Catullus: Tuffy the
Tugboat meets the Brave Little Toaster
Catullus in Fiction
Catullus as a literary subject
has been treated poorly. In The Venus Throw, by Steven
Saylor, Catullus is drunk and disorderly. In The City of Libertines,
by W G Hardy, he is a manic-depressive, and in The Key,
by Benita Jaro, he is the object, not the subject, of the book.
Catullus as drunk
The Venus Throw, Steven Saylor, St. Martin's Press,
1995
Catullus has a small but important
part in this book about Gordianus the Finder, who has been hired
by Clodia to find out who killed Dio the Egyptian envoy and to
prove that Caelius tried to poison her. Catullus, who spends
most of his time drunk and disorderly, deeply in love with Clodia
and furious at Caelius, befriends Gordianus. It is Catullus who
gives Cicero some of his choicest phrases to use in his case
on behalf of Caelius. Catullus is not a very interesting character
- he is too drunk and consumed with Clodia to have scintillating
dialog.
Catullus as manic-depressive
The City of Libertines, W G Hardy, Appleton-Century-Crofts,
1957
Catullus and his friends are
the main characters here, and Caesar, as usual, is the most interesting.
Clodia is not the evil witch of the west, and her infatuation
with Caelius is explained as being as strong as that for Catiline.
Catullus rants and raves, with his emotions up and down and all
over the place; nowadays, he would be on heavy psychotropic drugs.
Hardy takes the most liberties with Catullus' life, giving a
new picture of his family and his death. This is actually a good
book, interesting for its different view of all concerned. Catullus'
poems are well incorporated into the text, as are some of the
Gallic Wars.
Catullus as object
The Key,
Benita Kane Jaro, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1988
This book doesn't really do
Catullus justice. Jaro presents Catullus through the eyes of
Marcus Caelius, who is writing Catullus' biography (as a form
of penance) after Catullus' death. Sometimes Caelius gives a
commentary and sometimes he just describes Catullus. The sex
scenes are rather graphic, and the translations of Catullus'
poems are not great - some have grammatical errors. While this
book is interesting, it is not for high school students.
