M/M: A Heart Has Found Its Home, Quintus Lutatius Catullus

Name:  Quintus Lutatius Catulus Date:  2nd century BCE Region:     [modern Italy] Citation:    Preserved in Aulus Gellius' Attic Nights, 19.10.14

These were the lyrics of Quintus Catulus:

My heart has left me:

I think it’s gone to Theotimus

(that’s what it usually does).

That’s how it goes: that’s its home.

Even if I had put my foot down, forcing my heart to come home,

It’s used to staying at his place.

I’ll go out looking for it,

But I’m afraid that I’ll be caught up in Theotimus’ charms, too.

What’ll I do? Help me, Venus!

 Quinti Catuli versus illi fuerunt: [14]

Aufugit mi animus; credo, ut solet, ad Theotimum

Devenit. Sic est: perfugium illud habet.

Qui, si non interdixem, ne illunc fugitivum

Mitteret ad se intro, sed magis eiceret?

Ibimus quaesitum. Verum, ne ipsi teneamur,

Formido. Quid ago? Da Venus consilium.

 

 

Quintus Lutatius Catulus was a prominent figure in the wars against the Cimbri and the Teutones in the 2^nd century BCE. Although he was a prolific author, only fragments remain of his works.

  

Two Bodies, One Mind United In Love and Friendship: Lucian, Toxaris 62

 

Two Bodies, One Mind United in Love and Friendship

Name: Lucian Date: 125 – 180 CE Region: [modern Turkey] Citation:  Toxaris, or Friendship 62

Lucian uses imagery from the myth of soulmates in Plato's Symposium in his dialogue Toxaris.  In this dialogue, the Scythian Toxaris and the Greek Mnesippus discuss their own culture's perspectives and beliefs on friendship. The dialogue ends with the following speech, which unites the two in a bond of love and friendship.  

 

You know how you seem to think that friendship is great?

Well, I too think that there is nothing else better or more beautiful than friendship!

So why not unite ourselves together as friends?

We can both be winners!

From this day forward, we can love one another forever, and both of us can receive the greatest benefits from it. 

Instead of one tongue and one right hand, we can now have two!

We now can have four eyes and four feet and everything else is doubled, too!

You know how authors depicted Geryon, a person with six hands and three heads? Well, that’s how it goes when two (or even three!) friends come together, doing everything together synchronously, divinely united in friendship! 

ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ σὺ φιλίαν ἐπαινεῖν ἔδοξας, ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἡγοῦμαι ἀνθρώποις εἶναι τούτου κτῆμα ἄμεινον ἢ κάλλιον, τί οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς συνθέμενοι πρὸς ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς φίλοι τε αὐτόθεν εἶναι καὶ εἰσαεὶ ἔσεσθαι ἀγαπῶμεν ἄμφω νικήσαντες, τὰ μέγιστα ἆθλα προσλαβόντες, ἀντὶ μιᾶς γλώττης καὶ μιᾶς δεξιᾶς δύο ἑκάτερος ἐπικτησάμενοι καὶ προσέτι γε καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς τέτταρας καὶ πόδας τέτταρας καὶ ὅλως διπλᾶ πάντα ;

Aut si hoc crudele, quando tu amicitiam admirari visus es: ego nihilo secius puto, nullam esse mortalibus possessionem hac praestantiorem neque pulchriorem: quin ipsi quoque; in unum copulati, illud approbamus: ut ex hoc die in totam usque vitam simus amici, utrique, victores, utrique maximis potiti praemiis: videlicet pro unica lingua, unaque dextra, binas uterque habituri, atque insuper oculos quoque quaternos, pedesque quaternos,

τοιοῦτόν τι γάρ ἐστι συνελθόντες δύο ἢ τρεῖς φίλοι, ὁποῖον τὸν Γηρυόνην οἱ γραφεῖς ἐνδείκνυνται, ἄνθρωπον ἑξάχειρα καὶ τρικέφαλον ἐμοὶ γὰρ δοκεῖν, τρεῖς ἐκεῖνοι ἦσαν ἅμα πράττοντες πάντα, ὥσπερ ἐστὶ δίκαιον φίλους γε ὄντας.

in summa, duplicia omnia eiusmodi namque quiddam est: cum duo tresque copulantur amici, qualem Geryonem scriptores depingunt, senis manibus, ternisque capitibus hominem. Siquidem (ut mea fert opinio) tres illi fuerunt, qui communiter omnia gererent: ut dignum est his, qui amicitia coniuncti sunt.  Translated into Latin by Desiderius Erasmus

Lucian [Lucianus Samosatensis; 125 – 180 CE, modern Turkey] was a Roman satirist from Samosata [modern Turkey] who wrote in ancient Greek. His works are a mixture of sarcasm, wit, and biting social criticism. He is without a doubt one of the most popular authors of the later Roman empire.

