Catullus 2

Relief of an affectionate girl playing with two birds. This ancient Greek stele was sculpted c. 450 BC in the era of Periclean Athens and is now found in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. This grave marker was discovered in 1775 on the isle of Paros, which was home to many gifted sculptors; Parian marble was highly prized in antiquity.

Catullus 2 is a renowned poem by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 – c. 54 BC) that describes the affectionate relationship between Catullus' lover, Lesbia, and her pet sparrow. As scholar and poet J. S. Phillimore has noted, "The charm of this poem, blurred as it is by a corrupt manuscript tradition, has made it one of the most famous in Catullus' book."

This poem, together with Catullus' other poems, survived from antiquity in a single manuscript discovered c. 1300 AD in Verona, from which three copies survive. Fourteen centuries of copying from copies — the "corrupt manuscript tradition" mentioned above — left scholars in doubt as to the poem's original wording in a few places, although centuries of scholarship have led a consensus critical version. Research on Catullus was the first application of the genealogical method of textual criticism.

Lines 1-10 represent the preserved core of the poem. Lines 11-13 are denoted as "Catullus 2b" and differ significantly in tone and subject from the first 10 lines. Hence, these latter three lines may belong to a different poem, although most scholars do not believe so. Rather, the prevailing hypothesis is that the two sets of lines (1-10 and 11-13) are fragments of a whole, and that lines bridging the transition between them have been lost. In the original manuscripts, this poem was combined with Catullus 3, which describes the death of Lesbia's sparrow, but the two poems were separated by scholars in the 16th century.

The meter of this poem is hendecasyllabic, a common form in Catullus' poetry.

Rough translation

The following rough translation attempts to capture the mood of the poem in modern language:

Little bird, my girlfriend loves you
and loves to play with you, to hold you
in her bosom, to dangle her finger
for you to nip at. When she,
the radiant girl of my longing,
delights in sweet silly games with you,
I think she is seeking comfort for her sorrows,
to soothe her troubled heart.
If only I could find such relief
for my sad soul by playing with you!

Historical context

Catullus (c. 84 BC - c. 54 BC) lived in the waning days of the Roman Republic, just before the Imperial era that began with Augustus. Catullus is the chief representative of a school of poets known as the poetae novi or neoteroi, both terms meaning "the new poets". Their poems were a bold departure from traditional models, being relatively short and describing everyday occurrences and intense personal feelings; by contrast, traditional poetry was generally large and epic, describing titanic battles among heroes and gods. These avant-garde poets drew inspiration from earlier Greek authors, especially Sappho and Callimachus; Catullus himself is known to have translated at least two of Sappho's poems into Latin, namely, Catullus 11 and Catullus 51. His poems are written in a variety of meters, with hendecasyllabic verse and elegiac couplets being the most common by far.

Catullus is renowned for his love poems, particularly the 25 poems addressed to a woman named Lesbia, of which Catullus 5 is perhaps the most famous. The name Lesbia is likely an homage to Sappho, who came from the isle of Lesbos; scholars generally believe that Lesbia was a pseudonym for Clodia Metelli. Catullus is also admired for his elegies, especially Catullus 101 and Catullus 96, for his hymn to his homeland, Sirmio, in Catullus 31, and for his many depictions of everyday life in ancient Rome, such as Catullus 4, Catullus 10, and Catullus 13. Finally, he was well-nigh infamous even in his own time for his fierce, sometimes obscene, invectives against faithless friends (e.g., Catullus 12, Catullus 16, and Catullus 116), faithless lovers (Catullus 8, Catullus 30, Catullus 58, and Catullus 70), corrupt politicians (), and bad poets (Catullus 14 and Catullus 44).

