Poem of the Week - Week 1: carmen lxv - by Catullus

carmen lxv

by Catullus





Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

I'm hating her, I'm loving her. Now why on earth is that, you smile?
I cannot say but all I feel is agony the while.

(trans. Pip Torok)

Fresco from Herculaneum, presumably showing a love couple

Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 84 BC – ca. 54 BC) was a Roman poet of the 1st century BC. His work remains widely studied, and continues to influence poetry and other art.

The Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, who urged against letting passions rule, could have been writing for Catullus, the lyric poet so well known for a tempestuous affair with a woman he called Lesbia. While Lesbia us named in only thirteen of Catullus' carmina, she is implicit in 26, among which is the memorable elegiac couplet, carmen lxv.

Who is this person for whom Catullus is suffering such unstoic passion? Probably Lesbia, the name believed to have been given by Catullus to his mistress. Although we aren't certain, we believe Lesbia was really Clodia, the elder sister of the P. Clodius Pulcher (the man charged with sacrilege by Cicero for illegally infiltrating an all-female ceremony for the bona dea) and the promiscuous wife and later widow of Q. Caecilius Metellus. It appears that Catullus' relationship with her ended when she took on as lover, Caelius Rufus.