Madam, – Alan O’Riordan (Weekend, February 14th), asserts that the Western concept of romantic love was “invented by poets in the South of France in the 11th century”. This is not the case.
The poet responsible for this invention was Catullus, a young man from Verona who lived in the first century BC, and who wrote a sequence of stunning poems about his love for the woman he calls Lesbia. For Catullus, Lesbia is “loved by me as no woman will ever be loved”. With her, he wants to live “an external pact of holy friendship”. Lesbia is “my gleaming goddess”; “my light”; “my life”. While she lives, “it is sweet for me to live”.
Catullus is not only a great love poet, but also an important figure in the history of ideas. – Yours, etc,