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Clodia: A Sourcebook (Volume 33)
A striking portrait of one of the most fascinating women in Roman history
Noble and notorious, the flamboyant Clodia Metelli was the object of passion in poetry and prose in ancient Rome and appears in more written sources than any other woman of her day. Cicero, in a famous oration, branded her a whore yet in private correspondence mentions seeking her help. Her stormy affair with the poet Catullus—the Western world’s first recorded romance with a real and richly characterized woman—had a profound influence on erotic literature.
Bringing together works by Cicero, Catullus, and others in which Clodia plays a part, Julia Dyson Hejduk has produced a striking portrait of one of the most fascinating women in Roman history. Her accurate and accessible English translations include not only all the classical texts that mention Clodia, but also a substantial selection of Roman erotic poetry by Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. While many sourcebooks offer only small illustrative excerpts, Clodia provides most sources in their entirety, such as the Pro Caelio of Cicero, nineteen complete letters, all of Catullus’s poems on “Lesbia” (his pseudonym for Clodia), and many subsequent love elegies.
Hejduk’s translations please the ear while remaining faithful to the original meaning. Her introduction reviews topics in classical culture and themes in Roman love poetry, placing the texts in their literary, social, and historical context and making them accessible to high school students and undergraduates. Notes, glossary, and bibliography make the book a well-rounded teaching tool.
Noble and notorious, the flamboyant Clodia Metelli was the object of passion in poetry and prose in ancient Rome and appears in more written sources than any other woman of her day. Cicero, in a famous oration, branded her a whore yet in private correspondence mentions seeking her help. Her stormy affair with the poet Catullus—the Western world’s first recorded romance with a real and richly characterized woman—had a profound influence on erotic literature.
Bringing together works by Cicero, Catullus, and others in which Clodia plays a part, Julia Dyson Hejduk has produced a striking portrait of one of the most fascinating women in Roman history. Her accurate and accessible English translations include not only all the classical texts that mention Clodia, but also a substantial selection of Roman erotic poetry by Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. While many sourcebooks offer only small illustrative excerpts, Clodia provides most sources in their entirety, such as the Pro Caelio of Cicero, nineteen complete letters, all of Catullus’s poems on “Lesbia” (his pseudonym for Clodia), and many subsequent love elegies.
Hejduk’s translations please the ear while remaining faithful to the original meaning. Her introduction reviews topics in classical culture and themes in Roman love poetry, placing the texts in their literary, social, and historical context and making them accessible to high school students and undergraduates. Notes, glossary, and bibliography make the book a well-rounded teaching tool.
- GenresNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 9, 2024
This is so fun
June 25, 2016
Good as a teaching resource - but everything is in translation
Clodia Metelli is one of the most enduringly fascinating women of the late Republic: this book collects together, rather problematically, potential sources that relate to her - primarily Cicero's Pro Caelio, letters (e.g.Cicero: v. 1: Letters to Friends) and, possibly, Catullus' Lesbia poems (Catullus). Dyson does summarise succintly the scholarly debates on the problems of identifying Clodia in any simple way with Catullus' Lesbia but, at the same time, serves to elide the problem by citing all the texts together in this book.
The other major issue with this book is that everything is translated into English with no comments on either the original Latin or on which editions and/or commentaries to consult. So this is a nice teaching resource for an advanced school or university course on classics/ancient history in translation but it can't help but feel 'dumbed down' (for want of a better expression). This would have been far more useful if it had included the Greek (Plutarch) and Latin originals as well as the translations - and would have served to encourage students without classical languages to consider learning them while still making itself accessible.
Clodia Metelli is one of the most enduringly fascinating women of the late Republic: this book collects together, rather problematically, potential sources that relate to her - primarily Cicero's Pro Caelio, letters (e.g.Cicero: v. 1: Letters to Friends) and, possibly, Catullus' Lesbia poems (Catullus). Dyson does summarise succintly the scholarly debates on the problems of identifying Clodia in any simple way with Catullus' Lesbia but, at the same time, serves to elide the problem by citing all the texts together in this book.
The other major issue with this book is that everything is translated into English with no comments on either the original Latin or on which editions and/or commentaries to consult. So this is a nice teaching resource for an advanced school or university course on classics/ancient history in translation but it can't help but feel 'dumbed down' (for want of a better expression). This would have been far more useful if it had included the Greek (Plutarch) and Latin originals as well as the translations - and would have served to encourage students without classical languages to consider learning them while still making itself accessible.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews