Catullus is feeling amorous again, but this time all is more down-to-earth than his romantic riffs on sparrows and kisses and definitely x-rated: an afternoon of hot sex with Ipsitilla. The programme that he offers Ipsitilla is an ambitious one. How do Catullus the tender lover and the randy Catullus using the F-word to a lady of easy virtue relate to one another, and is there a creative plan behind the depiction of both in his Carmina? It’s impossible to say for certain, partly because we can’t tell whether the text we have is Catullus’s own selection, or, as seems more likely, a later collection which might include pieces that had a restricted circulation when they were written. But like many other of his pornographic, libelous and scatological pieces, this one is skillful, daring and interesting for the light it casts on the mores of at least some of the upper-crust party people of first century BCE Rome.
See the illustrated blog post here.
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