Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:28:27.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 3 - Heroic Badness and Catullus’ Plautine Plots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2021

Christopher B. Polt
Affiliation:
Boston College, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores a set of intracorpus echoes in Catullus that has gone largely unexamined, presumably because it unites three poems that appear to be so utterly mismatched as to seem that they cannot comment on one another. The author argues that a familiar comic routine featuring Roman comedy’s “clever slave” binds these three poems together and illustrates how Catullus engages in social competition with his peers and rivals among the Roman elite. This character provides Catullus a model for displaying what William Anderson has dubbed “Heroic Badness,” a distinctly Plautine virtue by which the underdogs of Roman comedy gain the upper hand over blocking figures who hinder them from achieving their goals, despite the fact that they suffer from social and situational impairments. This chapter argues that the Roman elite found value in identifying with Roman comedy’s servus callidus and explores implications this affinity has for Catullus’ depiction of himself and others in his poetry.

Type
Chapter
Information
Catullus and Roman Comedy
Theatricality and Personal Drama in the Late Republic
, pp. 126 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×