Blog post 6

The relationship between Catallus and Lesbia starts off very good. As evidenced in Poem 7, Catallus wants the amount of kisses he shares with her to match “every grain of Libyan sand in the silphium-rich Cryene…reckon their total equal to all of those stars that in the silent night look down on the stolen loves of mortals”. Not only is he head over heels in love with Lesbia, but Catallus also values the rumors about he promiscuity “at no more than a farthing” in Poem 5.  His love for Lesbia blinds him; he wants her to give him “a thousand kisses, than one hundred, than a thousand more…” Catullus wants to be with Lesbia forever.  However, Lesbia is not the monogamous type and when Catallus chooses to ignore that fact, he sets himself up to get hurt, which is exactly what happens.  For reasons unknown to the reader, Lesbia ends her relationship with Catallus and breaks his heart.  As expected, the break up is very difficult for Catallus, he loved Lesbia “as no one shall again be loved” and then it was over (Poem 8 line 5).   He tries to resist embracing “the sad-sack life” and to not ask or think about her (Poem 8, Line 10).  Instead of crying about it, Catallus finds catharsis by maliciously insulting Lesbia.  He calls her “bitch, wicked bitch, poor wretch… Who will love you now?” (Poem 8, 15-17).  Catallus wants Lesbia to hurt just as much as he does and tries to accomplish this by his message for her in Poem 11: “Long may she live and flourish with her gallants, embracing all three hundred in one session, loving none truly, yet cracking each one’s loins over and over”.  In this message he finally embraces all of the rumors about Lesbia sleeping around and magnifies them.  He says that she only cares about sex and love means nothing to her.  Catallus feels like just another notch in Lesbia’s belt and he realizes that he loved Lesbia a great deal more than she did him.  The imbalance of the relationship ultimately causes “[his] passion… [to lie] fallen like a flower at a field’s edge, after the passing ploughshare’s cut a path through it” (Poem 11, 21-24)