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Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin poetry neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes.
Catullus appears to have spent most of his young adult years in Rome. His friends there included the poets Licinius Calvus and Helvius Cinna, Quintus Hortensius (son of the orator and rival of Cicero), and the biographer Cornelius Nepos, to whom Catullus dedicated a libellus of poems, the relation of which to the extant collection remains a matter of debate.M. Skinner, "Authorial Arrangement of the Collection", pp. 46–48, in: A Companion to Catullus, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. He appears to have been acquainted with the poet Marcus Furius Bibaculus. A number of prominent contemporaries appear in his poetry, including Cicero, Caesar and Pompey. According to an anecdote preserved by Suetonius, Caesar did not deny that Catullus's lampoons left an indelible stain on his reputation, but when Catullus apologized, he invited the poet for dinner the very same day.Suetonius Divus Iulius 73".
The "Lesbia" of his poems is usually identified with Clodia Metelli, a sophisticated woman from the aristocratic house of patrician family Claudii Pulchri, sister of the infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher, and wife to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (consul of 60 BC). In his poems Catullus describes several stages of their relationship: initial euphoria, doubts, separation, and his wrenching feelings of loss. Clodia had several other partners; "From the poems one can adduce no fewer than five lovers in addition to Catullus: Egnatius (poem 37), Gellius (poem 91), Quintius (poem 82), Rufus (poem 77), and Lesbius (poem 79)." There is also some question surrounding her husband's mysterious death in 59 BC: in his speech Pro Caelio Cicero hints that he may have been poisoned. However, a sensitive and passionate Catullus could not relinquish his flame for Clodia, regardless of her obvious indifference to his desire for a deep and permanent relationship. In his poems, Catullus wavers between devout, sweltering love and bitter, scornful insults that he directs at her blatant infidelity (as demonstrated in poems 11 and 58). His passion for her is unrelenting—yet it is unclear when exactly the couple split up for good. Catullus's poems about the relationship display striking depth and psychological insight.
He spent the year from summer 57 to summer 56 BC in Bithynia on the staff of the commander Gaius Memmius. While in the East, he traveled to the Troad to perform rites at his brother's tomb, an event recorded in a moving poem (101).
No ancient biography of Catullus has survived. His life has to be pieced together from scattered references to him in other ancient authors and from his poems. Thus it is uncertain when he was born and when he died. Jerome stated that he was born in 87 BC and died in Rome in his 30th year. However, Catullus's poems include references to events of 55 BC. Since the Roman fasti consulares make it somewhat easy to confuse 87–57 BC with 84–54 BC, many scholars accept the dates 84 BC–54 BC, supposing that his latest poems and the publication of his libellus coincided with the year of his death. Other authors suggest 52 or 51 BC as the year of the poet's death.M. Skinner, "Introduction", p.3, in: A Companion to Catullus, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Though upon his elder brother's death Catullus lamented that their "whole house was buried along" with the deceased, the existence (and prominence) of Valerii Catulli is attested in the following centuries. T. P. Wiseman argues that after the brother's death Catullus could have married, and that, in this case, the later Valerii Catulli may have been his descendants.T. P. Wiseman, "The Valerii Catulli of Verona", in: M. Skinner, ed., A Companion to Catullus, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
There is no scholarly consensus on whether Catullus himself arranged the order of the poems. The longer poems differ from the polymetra and the epigrams not only in length but also in their subjects: several of them are based on the theme of marriage. The longest (64) of 408 lines, contains two myths (the abandonment of Ariadne and the marriage of Peleus and Thetis), one story included inside the other.
The polymetra and the epigrams can be divided into four major thematic groups (ignoring a rather large number of poems that elude such categorization):
Above all other qualities, Catullus seems to have valued venustas, or charm, in his acquaintances, a theme which he explores in a number of his poems.
Catullus was also an admirer of Sappho, a female poet of the seventh century BC. Catullus 51 partly translates, partly imitates, and transforms Sappho 31. Some hypothesize that 61 and 62 were perhaps inspired by lost works of Sappho but this is purely speculative. Both of the latter are Epithalamium, a form of or erotic wedding-poetry that Sappho was famous for. Catullus twice used a meter that Sappho was known for, called the Sapphic stanza, in poems 11 and 51, perhaps prompting his successor Horace's interest in the form.
