sets the poem apart from the others and assists in defining its character.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 40 , 2006 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2006

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References

1 Dettmer, H., Love by the Numbers: Form and the Meaning in the Poetry of Catullus (New York 1997) 84 Google Scholar. Dettmer's group includes poems 4,17,31,35, 36, 37,42,44,66 and 67. For example, some of the personified objects speak directly or indirectly or are addressed, while others are simply described. Within Dettmer's loosely related group, poem 4 corresponds to 66, since the phaselus or boat dedicates himself to a constellation, and the lock of Berenice's hair becomes a constellation. Poems 17 and 67 are linked by the theme of impotence; in the first the lethargic husband is the focal point, while the lascivious and promiscuous wife is emphasised in 67.

2 The third wooden object is the phaselus or boat in poem 4, which complements the bridge in poem 17 and the house door in poem 67; likewise poem 4 is set in the north. For further discussion of poem 4 and the phaselus, see Deuting, ‘Catullus 4 - Re-revisited yet again’, forthcoming.

3 Dettmer (n. 1) 81-5; see also Jocelyn, H.D., ‘The Language of Catullus 17 and that of its Immediate Neighbours in the Transmitted Collection’, Sileno 22 (1996) 137–63Google Scholar, and more recently Claes, P., ‘Concatenate Catulliana.’ A New Reading of the Carmina (Amsterdam 2002) 33,38,44 Google Scholar.

4 Copley, F.O., Amator, Exclusus: A Study in Latin Love Poetry (Madison, Wisconsin 1956) 50 Google Scholar; see also Hallett, J.P.,‘ Ianua iucunda: The Characterization of the Door in Catullus 67’, Collection Latomus 168 (1980) 106 Google Scholar. Copley describes the door as the protector of Roman morality and marriage, while Hallett suggests that Catullus by his characterization intends to represent the door as a respectable and virtuous Roman woman.

5 Glenn, J., ‘A Roman Poet at Play: Bridge Symbolism in Catullus 17’, The McNeese Review 36 (1998) 2 Google Scholar; see earlier Rudd, N., ‘Colonia and her Bridge: A Note on the Structure of Catullus 17’, TAPA 90 (1959) 239–40Google Scholar.

6 Glare, P.G.W. (ed.), Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford 1982)Google Scholar ad loc. The adjective inepta taken literally from its root aptus is most suited to a description of the bridge, but this example in poem 17 may be one of the few attestations of such usage.

7 Thomson, D.F.S., Catullus (Toronto, Buffalo and London 1997) 288 Google Scholar. Thomson essentially agrees with Baehrens but sees no need to make the adjective a proper name.

8 Glenn (n. 5) 3; see more specifically Khan, H. Akbar, ‘Image and Symbol in Catullus 17’, CPh 64 (1969) 91–2Google Scholar.

9 Thomson (n. 7) 253 reads Salisubsili instead.

10 Glenn (n. 5) 4-5. Glenn suggests further that Catullus might predate Artemidorus and his work on dream interpretation in that respect, although he may well have relied on sources earlier than Catullus.

11 Fifteen of the remaining forty-five complete stanzas of the wedding song, poem 61, end with the refrain: ‘io Hymen Hymenaee io, / io Hymen Hymenaee’, calling on Hymen to sanctify the marriage and the ‘play’.

12 Zarker, J.W., ‘ Mule, nihil sentis (Catullus 83 and 17)’, CJ 64 (1968/1969) 172fGoogle Scholar. By itself the claim relies on the single use and unknown meaning of the word metellus, but the combined set of verbal echoes and word play amongst the several poems along with the historical references cited by Zarker parallels the types of verbal and intellectual links Catullus makes within other groups of poems throughout the corpus.

13 In some respects gender boundaries appear to blur between the use of mulus and mula among the three poems, but the nature of the beast holds, whether male or female. As Zarker suggests, the use of the feminine mula allows internal rhyming and sound-play within poem 17, while that use is strengthened further by the description and use of mulae in poem 97.

14 Forsyth, P.Y., The Poems of Catullus: A Teaching Text (Lanham, Maryland, New York and London 1986) 449 Google Scholar; see also Hallett (n. 4) 112.

15 In poem 31, for example, Catullus describes his own homecoming to his estate at Sirmio, which is personified as his mistress. At line 12, he addresses Sirmio, and urges her to rejoice in her master, using the term ero: salue, o uenusta Sirmio, atque ero gaude. Although sex between the two is implied, the situation is not viewed as marriage nor as intercourse between husband and wife with intent to produce legitimate offspring, as forms of the word uir are generally understood to appear to be used. Most emphatically, forms of uir appear in the wedding hymn, poem 61, for example, lines 3,98, 145, 150, 165, 176 and 179 as well as at poem 67.20. As noted in McCarren, V.P., A Critical Concordance to Catullus (Leiden 1977) 202–3Google Scholar, forms of uir used in this way appear more times in poem 61 than in any other poem within the corpus.

16 MacCarren (n. 15) 79; see also Copley (n. 4) 49.

17 Hallett (n. 4) 110-1.

18 Dettmer (n. 1) 84.

19 Fitzgerald, W., Catullan Provocations: Lyric Poetry and the Drama of Position (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London 1995) 208fGoogle Scholar.

20 The use of the term erae at poem 68.136 may parallel the use of ero at poem 61.109: quae tuo ueniunt ero (‘[the joys] which come to your master’) where Catullus refers to the pleasure which the young couple experience in their intended intercourse, when the husband (uir) also becomes a master (eras) of love. In poem 68 Lesbia is not only a mistress of love, but ideally a mistress of love as if she were also his wife.

21 Skinner, M.B., Catullus in Verona: A Reading of the Elegiac Libellus, Poems 65-116 (Columbus, Ohio 2003) 45–50 Google Scholar.

22 Selden, D.L., ‘ Caveat lector: Catullus and the Rhetoric of Performance’, in Hexter, R. and Selden, D. (eds), Innovations of Antiquity (New York and London 1992) 475 Google Scholar.

23 Muretus, M.A., Catullus (Venice 1562) f 30v–31r Google Scholar.

24 Jocelyn (n. 4) 138; see also, among others, Thomson (n. 7) 252.

25 Raven, D.S., Latin Metre: An Introduction (London 1965) 140 Google Scholar; as noted in section 137, the only other extant example is Priapea 3 found in the Appendix Vergiliana.

26 Forsyth (n. 14) 217, among others. In contrast, see also Thomson (n. 7) 290-1; in addition to a detailed discussion of the use of glyconics and similar metres, Thomson mentions the choir of boys and girls, but notes that there is little to indicate that specific stanzas may be meant to be sung by groups of one gender or the other.

27 The possibility of producing illegitimate children refers both to the young wife mentioned in poem 17 and to Lesbia, as noted first (among others) in poem 11.15-20. Furius and Aurelius are told to tell Catullus' girl a few bad words (15-16: pauca multiate meaepuellae / non bona dicta) since she has sex with three hundred adulterers at a time without loving them.

28 Muretus (n. 23) f 30v.

29 The disyllabic first foot is a trochee, rather than a spondee, in 17 of the 26 lines. Likewise, the fourth foot consists of a trochee, rather than a spondee, 24 times. Iambs do not appear, although they may be used apparently at the beginning of both glyconics and the pherecratean. In the glyconic part of the line, the final syllable is always long in poem 17.

30 My thanks to the anonymous referee and to my colleague Mark Masterton, whose comments and suggestions have been helpful throughout; any mistakes or lapses in logic are my own. Although individual elements alone do not confirm any of the above points or comments, the coincidence of several elements supports the possibilities suggested.