Thursday, September 6, 2007

Possible Catullan Responses to Today's Life

The homosexual lifestyle today may be frowned upon, but in Catullus's time this would have been a norm for the average male. In his time it wasn't uncommon for a man to have a male partner while he didn't have a female partner. So, in his time most men were bisexual; while in our time most people are heterosexual. There is evidence of bisexuality in Catullus's poem 40 and 30. However, they don't have direct evidence, but some historians believe that Catullus is refering to another man named Juventus instead of his usual lover Lesbia. This is mainly thought of becuase the words he uses in his poems are neuter and don't refer to either gender. Most of the time Catullus mentions Lesbia as his lover so this leads some to believe that Catullus is refering to Lesbia. There also some who say that it doesn't matter and there is no evidence to believe that it is either one of these people; for all we know Catullus could have been refering to some army or political officer trying to gain favor.

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