Full-text resources of CEJSH and other databases are now available in the new Library of Science.
Visit https://bibliotekanauki.pl

Refine search results

Journals help
Authors help
Years help
System messages
  • Session was invalidated!

Results found: 2

first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last

Search results

help Sort By:

help Limit search:
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
XX
The present discussion attempts to analyze the meaning of a kiss in nine poems by Catullus – 5, 7, 8, 9, 16, 45, 48, 79, 99 – a meaning which depended not only on the social functions a kiss had in Roman culture, but also on the author’s individual literary conceits, as well as on the reader’s interpretation. The Roman lexical classification into basium, osculum and suavium (Servius ad Verg. Aen. I 256) is not as relevant for Catullus’ works as the poetic richness of meanings attributed to the motif of a kiss. In every single poem, the kiss stands for something different, depending on the poem’s message, its structure, and its addressee: when speaking to Lesbia, the poet refers to kisses in a different way than when speaking to Juventius, or to his friends. Catullus wrote about kisses associating them with various aspects of life – eroticism, social relationships, or poetic theory. The poet employed the motif of kisses to depict the variety of human relations: love (poems 5, 7, 8, 45), friendship (9, 16), or lust (48, 79, 99). What is more, the motif is never unequivocal, and it encompasses at least several common themes, such as counting the kisses (5, 7, 48), comparing them to food (48, 99), kissing the eyes (9, 45, 48), or os impurum – the unclean mouth (79, 99). Thus, the motif is incorporated into Catullus’ poetry in accordance to the variatio principle – a principle crucial to the aesthetics of the neoterics.
Meander
|
2018
|
issue 73
91-108
XX
Disquiritur hic de Petronii morte a Tacito (Ann. XVI 18–19) descripta.
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.