Catullus was admired in ancient times for his elegantly crafted poems, and inspired many of the next generation of poets, especially Ovid, Tibullus, and Sextus Propertius. Even Virgil and Horace are also known to have adopted some elements of his poetry, although the latter was also critical of his work. Martial seems to be the only later Latin poet to be influenced significantly by Catullus. Catullus is mentioned by a few other Roman scholars, such as Pliny the Younger and Quintilian, and by St. Jerome. Since Catullus' work was not adopted as part of a classical curriculum, it was gradually forgotten over time, although one Bishop Rather of Verona is said to have delighted in reading his poems c. 965 AD. That changed c. 1300 AD, with the discovery of a manuscript that contained 116 poems by Catullus.

Parrot biting the index finger of his mistress.

Manuscript tradition

Almost all of Catullus' poems survived from antiquity in a single manuscript discovered c. 1300 in Verona, conventionally called "V" for the "Verona codex"; legend has it that the manuscript was found underneath a beer barrel. Two copies were made from the V manuscript, which was then lost. One of the copies was itself copied twice, after which it was lost in turn. Hence, Catullus' works depend on three surviving copies of the single V manuscript. The first printed edition (edito princeps) of Catullus appeared in Venice in 1472; the following year, Francesco Puteolano published the second printed edition in Parma.

For fourteen centuries (c. 1st century BC- c. 14th century AD), the poems of Catullus were copied by hand from other hand-written copies, a process that gradually led to a few errors in the received text. Scholars have applied methods of textual criticism to undo these errors and reconstruct Catullus' original text as much as possible. As an early example, Puteolano stated in the second edition (1473) that he made extensive "corrections" of the previous (1472) edition. In 1577, J. J. Scaliger published an emended version of Catullus' works, using the then novel genealogical method of textual criticism. Scholars since then have worked to emend these reconstructions to approximate more closely the original poems of Catullus; examples of these variant readings and emendations are given in the footnotes to the text below.

A key question concerns the unity of this poem. In the copies derived from the original V manuscript, poems 2 (lines 1-10 below), 2b (lines 11-13 below), and Catullus 3 appear as one poem under the title "Fletus passeris Lesbie" (Lament for Lesbia's Sparrow). Shortly before 1500, Catullus 3 (the lament) was separated from Catullus 2/2b by Marcantonio Sabellico, which has been supported by scholars ever since. Catullus 2 and 2b differ significantly in their tone and subject. Catullus 2 is addressed directly to the bird ("with you") and describes its loving, playful relationship with the poet's girlfriend; by contrast, Catullus 2b mentions neither bird nor girlfriend, introducing a simile to the story of Atalanta, and is written in the third person ("it is pleasing"). The disjunction between Catullus 2 and 2b was first noted by Aquiles Estaço (Achilles Statius) in 1566; however, the first printed edition to show a lacuna between poems 2 and 2b (by the editor Karl Lachmann) appeared quite late, in 1829. Lachmann's separation of 2 and 2b has been followed by many subsequent editors.

Although it is possible that Catullus 2 and 2b belong to separate poems, the prevailing hypothesis is that they represent the beginning and end, respectively, of a larger poem, and that some intervening lines smoothing the transition have gone lost. In support of this hypothesis, Alessandro Guardino wrote in 1521 that he had found in an old book that words were missing just after line 10. The O manuscript — which presents 2, 2b and 3 as one whole poem — has a critical sign (not datable) after line 10, indicating a reader noted the break between poems 2 and 2b; a similar sign separates 2b from the next poem, Catullus 3. Yet a similar sign occurs after line 7 in Catullus 2, a spot that is a "distinctly improbable point of poem-division."

Latin text and translation

The following Latin text is taken from the 2003 critical edition of D. F. S. Thomson.

Poem 2

Line	Latin Text	English Translation
1	Passer, deliciae meae puellae,	Sparrow, darling of my girl,
2	quicum ludere, quem in sinu tenere,	with whom she plays, whom she holds in her lap,
3	cui primum digitum dare appetenti	to whom she gives her index finger to peck,
4	et acris solet incitare morsus,	and whom she tempts to bite her sharply,
5	cum desiderio meo nitenti	whenever she is glowing with longing for me,
6	carum nescioquid lubet iocari,	and wants to play some loving game or other,
7	ut solaciolum sui doloris,	as a little solace for her pain,
8	credo, ut tum gravis acquiescat ardor;	I believe to calm then her heavy passion;
9	tecum ludere sicut ipsa possem	I wish I could play with you, like [your] mistress,
10	et tristis animi levare curas!	to relieve the cares of [my] sad spirit!

