Abstract
Craig M. Maynes
Department of Classics
University of Toronto
The Roman house door, Catullus 67, and the elegiac limen
The interlocutor of Catullus 67 begins his scandalous gossip with a Veronese house door in a manner suggestive of the ritual address of a suppliant: "o dulci iucunda viro, iucunda parenti, / salve, teque bona Iuppiter auctet ope, / ianua..." (1-3) Such ritualism, which also pervades the form and the content of the ensuing discussion, is informed by the ritual associations of the house door (and the limen it protects) within Roman culture. The cultural significance of house doors is reflected in their frequent representation within Roman poetry, and Catullus 67 is often acknowledged as a precursor to the Augustan elegists' representation of them. In Augustan elegy, house doors take on important programmatic functions related to the longed-for transgression of the puella's limen. Using Catullus 67 as a point of departure, this paper will explore the relationship between the ritual functions of the Roman house door and the poetic functions of the door in Augustan elegy.
Return to CACW 2006 "Household and Society in the Ancient World" Program