Losing Half of the Team: Polynices' Loss of Tydeus, Statius, Theb.9.82-85

Losing Half of the Team: Polynices’ Loss of Tydeus

Name:  Statius Date:  45 – 96 CE Region:  Naples [modern Italy] Citation:  Thebiad 9.82 – 85

Polynices was led away [from his friend Tydeus’ body]

like a bull who has just lost

its yoke-mate, the companion of its labors.

It walks away from the furrow it had begun,

leaving the job unfinished,

with lowered head; it

drags the now empty half-yoke,

while a weeping farmer struggles

to hold up the other half.  

 

Losing Half of the Team: Polynices’ Loss of Tydeus

Ducitur amisso qualis consorte laborum
deserit inceptum media inter iugera sulcum
Taurus iners colloque iugum deforme remisso
parte trahit, partem lacrimans sustentat arator.

Statius [Publius Papinius Statius; 45 – 96 CE, modern Italy] was one of the most influential epic poets of the so-called “Silver Age” [the generations of authors who lived after the reign of Augustus and before the reign of the “Five Good Emperors”]. Statius spent most of his life in Naples, Italy. His most famous work, the Thebaid, is an epic poem that describes the civil war between the descendants of Oedipus. He also wrote the Achilleid, a short epic on the boyhood of Achilles.

Soulmates, Celestial Bodies, and The Origin of Love: Aristophanes' Speech in Plato's Symposium (Symp.189ff)

Name: Plato Date: 428 BCE – 348 BCE Region: Athens [modern Greece] Citation:  Symposium 189d – 191b

It’s really important to learn about the early nature of mankind and what happened to them. For it did not used to be what it is now, but rather it was far different.

In the beginning, there were three types of people, not just the two we have now (male and female); there was also a third type, a mix of both. Nowadays, only its name remains (androgynous), but back then it was as the name implies, a mixture of male and female.

Furthermore, these humans were round in shape, having round backs and sides. They had four hands, four legs, and two faces conjoined at the neck, and were completely symmetrical. They had one head, with both faces turned in opposite directions.

This is the reason there were three types of people: the masculine type was born from the Sun; the feminine type was born from the Earth; and the third type was born from the moon (for the moon shares properties of both. [1])

Like their heavenly parents, people were spherical in both form and motion. For this reason, they had both strong bodies and powerful wills. In fact, they attempted to contend with the gods, and ascend the heavens the same way that Homer describes the feats of Ephialtes and Otis.

Therefore, Zeus assembled the other gods together and deliberated on what to do. There was a great discussion on options, since he found that they could not simply kill off humanity, as he had done with the Giants. They realized that if the human race was destroyed, their worship would end. On the other hand, he reckoned that such insolence should not be allowed to go on unchecked.

Finally, Zeus explained his plan. He said, “I have found a way that humans can still exist, but yet become more modest. This will happen if they become weaker. I will divide each and every one of them into two. Then they will become weaker, and there will be twice as many to worship us. From now on, they will walk upright on two legs. But if they again seem to become arrogant, I will cut them in half again, and they will be forced to hop forward on one foot.”

Having said this, he divided them in two, like how we cut eggs with a thread. And then he ordered Apollo to heal them and turn their faces and necks towards the part that was cut, so that upon looking at the wound they would become more modest. Apollo immediately turned their faces forward, and pulled together the skin in the middle of the stomach that we now call the navel.

From then on, the nature of mankind has been divided in such a way that when each one yearned to find their other half, they ran around each other, embracing one another and trying to fuse together again.

 

[1] The moon emits no light of its own, like the earth, but also resembles the sun because is a heavenly body that shines.

