THE SPRING OF OUR DISCONTENT: CATULLUS 46 AND THE CLASSICAL SPRING

👤Author

Name: Dorin Garofeanu
Affiliation: Institutul de Istorie și Teorie Literară „G. Călinescu” al Academiei Române

📄Article

Abstract: Although Catullus 46 has been occasionally referred to or described as a spring poem, this generic aspect has been either largely ignored or somewhat superficially treated. This article provides a detailed analysis of the poem, revealing the numerous thematic, structural and stylistic similarities to the chronologically earlier spring poems included in the Palatine Anthology (A.P. 10.1 and 2) that suggest that Catullus is deliberately drawing upon the Greek tradition of the genre. This close reading of the poem will also show the effort and ingenuity with which Catullus, while preserving the traditional structure and some of the conventional elements, reshaped the genre and invested it with a psychological dimension and complexity unknown to the Greek tradition.

Keywords: Catullus 46, literary genre, generic admixture, spring poem, Palatine Anthology

Bibliography:

Adler, Eve. Catullan Self-Revelation. New York: Arno Press, 1981. Avallone, Riccardo. Catullo e i suoi modelli. Napoli: Libreria Scientifica Editrice, 1964.

Braga, Domenico. Catullo e i poeti Greci. Messina: G. D’Anna, 1950. Burl, Aubrey. Catullus. A Poet in the Rome of Julius Caesar. London: Constable, 2004.

 Cairns, Francis. Generic Composition and Latin Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1972.

–, “Catullus 46, 9–11 and Ancient ‘Etymologies’”. Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 119 (1991): 442–445.

Elder J.P. “Notes on some conscious and unconscious elements in Catullus’ poetry”. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 60 (1951): 41–78.

Ellis, R. A Commentary on Catullus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1876.

Ferguson, J. Catullus. Lawrence, KA: Coronado Press, 1985.

Fordyce, C.J. Catullus: A Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961.

 Forsyth, Phyllis Young. The Poems of Catullus: A Teaching Text. Lanham, MD: UPA, 1986.

 Garrison, Daniel H. The Student’s Catullus. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.

 Goodman, Paul. The Structure of Literature. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968

 Goold, G.P. Catullus. London: Duckworth, 1989.

Hezel, Oskar. Catul und das griechische epigram. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1932.

 Lee, G. The Poems of Catullus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.

McKay A.G. and Shepherd D. M. Roman lyric poetry: Catullus and Horace. London: Macmillan, 1969.

Mynors, R. A. B., C. Valerii Catulli Carmina. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. Newman, J.K. Roman Catullus and the Modification of the Alexandrian Sensibility. Hildesheim: Weidmann, 1990.

Putnam, M.C.J. “Catullus’ journey (Carm. 4)”. Classical Philology 57 (1962): 10–19. Quinn, Kenneth. Catullus. The Poems. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1970.

–, Catullus. An Interpretation. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973.

–, Latin Explorations. Critical studies in Roman literature. London: Routledge and Paul, 1962.

Ross, David O. Style and Tradition in Catullus. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.

Schievenin, R. ”Il Carmen 46 di Catullo”. Aufidus 9 (1995): 19–30.

 Simpson C.J. & Simpson Barbara G. “Catullus 46”. Latomus XLVIII (1989): 75–85. Small, Stuart G.P. Catullus. A Reader’s Guide to the Poems. Lanham, New York: UPA, 1983.

 Stoessl, F. C. Valerius Catullus. Mensch, Leben, Dichtung. Meisenheim am Glan: Hain, 1977.

 Syndikus, H.P. Catull: eine Interpretation. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1984.

Thompson, D.F.S. Catullus. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.

 Wheeler, A. L. Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1934.

Wilhelm, J.J. The Cruelest Month: Spring, Nature, and Love in Classical and Medieval Lyrics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965. Wiseman, T.P. Roman Political Life, 90 BC-AD 69. Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1985.