Lesbia

For other uses, see Lesbia (disambiguation).

Lesbia was the literary pseudonym of the great love of Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 82-52 BC).

Lesbia and Her Sparrow, by Sir Edward John Poynter

She may have been a poet in her own right, included with Catullus in a list of famous poets whose lovers "often" helped them write their verses. The name Lesbia was chosen for several reasons, including its metrical match with her real name. The 2nd century AD orator Apuleius of Madaura gave a list of four such identities in court, to defend himself against the charge of hiding names under an alias:

Catullus's Lesbia: Clodia
Ticida's Perilla: Metella
Propertius' Cynthia: Hostia
Tibullus' Delia: Plania

Apuleius' information is thought to have come from Suetonius' de poetis, or Suetonius' most important source, a work on late Republican and Augustan period poets by Gaius Julius Hyginus.

The name also suggests literary and erotic connotations, evoking the famous circle of young girl lovers on Lesbos Island, who included the poetess Sappho. Catullus's poem 35 celebrating his poet friend Caecilius of Novum Comum also mentions the devotion of Caecilius' girlfriend, who is herself accorded a remarkable tribute as "girl more learned than Sappho's Muse" (lines 16-17: Sapphica puella / musa doctior). This could well be Catullus' Lesbia before she became his own lover.

It may be significant that a poem which looks like an envoi to Lesbia (Catullus 11) is written in the Sapphic metre; the only other poem in the collection composed in this metre is poem 51, which looks like it could be the first poem written to her. What makes this more likely is that the poem is an elegant translation of a poem by Sappho herself, which is still extant.

Lesbia is the subject of 25 of Catullus' 116 surviving poems, and these display a wide range of emotions (see Catullus 85), ranging from tender love (e. g. Catullus 5, Catullus 7), to sadness and disappointment (e.g. Catullus 72), and to bitter sarcasm (e.g. Catullus 8), following the often unsteady course of Catullus' relationship.

Lesbia is traditionally identified with Claudia Metelli Celeris (uxor), the notorious Clodia of Cicero's extant speech (of March 56 BC) Pro Caelio, and the elder sister and probable lover of Publius Clodius Pulcher.

Gallery

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  JR Vedzhelayn. "Lesbia"

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  John William Godward. "Lesbia with the sparrow"

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  Lawrence Alma-Tadema. "Catullus at Lesbia's"

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  Lawrence Alma-Tadema. "Favourite Poet: ancient Roman woman reading a scroll of poems.

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  "A little gem". Stefan Bakałowicz

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  Lawrence Alma-Tadema. "Lesbia and the sparrow is dead".

References

Ancient sources

• The Catullan libellus of 116 poems
• Oxford Classical Texts, C. Valerii Catulli Carmina (ed.) R A B Mynors (Oxford University Press, 1958)
• Penguin Classics, English translation, The Poems of Catullus by Peter Whigham (Penguin Books, 1966)

Modern works

• Wiseman, T Peter:Catullan Questions (Leicester University Press, 1969), especially chapter 5: "Lesbia - When?" (42-49), and chapter 6: "Lesbia - Who?" (50-60)
• Wiseman, T. Peter. Cinna the Poet and other Roman Essays (Leicester University Press, 1974), especially chapter 5: "Lesbia and her Children" (104-118)
• Oxford Latin Reader, Maurice Balme and James Morewood (1997)
• Hallett, Judith P: "Catullus and Horace on Roman Women Poets", Antichthon 40 (Thematic issue: Catullus in Contemporary Perspective, 2006), 65-88