Catullus 4

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Catullus 4 is a poem by the ancient Roman writer Catullus. The poem concerns the retirement of a well-traveled ship; Catullus draws a strong analogy with human aging, rendering the boat as a person that flies and speaks, with palms (the oars) and purpose.

The poem is complex, with numerous geographic references and elaborate litotic double negatives in a list-like manner. It borrows heavily from Ancient Greek vocabulary, and also uses Greek grammar in several sections. The meter of the poem is unusual — iambic trimeter, which was perhaps chosen to convey a sense of speed over the waves.

Catullus 4 has also been interpreted as a parody of epic poetry, or the boat as a metaphor for the Ship of State.

Contents 1 Latin text and translation 2 Notes 3 Bibliography 4 External links

[edit] Latin text and translation

Line	Latin text	English translation
1	phaselus ille quem videtis hospites	That little boat[1] which you see, guests,
2	ait fuisse navium celerrimus	Says that it was the swiftest of ships,
3	neque ullus natantis impetum trabis	And that the speed of any sailing timber[2]
4	nequisse praeterire sive palmulis	It was not unable to surpass, whether with little palms[3]
5	opus foret volare sive linteo	it would be necessary to speed or with a sail.
6	et hoc negat minacis Hadriatici	And it denies that the menacing Adriatic's
7	negare litus insulasve Cycladas	shore denies this, or the Cyclades islands
8	Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thraciam	and famous Rhodes and the rough Thracian
9	Propontida trucemve Ponticum sinum	Propontis or the pitiless Pontic sea[4]
10	ubi iste post phaselus antea fuit	where that which you see afterward a yacht, was before
11	comata silva nam Cytorio in iugo	a leafy forest; for on a Cytorian mountain ridge,[5]
12	loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma	it produced a whistling sound, often speaking with its leaves.
13	Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer	Pontic Amastris and boxwood-bearing Cytorus,
14	tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima	To you[6] that these things have been and are very well-known
15	ait phaselus ultima ex origine	the yacht says: from its farthest beginning,
16	tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine	its says that it stood on your peak,
17	tuo imbuisse palmulas in aequore	that it dipped its palms in your water,
18	et inde tot per impotentia freta	and that from there, through so many uncontrollable straits,
19	erum tulisse laeva sive dextera	it bore its master, whether from the left or the right
20	vocaret aura sive utrumque Iuppiter	the wind would call, or whether the second Jupiter[7]
21	simul secundus incidisset in pedem	had fallen onto both feet[8] at the same time;
22	neque ulla vota litoralibus deis	and that not any vow to the gods of the shore
23	sibi esse facta cum veniret a mari	had been made by itself, when it came from the most recent sea
24	novissimo hunc ad usque limpidum lacum	all the way to this limpid lake.
25	sed haec prius fuere nunc recondita	But these things have been before: now in hidden
26	senet quiete seque dedicat tibi	repose it is old, and it dedicates itself to you,
27	gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris	twin Castor and twin of Castor.[9]

[edit] Notes

1. ^  A phaselus was a small boat, derived from a Greek word meaning "bean" because of its similarity in shape to a bean-pod.
2. ^  Trabs ("timber", "wooden beam") is here a poetic metonymy for "boat".
3. ^  Palmula (diminutive of palma, "palm" of a hand) is here a metaphor for "oar".
4. ^  Propontis ("in front of Pontus") was the ancient name for the Sea of Marmora, and Ponticum sinum ("Pontic sea") was the name for the Black Sea.
5. ^  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.
6. ^  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.
7. ^  Jupiter, king of the gods, is here used as a metonymy for "sky" or "wind".
8. ^  Pes (literally "foot") is here used to mean "sheet", a rope fastening the lower corners of a sail to the ship.
9. ^  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.

[edit] Bibliography

• Griffith, JG (1983). "Catullus Poem 4: A Neglected Interpretation Revived". Phoenix 37: 123–128. doi:10.2307/1087452. 

• Coleman, KM (1981). "The Persona of Catullus' Phaselus". Greece and Rome 28: 68–72. 

• Putnam, MCJ (1962). "Catullus' Journey (Carm. 4)". Classical Philology 57: 10–19. doi:10.1086/364642. 

• Copley, FO (1958). "Catullus 4: The World of the Poem". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 89: 9–13. doi:10.2307/283659. 

[edit] External links

• Carmina for some of the texts in Latin.
• [10]
• Carmen 4 in many other languages.

Poems (Carmina) of The Roman poet Catullus
Lesbia poems	2, 2b, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 36, 37, 51, 58, 68, 70, 72, 75, 76, 79, 83, 85, 86, 87, 91, 92, 104, 107, 109
Invective poems	10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 47, 49, 52, 53, 54, 57, 59, 60, 69, 71, 73, 74, 77, 78, 80, 84, 88, 89, 90, 93, 95, 97, 98, 103, 108, 110, 111, 112, 113, 116
Unusual poetic meters	4, 8, 11, 17, 22, 25, 29, 30, 31, 34, 37, 39, 44, 51, 52, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64
Hendecasyllabic verse	1, 2, 2b, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 14b, 15, 16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 58b
Elegiac couplets	65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116
See also the list of poems by Catullus.