CLASS 20B Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Lesbia
Catallus’s Carmina
- Poems about love affair with a woman named Lesbia
- Lesbia seems to be one of the three noble sisters named Clodia
- C84 - mid-50’s BC
#5 (Lesbia Poems)
- In love with Lesbia
#8
- Calls her the devil & insults her
- She doesn’t love him anymore
- Events are scattered & not organized
- Autobiographical fallacy
#49
- Insult poem to Marcus Tullius
- Says he is the worst poet as Tullius is the ‘best advocate’
- Attacks great men of his day
#68B
- First person emotion & memory with mythological world of the newlyweds Laodamia &
Protesilaus → first Greek hero off the ships at Troy
- Mostly similes
- Gratitude to Mallius for providing a house that him & his mistress Lesbia could make
love in
- Talks about the death of his brother
- Alternates between Laodamia, Troy, death of brother
- Learned allusions to mythological inheritence
- Poems really about his life & emotional state connecting to Lesbia & death of his brother
- Central myth: Laodamia & Protesilaus
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Document Summary
Poems about love affair with a woman named lesbia. Lesbia seems to be one of the three noble sisters named clodia. Calls her the devil & insults her. Says he is the worst poet as tullius is the best advocate". First person emotion & memory with mythological world of the newlyweds laodamia & Protesilaus first greek hero off the ships at troy. Gratitude to mallius for providing a house that him & his mistress lesbia could make love in. Talks about the death of his brother. Alternates between laodamia, troy, death of brother. Poems really about his life & emotional state connecting to lesbia & death of his brother.
