3 ms·

Catullus on the front page of Hacker News, huh? Had the pleasure of spending most of Latin class in my senior year of high school reading him. (Or rather, the p

Catullus on the front page of Hacker News, huh? Had the pleasure of spending most of Latin class in my senior year of high school reading him. (Or rather, the poems of his that our teacher could let us read without getting pearl-clutching parents on the other end of the phone with her. Not to worry, we knew where to find the rest.) Here are some of my favorites of his that are a bit off the beaten path: - Catullus 16, which might be the oldest thing that we could properly call a diss track: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_16 - Catullus 45, a poem about two lovers that's proof people have always had an appetite for camp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_45 - Catullus 46, an earnest, wistful poem about breaking camp with the arrival of spring and bidding the former strangers, now friends, goodbye as you all pursue the aims that brought you together in the first place: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Catullus_46 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Catullus_46

enriquto 6y ago
> Catullus 16, which might be the oldest thing that we could properly call a diss track This view is a bit disingenuous. There's been diss tracks as long as mankind has been singing and writing poems. While Catullus 16 is very famous, there's much earlier examples. The greek counterpart to Catullus may be, for example, Hipponax of Ephesus [0], who wrote celebrated "diss tracks" six centuries before him. But still, a lot of ancient greek comedy can be understood as unrestricted verbal abuse to concrete people of the time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipponax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipponax
- ldx1024 6y ago
  Calling it disingenuous I would say is inaccurate (which would have been a better word than disingenuous). The post said might. I take that to mean that is the earliest instance the poster knew of personally. If that was disingenuous that would mean they were knowingly giving inaccurate information. Thanks lgessler, interesting further reading.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - enriquto 6y ago
    Thanks for the correction, I used the word "disingenuous" wrongly.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

enriquto 6y ago

> Catullus 16, which might be the oldest thing that we could properly call a diss track This view is a bit disingenuous. There's been diss tracks as long as mankind has been singing and writing poems. While Catullus 16 is very famous, there's much earlier examples. The greek counterpart to Catullus may be, for example, Hipponax of Ephesus [0], who wrote celebrated "diss tracks" six centuries before him. But still, a lot of ancient greek comedy can be understood as unrestricted verbal abuse to concrete people of the time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipponax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipponax

ldx1024 6y ago
Calling it disingenuous I would say is inaccurate (which would have been a better word than disingenuous). The post said might. I take that to mean that is the earliest instance the poster knew of personally. If that was disingenuous that would mean they were knowingly giving inaccurate information. Thanks lgessler, interesting further reading.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- enriquto 6y ago
  Thanks for the correction, I used the word "disingenuous" wrongly.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]