Catullus 67 Flashcards
What is Catullus 67 about?
Catullus talking to the door about the family situations of the house.
What type of poem is this?
Plaraklausithyron
What does Catullus say to the door in line 1?
O door, nice to a sweet man, nice to a parent, hello
What might the door receive?
and may Jupiter increase you with good help
Who else received good help from Jupiter?
Which they say once served Balbus well,
When did Balbus receive good help?
When the old man himself owned the house, which they say again served his son badly
Who is Balbus’ son?
Caecilius
What is the relationship of the door to the house?
after you were made a married door when the old man was stretched out.
What does Catullus wish to learn from the door?
Come on, tell us why you are said to be changed
Why has the door said to have been changed?
To have abandoned loyalty for your old master
What does the door say when Catullus questions his loyalty?
Its not my fault although it is said to be mine!
Why did the door switch his loyalty to?
May I thus Caecilius whose I now am
Why does the door believe about his actions?
nor can anyone say that any wrong was done by me
Why is the door innocent?
The truth of this people the door who makes you,
who whenever something not made well is found
everyone shouts to me: door it’s your fault!
How does Catullus respond to the door’s despair about his changed loyalty?
It’s not enough for you to say it with one word.
Why shouldn’t the door say it in one word?
But you should make it so anyone can feel or see it.
Why does the door believe that his cries are hopeless?
What can I do? Nobody asks nor works to know?
Who listens to the door when he believes nobody will?
We want: don’t hesitate to tell us
Once persuaded, how does the door begin the story?
First therefore, that she was handed over to us a virgin, is false
Why is the girl not a virgin?
Her husband didn’t touch her first,
Why didn’t the husband touch the girl first?
Whose dagger, hanging more limp than a gentle beetroot
never raised itself the middle of his tunic;
What happened when the husband couldn’t get an erection?
But his father is said to have violated his son’s bedroom
and to have polluted the wretched home
Why did the father have sex with his daughter in law?
Either because his unholy mind blazes with blind love
Or because his impotent son had sterile seed
How did the father respond to his son’s sterile seed?
So someone of greater never had to be found of it
who could open the girls belt
