The Relevance of the Ancients: The Case of Catullus and His Poetry

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One kind of poetry existed from very long time ago. At the beginning, in preliterate societies in which period there was no sophisticated writing system, poetry existed in oral form, and people used poetry in oral form to record or to do the storytelling to the next generation (Poetry.org. website. 2005) Therefore, it can be said that there is no clear evidence that shows from when one kind of poetry started to exist. Although it is clear that human in early days had one kind of poetry. The writing system appeared in the sophisticated society, such as Mesopotamian society, Egyptian society, Aegean society as I learned from the class lecture. A poetry which was recorded in the writing style can be seen from such sophisticated period. During such sophisticated period, epic which is a long poem was the mainstream. Epic always described the heroic character and his adventure in narrative style, the style that poet tells a story in his poetry. The famous poem "The epic of Gilgamesh" was recorded on the clay tablet in Mesopotamian society and later in early Greece, Homeric epics "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were created, and it had an influence on later poetry. The influence of the Greek can be seen in the works of the Ennius who was called the father of Roman poetry (Cunningham S. Lawrence and Reich J. John P331). Catullus was a poet in the Rome who lived in the same period as Cicero, and both of them had great contribution to literary development in that period.

Catullus was known for his poetry in which he expressed the emotion of love for a woman whose name was Lesbia. According to the website Poetry foundation, his poetry was influenced by the learned and self-conscious style of Hellenistic poetry. However, Catullus did not just imitat...

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...m of Catullus was that the contents is much closer than the other poems I read from the textbook, such as “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, and the Homeric epic “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Those epics had some parts that I could not understand because the epic is the story which contains old expression and complicated and long story. The one thing I think I learned from Catullus is that the power of love is great and influences people in both early period and modern world.

Works cited

1. Cunningham S. Lawrence and Reich J. John. P331-332. Culture &Values ~a survey of the numanities ~ volume1 seventh edition.

2. "What is poetry" Poetry.org; 2005

3. “Gaius Valerius Catullus” Poetry foundation.

4. Pamela Hartmann and Laurie Blass. Quest 3second edition: 2007, P 168, P180

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