Journeys and Nostalgia in Catullus
By Rebecca Armstrong
Abstract: This article explores the themes of travel, homecoming and homesickness in Catullus’ poetry. A recurrent interest throughout much of the poet’s oeuvre, the idea of the journey offers the reader multiple angles of interpretation: from the emotional to the metapoetic, and from contemporary social contexts to far-off mythical ones, all along the way contributing to the complex presentation of the poet himself. Ultimately, the reader is left with a paradoxical picture of Catullus as both a wanderer and a stay-at-home, both an achiever of nostos and a victim of incurable nostalgia.
Published in The Classical Journal, Vol. 109, No. 1 (2013), pg. 43-71