ἡ γὰρ πάλαι ἡμῶν φύσις οὐχ αὑτὴ ἦν ἥπερ νῦν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀλλοία. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ τρία ἦν τὰ γένη τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, οὐχ ὥσπερ νῦν δύο, ἄρρεν καὶ θῆλυ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τρίτον προσῆν κοινὸν ὂν ἀμφοτέρων τούτων, οὗ νῦν ὄνομα λοιπόν, αὐτὸ δὲ ἠφάνισται: ἀνδρόγυνον γὰρ ἓν τότε μὲν ἦν καὶ εἶδος καὶ ὄνομα ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων κοινὸν τοῦ τε ἄρρενος καὶ θήλεος…. ἔπειτα ὅλον ἦν ἑκάστου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ εἶδος στρογγύλον, νῶτον καὶ πλευρὰς κύκλῳ ἔχον, χεῖρας δὲ τέτταρας εἶχε, καὶ σκέλη τὰ ἴσα ταῖς χερσίν, καὶ πρόσωπα δύ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐχένι κυκλοτερεῖ, ὅμοια πάντῃ: κεφαλὴν δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς προσώποις ἐναντίοις κειμένοις μίαν, ... ἦν δὲ διὰ ταῦτα τρία τὰ γένη καὶ τοιαῦτα, ὅτι τὸ μὲν ἄρρεν ἦν τοῦ ἡλίου τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔκγονον, τὸ δὲ θῆλυ τῆς γῆς, τὸ δὲ ἀμφοτέρων μετέχον τῆς σελήνης, ὅτι καὶ ἡ σελήνη ἀμφοτέρων μετέχει: περιφερῆ δὲ δὴ ἦν καὶ αὐτὰ καὶ ἡ

Oportet in primis qualis hominum quondam natura fuerit, quaeve illius passiones, perdiscere. Neque enim qualis nunc est, olim erat, sed longe diversa. Principio tria hominum erant genera non solum quae nunc duo, mas & femina, verum etiam tertium quoddam aderat ex utrisque compositum. Cuius solum nobis restat nomen ipsum periit, Androgynum, quippe tunc erat, et specie et nomine, ex maris et feminae sexu commixtum... Praeterea tota cuiusque hominis species erat rotunda, dorsum & latera circum habens, manus quatuor, totidemque, crura, vultus item duos tereti cervice connexos, et omnino consimiles. Caput utrique vultibus contra versis, unum... Ob hanc vero causam tria genera et talia erant, quia masculum Sole genitum erat. Femina, Terra; promiscuum denique

πορεία αὐτῶν διὰ τὸ τοῖς γονεῦσιν ὅμοια εἶναι. ἦν οὖν τὴν ἰσχὺν δεινὰ καὶ τὴν ῥώμην, καὶ τὰ φρονήματα μεγάλα εἶχον, ἐπεχείρησαν δὲ τοῖς θεοῖς, καὶ ὃ λέγει Ὅμηρος περὶ Ἐφιάλτου τε καὶ Ὤτου, περὶ ἐκείνων λέγεται, τὸ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνάβασιν ἐπιχειρεῖν ποιεῖν, ὡς ἐπιθησομένων τοῖς θεοῖς. ὁ οὖν Ζεὺς καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι θεοὶ ἐβουλεύοντο ὅτι χρὴ αὐτοὺς ποιῆσαι, καὶ ἠπόρουν: οὔτε γὰρ ὅπως ἀποκτείναιεν εἶχον καὶ ὥσπερ τοὺς γίγαντας κεραυνώσαντες τὸ γένος ἀφανίσαιεν—αἱ τιμαὶ γὰρ αὐτοῖς καὶ ἱερὰ τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἠφανίζετο— οὔτε ὅπως ἐῷεν ἀσελγαίνειν. μόγις δὴ ὁ Ζεὺς ἐννοήσας λέγει ὅτι ‘δοκῶ μοι,’ ἔφη, ‘ἔχειν μηχανήν, ὡς ἂν εἶέν τε ἅνθρωποι καὶ παύσαιντο τῆς ἀκολασίας ἀσθενέστεροι γενόμενοι. νῦν μὲν γὰρ αὐτούς, ἔφη, διατεμῶ δίχα ἕκαστον, καὶ ἅμα μὲν ἀσθενέστεροι ἔσονται, ἅμα δὲ χρησιμώτεροι ἡμῖν διὰ τὸ πλείους τὸν ἀριθμὸν γεγονέναι: καὶ βαδιοῦνται ὀρθοὶ ἐπὶ δυοῖν σκελοῖν. ἐὰν δ᾽ ἔτι δοκῶσιν ἀσελγαίνειν καὶ μὴ 'θέλωσιν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, πάλιν αὖ, ἔφη, τεμῶ δίχα, ὥστ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ἑνὸς πορεύσονται σκέλους

