The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus/13

=Text and Translation=

Meter - Hendecasyllabic

=Connotations of The Text=

This poem is an dinner invitation to Catullus's friend, Fabullus.

Line 3

 * si - if...

This is the catch for Fabullus - he will dine well if he does all the things about to be listed. It is put at the beginning of the line for emphasis.

Line 4

 * candida - white; fair

Can mean white, but here means beautiful/of pale skin - pale skin was a sign of beauty in Roman times.

Line 5

 * sale - salt

This word means salt normally, but came to mean wit. This was because salt was used to add flavour the meat, and so in a literary terms the 'flavour' to words is wit.


 * cachinnis - laughs

This word is probably derived from Greek since the letter ch was not a Latin sound. The harsh sound that comes from saying this word may reflect the sounds of the laughter described.

Line 8

 * plenus sacculus est aranearum - lit. - full the purse is of cobwebs'

The poem makes use of hyperbaton. This is the re-arranging of the word order to create emphasis and effect. Hyperbaton is particularly common in inflected languages, such as Latin and Ancient Greek where the word order does not matter. The joke here is still used today - cobwebs sprung up where nothing has been touched for a while - and Catullus is broke.

Line 11

 * unguentum - perfume; oil

The reference to the "oil" or perfume, may be a subtle compliment to Catullus's girl. Both Roman men and women would wear perfume to make themselves smell more attractive.

=Vocabulary=

=Sources=


 * Oxford Latin Reader by Maurice Balme and James Morewood (1997)

=External Links=


 * Catullus 13 A Translation of Catullus 13