The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus Part 34

C. lxvii. v. 21. _Languidior_. This expression, here obscenely applied, is proverbial, from the flagging of the leaves of the beet; hence the Latin word _batizare_, to droop, used by Suetonius, _in Augusto_. See Pliny on this plant, Cap. xiii. _lib._ 9.

v. 28. _Zonam Solvere_. See the note to C. ii. v. 13.

v. 30. _Minxerit in gremium_. Horace uses the word _mingere_ in the same sense:

_Dicitur ut formae melioris meat eodem_.

Hor. Sat. vii. _lib._ 2.

and in like manner Persius

_Patriciae immeat v.u.l.v.ae._

Pliny more than once uses the word _urina pro semine_.

C. lxviiii. v. 6. _Sub alarum_. Many would join these two words and form one, which, however, is not authorised by any ancient writer. The Spaniards, it is true, say _sobaco_, the armpit, but this does not justify a new Latin coinage of any similar word. The smell alluded to in this line has often been compared to that of a goat; it is called _capram_, _caprum_, and _hircam_. Thus Horace, Epod. 12,

_Namque sagacius unus odoror_ _Polypus an gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in alis._

This tetterous complaint is peculiar to warm countries; we know scarcely anything of it in our northern climate.

C. lxxiiii. v. 6. The reader will easily guess that one reason for the uncle's inability to murmur was owing to the occupation which Gellius had thrust on him.

C. lxxvii. v. 8. _Suavia comminxit_. This habit, which the filthy Rufus adopts, is mentioned by Lucretius:

_Jungunt salivas_ _Oris, et inspirant pressantes dentibus ora._ Lucret. _lib._ 4.

C. lx.x.x. v. 6. Martial has a similar expression,

_Lambebat medios improba lingua viros_.

v. 8. _Ilia, et emulso_. Lucretius uses the word _mulgere_ in the same sense in lib. 4.

C. lx.x.xiiii. v. 2. The first notice in the cla.s.sics of our far-famed 'Arry, whose female is 'Arriet.--_R. F. B._

C. lx.x.xviiii. v. 1. The good condition and number of the relations of Gellius are a.s.signed as the causes of his macilency, Gellius being an adulterer of the most infamous kind. Thus Propertius, on the amorous disposition peculiar to those of a spare make,

What tho' my slender shape enervate seem, Think not that vigour flies my meagre frame; At Venus' rites I ne'er was known to fail, Th' experienc'd fair can this dear truth reveal.

Proper., _Eleg._ 22. _lib._ 2.

C. lx.x.xx. v. 6. _Omentum_. The sages used to draw omens from the entrails of sacrificed beasts as they were burning; but more particularly from the _omentum_, or _caul_, that ap.r.o.n of fat which covers the abdominal viscera.

C. lx.x.xxiiii. v. 1. There is a double meaning in the original, and the translator can give but half of it. _Mentula_, synonymous with _p.e.n.i.s_, is a nickname applied by Catullus to Mamurra, of whom he says (cxv.) that he is not a man, but a great thundering _mentula_. Maherault has happily rendered the meaning of the epigram in French, in which language there is an equivalent for Mentula, that is to say, a man's name which is also a popular synonym for what characterizes the G.o.d Priapus. "Jean Chouard fornique; eh! sans doute, c'est bien Jean Chouard. C'est ainsi qu'on peut dire que c'est la marmite qui cueille les choux." Achilles Statius interprets this _distich_ thus, "It is the flesh that is guilty, and not I who am guilty; so is it the pot that robs the garden, and not the thief that robs the pot-herbs."

v. 2. _Ipsa olera olla legat_. This may have been a cant proverb of the day containing a meaning which is now unknown to us. Parthenius interprets it "A libidinous man is apt in adultery, as a vessel is suited to hold its contents."

C. lx.x.xxvii. v. 1. There is in the Greek Anthology a similar epigram by Nicarchus, which has thus been translated by Grotius:

Non culo, Theodore, minus tibi foetida bucca est Noscera discrimen sit sapientis opus.

Scribere debueras hic podex est meus, hic os; Nunc tu c.u.m pedas atque loquare simul, Discere non valeo, quid venerit inde vel inde; Vipera namque infra sibilat atque supra.

v. 7. Few are ignorant of what Scaliger here gravely tells us: _fessi muli strigare solent, ut meiant_. Vossius reads _defissus_, in a different sense.

C. lx.x.xxviiii. This poem shews beyond contradiction that Catullus himself was not free from the vice of paederasty, so universal amongst the Roman youth.

v. 10. _Lupae_. The infamous, fetid harlot is called _lupa_ (a she-wolf) from the ravenousness of the wolf answering to the rapacious disposition of the generality of courtezans: but Servius, _Aen._ 3, a.s.signs a much more improper and filthy reason.

C. c. v. 1. Again the Roman paederasty shews itself in Caelius's affection for Aufilenus.

C. ciii. It appears that Catullus had given a sum of money to the pander Silo to procure him a mistress. He did not perform his engagement, but kept the money, and abused our sinning bard when he reproached him with the cheat.

C. cv. There are not wanting commentators who give a very obscene turn to this epigram against Mamurra.

C. cx. v. 4. The word _dare_ has here an erotic sense.

v. 8. _Tota corpore prost.i.tuit_. Some commentators think that this alludes to such women as not only submit to prost.i.tution, but are in every way subservient to the lascivious caprices of depraved appet.i.tes. Vossius inclines to such an interpretation.

C. cxii. v. 2. _Multus_. Some commentators read _moltus_ in an obscene sense, _a molendo_. Vossius understands by _descendere in sese_ the same act as is alluded to in C. lx.x.xviii., hence the force of the word _multus_, meaning _c.u.m femina_, which he jeeringly applies to Naso as though he would ironically exclaim: _Et tu femina! tu solus es, aut sine femina_. He writes the epigram thus:

_Multus h.o.m.o est, Naso, neque sec.u.m multus h.o.m.o qui_ _Descendit? Naso, multus es et pathicus?_

THE END