Catullus, as was common to his era, was greatly influenced by stories from Greek and Roman myth. His longer poems—such as 63, 64, 65, 66, and 68—allude to mythology in various ways. Some stories he refers to are the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the departure of the Argonauts, Theseus and the Minotaur, Ariadne's abandonment, Tereus and Procne, as well as Protesilaus.
Pulitzer winning American composer Dominick Argento set verses of Catullus for mixed chorus and percussion in 1981. I Hate and I Love presents about 50 lines of text over eight movements using the composer's own translation into English. The Dale Warland Singers, who commissioned the work, recorded it, as did Robert Shaw with his Festival Chorus.
Catullus Dreams (2011) is a song cycle by David Glaser set to texts of Catullus, scored for soprano and eight instruments; it premiered at Symphony Space in New York by soprano Linda Larson and Sequitur Ensemble. Carmina Catulli is a song cycle arranged from 17 of Catullus's poems by American composer Michael Linton. The cycle was recorded in December 2013 and premiered at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in March 2014 by French baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer and pianist Jason Paul Peterson.
Thomas Campion also wrote a lute-song entitled "My Sweetest Lesbia" dating from 1601 using his own translation of the first six lines of Catullus 5 followed by two verses of his own; the translation by Richard Crashaw was set to music in a four-part glee by Samuel Webbe Jr. It was also set to music, in a three-part glee by John Stafford Smith.
Catullus 5, the love poem Vivamus mea Lesbia atque amemus, in the translation by Ben Jonson, was set to music in 1606, (lute accompanied song) by Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger.Cunningham, J. (ed.) (2015) The Cambridge edition of the Works of Ben Jonson: Music Edition, P.4.1. Dutch composer Bertha Tideman-Wijers used Catullus's text for her composition Variations on Valerius "Where that one already turns or turns." The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson set Catullus 85 to music; entitled Odi Et Amo, the song is found on Jóhannsson's album Englabörn, and is sung through a vocoder, and the music is played by a string quartet and piano. Catulli Carmina is a cantata by Carl Orff dating from 1943 that sets texts from Catullus to music. Finnish jazz singer Reine Rimón has recorded poems of Catullus set to standard jazz tunes.
Poetry
Sources and organization
Catullus's poems have been preserved in an anthology of 116 carmina (the actual number of poems may slightly vary in various editions), which can be divided into three parts according to their form: approximately sixty short poems in varying meters, called polymetra, nine longer poems, and forty-eight in elegiac couplets. Each of these three parts – approximately 860 (or more), 1136, and 330 lines respectively – would fit onto a single scroll.Dettmer (1997), p. 2. A single scroll usually contained between 800 and 1100 verses.
Intellectual influences
Catullus's poetry was influenced by the innovative poetry of the Hellenistic Age, and especially by Callimachus and the Alexandrian school, which had propagated a new style of poetry that deliberately turned away from the classical epic poetry in the tradition of Homer. Cicero called these local innovators neoteroi (νεώτεροι) or "moderns" (in Latin poetae novi or 'new poets'), in that they cast off the heroic model handed down from Ennius in order to strike new ground and ring a contemporary note. Catullus and Callimachus did not describe the feats of ancient and gods (except perhaps in re-evaluating and predominantly artistic circumstances, e.g. poem 64), focusing instead on small-scale personal themes. Although these poems sometimes seem quite superficial and their subjects often are mere everyday concerns, they are accomplished works of art. Catullus described his work as expolitum, or polished, to show that the language he used was very carefully and artistically composed.
Style
Catullus wrote in many different meters including hendecasyllabic verse and elegiac couplets (common in love poetry). A great part of his poetry shows strong and occasionally wild emotions, especially in regard to Lesbia (e.g., poems 5 and 7). His love poems are very emotional and ardent, and are relatable to this day. Catullus describes his Lesbia as having multiple suitors and often showing little affection towards him. He also demonstrates a great sense of humour such as in Catullus 13.
Musical settings
The Hungarian-born British composer Matyas Seiber set poem 31 for unaccompanied mixed chorus Sirmio in 1957. The American composer Ned Rorem set Catullus 101 to music for voice and piano; the song, "Catullus: On the Burial of His Brother", was originally published in 1969.
Cultural depictions
See also
Further reading
Douglas Ferguson Scott Thomson (1997). 9780802006769, University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802006769
External links
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