The following lines 11-13 (Catullus 2b) refer to the Greek myth of Atalanta, a young princess who was remarkably swift of foot. To avoid marriage, she stipulated that she would marry only a man who could beat her in a footrace; suitors who failed to defeat her would be put to death. The hero Melanion (also known as Hippomenes) wooed Atalanta, who fell in love with him. During the race, Melanion threw a golden apple to distract her; stooping to pick it up, Atalanta lost the race, possibly deliberately so that she could marry him. The final line refers to undressing on the wedding night.

Poem 2b

Line	Latin Text	English Translation
11	tam gratum est mihi quam ferunt puellae,	It is as welcome to me as, they say,
12	pernici aureolum fuisse malum,	the golden apple was to the swift girl,
13	quod zonam soluit diu ligitam.	which loosed her girdle that had long been tied.

Poetic features

Catullus was renowned for his meticulous care in crafting poems, even those with seemingly trifling content. This poem is written in hendecasyllabic verse, a meter in which each line has eleven poetic feet. Consistent with other ancient Greek and Latin works, the feet are not defined by stressed and unstressed syllables as they are in English poetry. Rather, they are marked by long (L) and short (s) forms of the vowels. Thus, a typical hendecasyllabic line has the meter

L L | L s s | L s | L s | L s

spondee | dactyl | trochee | trochee | trochee

However, there is some flexibility in this pattern, particularly in the first and last feet. An example of English hendecasyllabic verse has been provided by Tennyson

O you chorus of indolent reviewers,
Irresponsible, indolent reviewers,
Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem
All composed in a metre of Catullus...

Other artful devices are woven into the text of Catullus 2. Lines 2-4 represent a tricolon crescendo, in which the three relative clauses become gradually longer in length: quem ludere, quem in sinu tenere, and cui primum digitum dare appetenti et acris solet incitare morsus. The repeated "eee" sounds (corresponding to the letter "i" in Latin) evoke the songbird's peeping (pipiabat in Catullus 3), e.g., (quicum ... in sinu ... cui primum ... appetenti ... acris ... nitenti ... iocari). The "a" sounds may also convey images: the poet's sighs of longing; an "ouch!" at being bitten sharply (appetenti, "pecking" and acris, "sharp"); and a comforting sound (solaciolum, "small comfort", and acquiescat, "calms").

The sparrow carried erotic symbolism in the Classical world and may have erotic connotations in this poem. Some scholars have called it a phallic symbol, particularly if sinu in line 2 is translated as "lap" rather than "bosom". The biting it does in line 4 compares with Catullus 8, line 18 (cui labella mordebis). The bird has been connected with Aphrodite in Sappho (a poet much admired by Catullus), and Pliny remarked on the erotic connection. Birds were common love-gifts in the Classical world, and several scholars have speculated that the narrator gave it to the woman; this might explain the poet's identification with the sparrow and his fond lament for the bird in Catullus 3.

Influence on later poetry

A 19th century painting of a young woman with her pet dove.

This poem and the following Catullus 3 (a lament for Lesbia's sparrow) inspired a genre of poems about lovers' pets. One classical example include Ovid's elegy on the death of his mistress Corinna's parrot (Amores 2.6.). Another is Martial's epigram (Book I number CIX) on a lap dog, which refers to Catullus 2 specifically ("Issa est passere nequior Catulli", "Issa [the dog] is naughtier than Catullus's sparrow").

