Catullus 85

What was ‘Lesbia’ ‘s real name?

Clodia

Why the name Lesbia?

Refers too Greek poetess Sappho who inspired him

odi et amo

I [both] hate and love.

Effects of odi et amo

• brief but powerful opening.

• contrasting emotions

• beginining of a chiastic structure, hating+pain vs love+emotion

quare id faiam, fortasse requiris

How can I do that, you perhaps wonder.

Effects of quare id faiam, fortasse requiris

• questioning why he is feeling this way

• alliteration reflects softer sentiments

• force of first two verbs fades away

Effects of fortasse requiris

• addresses the reader almost personally, builds a relationship

nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior

I don’t know but I feel [it] happening and I am tormented

Effect of nescio

• forceful and brief like the first line

• he is utterly at a loss

Effect of active passive verbs. ‘ fieri, excrucior’

• contrasts active verbs as he is passively being swept along

Effect of excrucior

• violent verb, physical pain

• used to describe actual torture in Roman times via a ‘rack’ used to pull a person in two opposite directions

• Catullus is using hyperbolic imagery to link his emotions to such pain

Effect of sentio et excrucior

• finishes the chiastic structure

• sense of balance throughout, trapped and unable to change