Dylan Bragg

Mary Jaeger, Instructor

LAT 411

21 March 2003

A Love of Life: an Examination of Catullus 5

This paper begins by discussing Catullus’ genuine love of life as expressed in poem 5 and introduced in the first line. It considers poem 5 as rather less cynical than many of Catullus’ others, and therefore uniquely revealing. It then examines the first triad, which expresses defiance of convention, and the second, which expresses the brevity of life and the urgency of love. The enumeration of kisses is then discussed in particular detail with comparisons to poems 7 and 48. Finally, it shows that Catullus’ usual cynicism, which is missing throughout most of the poem, appears just at the end, displaying Catullus’ ingenuity.

Though he is indeed a cynic, Catullus seems to express in general a love of life and an eagerness to experience it. He feels the futility of being human, yet he longs to be human, to feel all the joys and pains of being alive. Ultimately he sees love and life as wondrous, beautiful things. In few other poems is this view expressed as well as in poem 5. An idealized picture of furtive love, poem 5 presents a young, budding romance between Catullus and the infamous Lesbia. It is has many common characteristics of new love: it is rebellious in its attitude toward those who disapprove, urgent in its perception of time, charming and innocent in its request for kisses.

Composed “at an early stage in Catullus’ love affair with Lesbia” (Goold 237), poem 5 opens with the words vivamus and amemus. These two words, meaning “let us live” and “let us love,” characterize Catullus in a way that few other poems do so well, revealing who he is when lets down the guard of cynicism. Indeed, poem 5 seems to be one of the less cynical and more honest of Catullus’ poems. The theme is one of romance, yet the first word is in fact vivamus, placing emphasis on the idea of life and living. Catullus' passion for living sets the tone for the entire poem. The emotion he feels for Lesbia at this moment allow us to see this passion. Given up to his feelings for Lesbia, Catullus shows us his true self, a man who loves life and lives to love.

After the opening line, Catullus defiantly rejects the rumores senum severiorum, “rumors of rather harsh old men.” For young men in love do not give heed to the opinions of others, especially to those of old men. Old men are, as Merrill puts it “proverbially the censors of the young” (12). This affair is of course a secret one, since Lesbia, whether Clodia or no, was certainly married (Cat. 83); therefore Ellis gives "scandal" for rumores and “censorious” for severiorum (19). Yet no convention or opinion will keep the eager Catullus from experiencing the joys of life and love. He insists to Lesbia that they must pay no heed to such rumors, must value them at one penny, aestimemus assis. The words as, “a small bronze coin,” and aestimare, “to estimate,” set another tone for the poem which comes up later—that of counting and guessing numbers.

The second triad in the poem makes it plain that, as Hart-Davies notes, “the poem’s philosophy is purely Epicurean” (139). It introduces images that express the sense of urgency that a young lover on the brink of new romance feels. To one in love, a lifetime seems far too short a season to spend with one’s lover. Therefore Catullus’ excitement at this new love makes him all the more conscious of death and the brevity of life. This awareness in turn alerts him to the urgency of love. We only have one chance at life and so only one chance for love.

Important to note here is Catullus’ contrast between human life, which is short (brevis lux), and the heavens, which are eternal (soles occidere et redire possunt). This contrast again reveals Catullus’ character, as one who sees life as a small part of a greater, more permanent whole. He also equates death to eternal night and sleep: nox est perpetua una dormienda. This image especially expresses his urgency to experience life and love, for it is neither the underworld of the Aeneid nor the later Christian heaven; indeed, it is no afterlife at all. Yet such a view of oblivion at death makes life for Catullus all the more worth living to the fullest.

In the third triad Catullus proceeds to ask Lesbia for a large number of kisses: Da mi basia mille. According to Merrill, Catullus is the first Latin author to use the word basium (13). The word seems to be of non-Latin origin, yet its cognates are alive and well in the modern romance languages. The other two Latin words for "kiss," suavium and osculum, are unique to Latin (Fordyce, 107). Catullus uses all three, but seems to have reserved basium and its cognates for poems about Lesbia and Iuventius. Of these there are only five others: 7, 8, 16, and 48 which echo poem 5 (or refer to it directly as in 16), and 99 which does not directly relate to 5 but uses similar diction similar to 48 (mellite, mellitus).

In considering the numbering of the kisses, one ought to compare 5 with two of these poems in particular, (7 and 48) which also count kisses with the words basia and mille. There are some striking similarities between the three as well as some interesting differences. For example poem 7 seems to be a continuation of 5: Lesbia, upon hearing poem 5, has asked Catullus to say again just how many kisses he wants. Perhaps she has asked for a more definite figure, but as we shall see Catullus cannot reveal the exact number to Lesbia or even himself. Therefore he gives her a concrete image of an unimaginable number, that of sands in the desert and stars in the sky. Sands and stars together as images of unimaginable numbers appear elsewhere in literature, as Fordyce points out (108). Catullus himself uses them again in poem 61, lines 199-203, while Plato writes, “and are you good also at such things as counting the stars, and the sand?” (Euthyd. 294b, Lamb translation). Nor is the image unique to Greek and Roman literature, for it also appears in Genesis 22.17: “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and the sand which is on the seashore” (KJV).