Following the printing of Catullus's works in 1472, Poems 2 and 3 gained new influence, as seen in John Skelton's long poem Phyllyp Sparrow (c. 1505). In modern times, Edna St. Vincent Millay refers to Catullus 2 and 3 in her poem, Passer Mortuus Est (The Sparrow has Died):

Death devours all lovely things;
Lesbia with her sparrow
shares the darkness, — presently
every bed is narrow.

Variant readings and the unity of 2/2b

Scholars have argued over whether the last three lines (2b) belong to a different poem, and whether words are missing between poems 2 and 2b. Scholars have suggested that missing words (a lacuna), or a variant reading/rearrangement of the received text, would smooth the presently abrupt transition between lines 10 and 11. As noted above, there is some manuscript evidence for missing words after line 10. However, scholar S.J. Harrison, who believes the 13 lines are unified, has argued that "there seems to be no vital gap in content which short lacuna would supply" and if the missing words are many, then it is impossible to guess what they were and the poem must be accepted as simply broken into fragments.

Unity advocates have also suggested word changes in the first part of the poem that would make the shift in tone less abrupt. For example, it has been suggested to change possem ("Would that I were able") to posse ("to be able") in line 9, resulting in the variant translation "To be able to play with you as she does and to relieve the sad cares of my mind is as pleasant to me as ...". Heyworth calls that construction convoluted and undermining the theme that the speaker wishes he were in the position of the woman in lessening his own longings by playing with the bird.

Harrison suggests adopting a reading found in the second printed edition of Catullus (by Francesco Puteolano, Parma, 1473) in which the third-person phrase Tam gratum est mihi ("It is as welcome to me") is replaced by Tam gratum es mihi ("You are as welcome to me"). The change alleviates the abrupt transition from second person ("with you", addressing the bird) to third person ("It is"). Although "es" refers to a masculine subject (passer, the bird) and therefore should read Tam gratus es, Harrison asserts that gratum can be "perfectly acceptable" Latin grammar.

Closure and thematic unity

Atalanta stopping to pick up the golden apple.

Advocates for the two-poem theory have noted that the first 10 lines, opening with the woman playing with the bird and closing with the narrator's wish to do so, form a thematic whole that is "both formally and psychologically satisfying." Similar "closing wishes" can be found in poems 1, 28, and 38. The poem's climax would be the poet's unfulfilled wish to relieve his own cares by playing with the sparrow as his love does (lines 9-10).

However, Harrison believes Catullus 2b also provides a suitable closure for the poem for the following reasons. First, Catullus 2b alludes to the myth of Atalanta, and classical poems sometimes end in mythic references, e.g., Catullus 51, lines 13-15 and Horace Odes 2.5.21-4. Second, Catullus' poems often end in extended comparisons, e.g., Catullus 11, 17, and 25, and Catullus 65 ends with a simile using an apple. Horace also closes poems in that way, e.g., Odes 3.5.53-6 and 3.20.15-16. Third, the image of undoing Atalanta's girdle is connected to marriage, an event that Massimo Fusillo has called a "strong closure force", and is used in Moschus' Europa, in Greek novels and in New Comedy. Nonmarital sexual consummation also closes some of Catullus' other poems, e.g., Catullus 56, lines 5-7, and Catullus 59, line 5.

As a love gift, the bird would provide a thematic link to 2b, where the apple is a love gift. Catullus makes it one apple, providing a stronger link to the single bird, although there were multiple apples in other versions of the Atalanta story (Ovid makes it three in Metamorphosis 10.649-80). In this interpretation, the poet may be suggesting that the bird connects the lovers (the poet and his girlfriend) in the same way that the apple connected Hippomenes and Atalanta. This interpretation has a slight transgendered aspect, since the male poet compares his solace from the sparrow's antics with the female Atalanta's pleasure in the apple. Harrison believes there is still a strong enough correspondence in these images to show a thematic unity and notes that Catullus adopts a transgendered perspective in other poems. Other scholars have noted that the gender roles of ancient Rome, especially as seen through Catullus' poetry, do not correspond exactly with our modern Western conceptions; the activity or passivity of the lover determined their role more than their biological sex.