Luna. Utriusque enim luna est particeps. Spherica vero erant et figura, et motu, quia parentum similia. Unde et robusto corpore et elato animo erant. Quare cum diis pugnare temptabant, et in caelum ascendere quemadmodum de Ephialto & Oto scribit Homerus. Jupiter igitur unaque dii ceteri quid agendum esset consultaverunt. Qua in re non parva inerat ambiguitas. Nam neque quomodo eos interficerent, reperiebat, ne eorum sicuti Gigantum, fulminando genus delerent: extincto enim hominum genere, humanus deorum cultus veneratioque periret, neque in tanta insolentia perseverare illos permittendum censebat. Tandem sententiam Jupiter suam explicuit. “Inveni,” inquit, “qua ratione fieri possit, ut & sint homines, & modestiores sint. Idque erit, si imbecilliores fiant. Unumquenque nunc duas in partes dividam. Ex quo et debiliores erunt, et nobis etiam magis id conducit. Numero siquidem plures erunt qui nos colent. Recti duobus cruribus ibunt. Quod si rursus impie insurgere videantur, iterum in duo secabo, ut unico crure nixi,

ἀσκωλιάζοντες.’ ταῦτα εἰπὼν ἔτεμνε τοὺς ἀνθρώπους δίχα, ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ ὄα τέμνοντες καὶ μέλλοντες ταριχεύειν, ἢ ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ ᾠὰ ταῖς θριξίν: ὅντινα δὲ τέμοι, τὸν Ἀπόλλω ἐκέλευεν τό τε πρόσωπον μεταστρέφειν καὶ τὸ τοῦ αὐχένος ἥμισυ πρὸς τὴν τομήν, ἵνα θεώμενος τὴν αὑτοῦ τμῆσιν κοσμιώτερος εἴη ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καὶ τἆλλα ἰᾶσθαι ἐκέλευεν. ὁ δὲ τό τε πρόσωπον μετέστρεφε, καὶ συνέλκων πανταχόθεν τὸ δέρμα ἐπὶ τὴν γαστέρα νῦν καλουμένην, ὥσπερ τὰ σύσπαστα βαλλάντια, ἓν στόμα ποιῶν ἀπέδει κατὰ μέσην τὴν γαστέρα, ὃ δὴ τὸν ὀμφαλὸν καλοῦσι.  ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἡ φύσις δίχα ἐτμήθη, ποθοῦν ἕκαστον τὸ ἥμισυ τὸ αὑτοῦ συνῄει, καὶ περιβάλλοντες τὰς χεῖρας καὶ συμπλεκόμενοι ἀλλήλοις, ἐπιθυμοῦντες συμφῦναι, ἀπέθνῃσκον ὑπὸ λιμοῦ καὶ τῆς ἄλλης ἀργίας διὰ τὸ μηδὲν ἐθέλειν χωρὶς ἀλλήλων ποιεῖν.

utpote claudi, saltare cogantur.” Haec fatus bifariam partitus est singulos, instar eorum qui ova dividunt, ut sale condiant, vel qui capillis ova secant. Mandavitque Apollini, ut partitione statim facta, cuiusque vultum cervicisque dimidium in eam partem qua sectus est, verteret, ut scissionem sua considerans modestior fieret, reliquis autem mederit iussit. Ille continuo vultum vertit, et contrahens undique cutem in eum qui nunc venter vocatur, tanquam contracta marsupia et os unum faciens, medio in ventre ligavit... Postquam natura hominum ita divisa fuit, cum quisque dimidium sui agnitum cuperet, inter se concurrebant, circumiactisque brachiis se invicem complectebantur, conflari unum affectantes. Translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino

Plato [428 BCE – 348 BCE, modern Greece] was an Athenian philosopher who is considered one of the most influential minds of Greek thought. Using his predecessor Socrates as his mouthpiece, he composed a number of philosophical dialogues that explored various ethical, philosophical, and moral concepts. He was the founder of the Athenian Academy, and was the mentor of the famous philosopher Aristotle.