The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus/4

Text & Translation
Meter - Iambic Senarii

Connotations of the Text
This poem, which concerns the retirement of a well-traveled ship, borrows heavily from Ancient Greek vocabulary, and also uses Greek grammar in several sections, and makes numerous geographic references and elaborate litotic double negatives in a list-like manner. Catullus 4 has been viewed as everything from a parody of epic poetry to another piece of writing in which the Ship of State metaphor is used. The meter is iambic trimeter.

Line 1

 * phaselus A phaselus was a small boat, derived from a Greek word meaning "bean" because of its similarity in shape to a bean-pod.

Line 3

 * trabis

("timber", "wooden beam") is here a poetic metonymy for "boat".

Line 4

 * Palmulis (diminutive of palma, "palm" of a hand) is here a metaphor for "oar".

Line 9

 * porpontida

("in front of Pontus") was the ancient name for the Sea of Marmara.


 * Ponticum sinum ("Pontic sea") was the name for the Black Sea.

Line 11

 * Cytorio

Mt. Cytorus was a mountain on the southern coast of the Black Sea, between the port cities of Amastris and Cytorus. Cytorus was famous as a source of boxwood.

Line 14

 * tibi

Amastris and Cytorus are addressed in the singular (tibi instead of vobis) because the city of Cytorus was absorbed by Amastris as it expanded, forming a single city.

Line 20

 * Iuppiter

Jupiter, king of the gods, is here used as metonymy for "sky" or "wind".

Line 21

 * pedem

(literally "foot") is here used to mean "sheet", a rope fastening the lower corners of a sail to the ship.

Line 27
The gemelle Castoris ("twin of Castor") refers to Pollux, the other twin in the Castor and Pollux pair, who were also known as the Gemini ("twins"). The two twins were often referred to by only a single name, most commonly Castor, as though they were one, hence the tibi in line 26.