In poem 48 Catullus asks Iuventius for the thousands of kisses, again comparing the number to a concrete image of something in nature that is innumerable. In this case, the image is of the ripe ears of a cornfield. A cornfield would have been a more local or familiar image than that of the African desert in poem 7 and more reachable than the stars. Perhaps this indicates that Iuventius is more familiar to Catullus than Lesbia, and seen by him as more attainable. Yet both the corn and Iuventius are ready to be plucked, and there is only one harvest for every crop. Therefore Catullus holds no false hopes of a future with him.

Catullus does however hold (foolish) hopes of a future with Lesbia. Her kisses are numbered by stars and sand, images not only of number but also of immeasurable time. As do all in the first stages of love, he wants the relationship to last forever yet fears that it will not. This idea brings us back to the urgency expressed in the second triad: he wants as many kisses as he can get because he knows that life is short. Catullus wants to experience and enjoy life to the fullest and this huge number of kisses represents a lifetime of loving. At the same time, the kisses are an attempt to make the moment last as long as possible. So large a number of kisses would take time to give, extending the relationship, increasing the length of time in which to live and love.

As suggested above, poem 5 is one of the less cynical of Catullus’ poems. Yet in a brilliant demonstration of his poetic genius, Catullus gives a good “punch” of cynicism right at the end where it will have the most effect. He has come to the point at which he must rest his case and let Lesbia respond. Therefore he tells her that in order to prevent any malicious person from putting a curse on them, they must make so many kisses that they lose count of them. For as Lamb observes, “the ancients had an unintelligible superstition that whatever could not be counted was exempted from the influence of all sorts of magic” (132). Catullus does not likely fear any such cursings, just as he does not care about the opinions of old men. Nevertheless he tries to convince Lesbia (for perhaps she made objections on these grounds) that it is in her interest to give him these kisses and thereby avoid any such cursings.

Here Catullus uses the words fecerimus and conturbabimus, which are “borrowed from bookkeeping jargon” as is aestimemus, according to Garrison (96). Along this same line, Ferguson equates conturbare with the shaking up of an abacus. He also asserts that the hundreds’ and thousands’ columns on the abacus are suggested by mille and centum (22). Yet the analogy of the abacus implies that the lovers reach a definite number and then deliberately stir it in into confusion. It seems more likely that Catullus meant for them to simply lose count. That is, the sheer unimaginable number was to be the very means by which they might “throw [their] accounts into confusion” as Fordyce puts it (107).

The idea of the curse is denoted by the word invidere. It literally means, “to envy,” yet the word carries the idea of malicious magic, and so Lewis gives the definition, “to cast an evil eye upon.” Moreover, Kelly notes, “Roman superstition recognized an occult and mischievous potency in the very sentiment of envy” (13). Thus If anyone knew the actual number of kisses, he would have power over the lovers. The joke is that Catullus, who has just uttered an outpouring of honest emotion, finishes off with an attempt to bargain with Lesbia like a shrewd salesman, appealing to her logic yet intending to satisfy his own desire. His agenda is to get those kisses, which are symbols of life as well as love. Only thus can he fulfill the wish expressed at the outset, to live and to love. By the same means he tries to show the reader, as if in afterthought, that he is that he is not as soft and emotional as it seems from the rest of the poem, but simply trying to get the girl.

While it is true that Catullus speaks very passionately of his anger and pain after he and Lesbia parted, even his saddest poems show a sense of optimism behind the curtain of cynicism. Poem 8 is a perfect example: for all his broken hopes, Catullus’ true nature dominates: Catullus obdurat—“Catullus endures.” Thus even in the worst of times Catullus places great emphasis on getting on with life, which is too short to waste in regret and sorrow. Few other poems show Catullus to be as excited about life as poem 5. It is not surprising therefore that in translation, as Lamb writes, “it has perhaps undergone more versions than any other poem in any language” (128). In it, Catullus’ love for life is revealed to the reader through his relationship with Lesbia. However, this love is not dependent on nor the result of that relationship, but stems independently from Catullus himself.

Works Cited

Ellis, Robinson. A Commentary on Catullus. 2^nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889.

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

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

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

Goold, G. P. Catullus. London: Duckworth, 1983.

Hart-Davies, T. Catullus. London: C. Kegan & Co., 1879.

Kelly, Walter K. The Poems of Catullus and Tibullus. London: G. Bell and Sons, ltd., 1919.

Lamb, George. The Poems of Caius Valerius Catullus, vol. 1. London: John Murray, 1821.

Merrill, E. T. Catullus. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1893.

Additional Works Consulted

Hornblower, Simon, and Anthony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3^rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999.

Lee, Guy. Catullus: the Complete Poems. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.

Lewis, Charlton T. An Elementary Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1981.

McMarren, Vincent P. A Critical Concordance to Catullus. Leiden: Brill, 1977.

Perseus Digital Library. Ed. Gregory Crane. Tufts University. 20 March 2003 <http://www.perseus.org>.