Catullus was a poet born in Verona in the year 84 BC, in a wealthy family friend of Julius Caesar. He went young to Rome, like many others, with the intention to enter politics, but what was devoted to poetry<\/b><\/p>\n
\n\tHe fell in love with a noble Roman cheerful and frivolous, Clodia<\/em>, who played with the young poet whim. Catullus <\/em>died young, at thirty years. Often death calls early poets, especially lovers. Indeed Verona<\/em> should be good country for sweethearts, there lived and died for love Romeo and Juliet<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tAmong many poems in which no doubt he reflects his physical reaction and their personal feelings, Catullus <\/em>wrote this famous which then I transcribe, which has the number 51 of his poems.<\/p>\n \n\tHe seems to me to be equal to a god, \n\tIlle mi par esse deovidetur \n\tThe poem, for the simple reader, seems simply express their physical and psychological reactions in the presence of the beloved. It turns out that the poem is directly inspired, almost a translation of Sappho<\/em>'s poem reproduced by Longinus<\/em> in On the Sublime, 10.2<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tPeer of the gods, the happiest man I seem \n\tThen in my bosom my heart wildly flutters, \n\tThere rushes at once through my flesh tingling fire, \n\tDown courses in streams the sweat of emotion, \n\tΦ\u03acινετα\u03af μοι κ\u1fc6νος \u1f34σος θ\u03adοισιν \n\tκα\u1f76 γελα\u03afσας \u1f30μ\u03adροεν. τ\u1f78 δ\u1f74 \u1fbdμ\u03acν \n\t\u1f00λλ\u1f70 κ\u1f70μ μ\u1f72ν γλ\u1ff3σσα \u03dd\u03adαγε, λ\u03adπτον \n\t\u1f00 δ\u03ad μ\u1fbd \u03afδρως κακχ\u03adεται, τρ\u03ccμος δ\u1f72 \n\t\u1f00λλ\u1f70 π\u1fb6ν τ\u03ccλματον, \u1f10πε\u1f76 +κα\u1f76 π\u03adνητα \n\tWell, the poem in question was well known in Rome. So the simple initial interpretation is complicated somewhat. Why Catullus <\/em>uses Sappho<\/em>’s poem to express his love for Lesbia<\/em>, the name under which hides a real woman, Clodia<\/em>? Does it have something to do the name of the beloved Lesbia with Lesbos<\/em>, Sappho's homeland? Is it possible to transpose the female feelings to male love, making true the popular saying "what matter the sex if love is pure<\/em>"? Catullus<\/em>’s verses are a mere translation of the poet, a mere inspiration or original creation of the poet? .<\/p>\n \n\tIn this regard, it should be noted how the goal of a former literary author is to emulate and if possible surpass the master. But of course, once the poet or writer publishes his work and delivers to the knowledge and enjoyment of the reader, who recreates and assumes it as its own, of who is the spiritual property ? is it of the author or of the reader identified whit him? . Of course, the ancients did not have the modern concept of intellectual property.<\/p>\n \n\tBut anyway, let’s these issues as prosaic and let’s reread the poem in both versions. Let's enjoy them and check them to coincide, but only partly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Catullus was a poet born in Verona in the year 84 BC, in a wealthy family friend of Julius Caesar. He went young to Rome, like many others, with the intention to enter politics, but what was devoted to poetry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-habits","category-language-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\the, if such were lawful, to surpass the gods,
\n\twho sitting across from you again and again
\n\tgazes on you, and listens to you
\n\tsweetly laughting, which snatchs away
\n\tfrom sombre me my every sense:
\n\tfor the instant I glance on you, Lesbia,
\n\tnothing is left to me [of voice],
\n\tbut my tongue is numbed,
\n\ta keen-edged flame spreads through my limbs,
\n\twith sound self-caused my twin ears sing,
\n\tand my eyes are enwrapped with night.
\n\tLeisure, Catullus, to you is hurtful:
\n\tin leisure beyond measure do you exult and pass your life.
\n\tLeisure first ruined rulers and prosperous cities.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t (Leonard C. Smithers, Ed.)<\/p>\n
\n\tille, si fas est, superare divos,
\n\tqui sedens adversus identidem te
\n\t spectat et audit
\n\tdulce ridentem, misero quod omnis
\n\teripit sensus mihi: nam simul te,
\n\tLesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi
\n\t vocis in ore,
\n\tlingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus
\n\tflamma demanat, sonitu suopte
\n\ttintinant aures, gemina teguntur
\n\t lumina nocte.
\n\totium, Catulle, tibi molestum est,
\n\totio exultas nimiumque gestis:
\n\totium et reges prius et beatas
\n\t perdidt urbes.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tSitting before thee, rapt at thy sight, hearing
\n\tThy soft laughter and thy voice most gentle,
\n\tSpeaking so sweetly.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tAnd, when on thee I gaze never so little,
\n\tBereft am I of all power of utterance,
\n\tMy tongue is useless.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tMy eyes are deprived of all power of vision,
\n\tMy ears hear nothing but sounds of winds roaring,
\n\tAnd all is blackness.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tA dread trembling o'erwhelms me, paler am I
\n\tThan dried grass in autumn, and in my madness
\n\tDead I seem almost.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t (Translated by Edwin Marion Cox)<\/p>\n
\n\t\u1f14μμεν \u1f64νερ \u1f44ττις \u1f10ν\u03acντι\u03ccς τοι
\n\t\u1f30σδ\u03acνει κα\u1f76 πλασ\u03afον \u1f06δυ φωνε\u03af-
\n\t σασ \u1f50πακο\u03cdει<\/p>\n
\n\tκαρδ\u03afαν \u1f10ν στ\u03aeθεσιν \u1f10πτ\u03ccαισεν,
\n\t\u1f62ς γ\u1f70ρ ε\u1f54ιδον βροχ\u03adωσ σε, φ\u03ceνας
\n\t ο\u1f56δεν \u1f14τ\u1fbd ε\u1f34κει,<\/p>\n
\n\tδ\u1fbd α\u1f54τικα χρ\u1ff7 π\u1fe6ρ \u1f50παδεδρ\u03ccμακεν,
\n\t\u1f40ππ\u03acτεσσι δ\u1fbd ο\u1f56δεν ορημμ\u1fbd, \u1f10πιρρ\u03ccμ-
\n\t βεισι δ\u1fbd \u1f04κουαι.<\/p>\n
\n\tπα\u1fd6σαν \u1f04γρει χλωροτ\u03adρα δ\u1f72 πο\u03afας
\n\t\u1f14μμι, τεθν\u03acκην δ\u1fbd \u1f40λ\u03afγω \u1fbdπιδε\u03cdης
\n\t φα\u03afνομαι \u1f04λλα•<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\tSappho <\/em>is the most famous poetess of Antiquity. She was born in Lesbos <\/em>and lived approximately between 650 and 610 BC. She is the most important archaic lyric poetess; She is among the lyric poets fixed and consecrated forever by ancient literary canon<\/em>. Her love for the girls, who sings in her poems, has given name to the female homosexual love, which is called sapphic <\/em>or lesbian<\/em>. Logically this is the origin of the term "lesbian<\/em>".<\/p>\n