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
How did people react to the father’s sex with his daughter in law?
You tell of an amazing father of wonderful piety.
Why wasn’t the father so wonderful as portrayed?
Who himself pissed in his son’s lap.
How did Brixia find the event?
And Brixia says that she not only has knowledge of herself
Who is Brixia?
The girl.
Where is Brixia’s knowledge kept?
Placed below the Cycneae cave
which golden Mella runs through with its stream
What is Mella?
The name of the river
How does the door portray Brixia?
Brixia, beloved mother of my Verona (sarcasm)
What else does Brixia have knowledge of with knowledge of herself?
But she also tells of love with Postumus and Cornelius
with whom she committed evil adultery
Who are Postumus and Cornelius?
Roman politicians
What might some say to the door at his accusations of Brixia of adultery?
Someone might say here; what door, how do you know this?
Why (according to others) might the door not know about the events in the house?
You aren’t allowed to leave your master’s threshold,
nor listen to the people,
Why can’t the door leave his threshold?
But fixed to a frame
What can the door do whilst he is fixed to a frame?
You are only accustomed to open and close the home?
How does the door know about Brixia?
I have often heard her talking in a quite voice,
alone to her slave women about these crimes
What did Brixia say to her slave women?
Naming those we said, as she hoped that
they had neither tongue nor ear
Who is the final person Brixia had adultery with?
Meanwhile, she added someone, who I don’t want to say
by name,
Why can’t the door tell Catullus who the final person is?
Lest he raise his red eyebrows
But how does the door describe the final man?
He is a tall man, against whom someone brought great cases
once, about a false childbirth from a lying womb.
O dulci iucunda viro, iucunda parenti
stylist features
O = he’s speaking to the door
dulci = sweet, personification of the door
iucunda…. iucunda… = repetition
servisse benigne // olim,
stylist features
enjambement
cum sedes ipse senex tenuit
stylist features
sibilance = to make it sound like they are whispering about the gossip of the house
Sedes = seats as a metonym for the house
dicunt servisse benigne …
gnato servisse maligne.
stylist features
Opposite repetition of adjective with servisse
Gnato = archaic word for son, to fit with the older style of poem
porrecto facta marita sene.
stylist features
porrecto = stretched out, metaphor for death
marita = personification of door being married
dic agemdum nobis
stylist features
colloquial = come on tell us!
Referring to us, inputs the audience into the story
Non ita Caecilio
stylist features
Emphatic first position of No, contrasted by the rest of the phrase being on the next line, this distortion symbolises the doors despair = disjointed syntax
door is speaking = personificaiton
quisquam pote digère quiquam
stylist features
polyptoton
Qui quacumque aliquid
stylist features
q alliteration for angry bursts
nos volmus nobis dicrere ne dubita
stylist features
Murmarance for seriousness, as the audience wants to learn
Seu quod iners sterili semine natus erat
stylist features
Sibilance when talking about his sterile seed
Egregium narras mira pietate parentum
stylist features
Sarcasm about the amazing father
Polisve alliteration of p to emphasise sarcasm
Minxerit
stylist features
Piss, vulgar swearing and idiom
Where does Brixia live?
She lives in Verona where Catullus lived
What is the Cyncea cave?
Where the citadel was placed.
Brixia Veronae mater amata meae
stylist features
Sarcasm
tantum operire soles aut aperire domum?
stylist features
Operire and Aperire = open and close = antithesis
linguam esse nec auriculam
stylist features
The girl hopes the girls will have no tongue and ear which is a metaphor/metonym for won’t tell anyone