Bibliography

• Johnson M (2003). "Catullus 2b: The Development of a Relationship in the Passer Trilogy". The Classical Journal. 99: 11–34.

• Ingleheart J. (2003). "Catullus 2 and 3: A Programmatic Pair of Sapphic Epigrams?". Mnemosyne. 56: 551–565.

• Pomeroy AJ. (2003). "Heavy Petting in Catullus". Arethusa. 36: 49–60.

• Jones, JW, Jr. (1998). "Catullus' Passer as Passer". Greece and Rome. 45: 188–194.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Thomas, RF. (1993). "Sparrows, Hares, and Doves: a Catullan Metaphor". Helios. 20: 131–142.

• Vinson M (1989). "And Baby Makes Three? Parental Imagery in the Lesbia Poems of Catullus". The Classical Journal. 85: 47–53.

• Boyd BW (1987). "The Death of Corinna's Parrot Reconsidered: Poetry and Ovid's "Amores"". The Classical Journal. 82: 199–207.

• Hooper, RW. (1985). "In Defence of Catullus' Dirty Sparrow". Greece and Rome. 32: 162–178.

• Nadeau, Y. (1984). "Catullus' Sparrow, Martial, Juvenal and Ovid". Latomus. 43: 861–868.

• Jocelyn, HD. (1980). "On Some Unnecessarily Indecent Interpretations of Catullus 2 and 3". American Journal of Philology. 101: 421–441.

• Giangrande, G. (1975). "Catullus' Lyrics on the Passer". Museum Philologum Londiniense. 1: 137–146.

• Hough JN (1974). "Bird Imagery in Roman Poetry". The Classical Journal. 70: 1–13.

• Genovese, EN. (1974). "Symbolism in the Passer Poems". Maia. 26: 121–125.

• Bishop JD. (1966). "Catullus 2 and Its Hellenistic Antecedents". Classical Philology. 61: 158–167.

• Lazenby FD (1949). "Greek and Roman Household Pets". The Classical Journal. 44: 299–307.

• Frank T (1927). "On Some Fragments of Catullus". Classical Philology. 22: 413–414.

• Brotherton, B. (1926). "Catullus' Carmen II". Classical Philology. 21: 361–363.

• Braunlich AF (1923). "Against Curtailing Catullus' "Passer"". The American Journal of Philology. 44: 349–352.

• Kent RG (1923). "Addendum on Catullus' Passer". The American Journal of Philology. 44: 323–324.

• Fay EW (1913). "Catullus Carmen 2". Classical Philology. 8: 301–309.

• Anderson WB (1911). "Some 'Vexed Passages' in Latin Poetry". The Classical Quarterly. 5: 181–184.

• Phillimore JS. (1910). "Passer: Catull. Carm. ii". Classical Philology. 5: 217–219.

• McDaniel WB (1908). "Catvllvs IIb". The Classical Quarterly. 2: 166–169.

External links

Translations

• Catullus 2 & 2b from the VRoma Project.
• Catullus 2 from the Catullus Translations Website.
• Catullus 2b from the Catullus Translations Website.
• Catullus 2 (lines 1-8) from the Cipher Journal website (bizarre ending)
• Catullus 2 & 2b Rick Snyder's translation in jubilat (2003)

Other

• "Notes on the text, interpretation, and translation problems of Catullus", by S.J. Harrison and S.J. Heyworth, from an Oxford University Web site:
  • [5] As HTML page
  • [users.ox.ac.uk/~sjh/documents/catconj.doc] As WordPad file
• [6] Page explaining the relationship of the sounds of the poem to its meaning and a link to a recording of the poem sung in Latin
• [7] Text with translation notes
• [8] Page with a link to WordPad document of "Sparrows and Apples: The Unity of Catullus 2", by S.J. Harrison, an article in Scripta Classica Israelica (scroll down to "Articles in Journals" No. 60)