Date: 54 B.C.

"O what greater blessing than cares released, when the mind casts down its burden, and when wearied with the toil of travel we reach our hearth, and rest in the long-for bed."

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.)

Date: 54 B.C.

"And summon homewards the mistress, eager for her new husband, firm-prisoning her soul in love; as tight-clasping ivy, wandering here and there, wraps the tree around."

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.)

Date: 54 B.C.

"Ah, woeful one, with sorrows unending distraught, Erycina sows thorny cares deep in your bosom, since that time when Theseus fierce in his vigor set out from the curved bay of Piraeus, and gained the Gortynian roofs of the iniquitous ruler."

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.)

Date: 54 B.C.

"But Theseus, self-blinded with mental mist, let slip from forgetful breast all those injunctions which until then he had held firmly in mind, nor bore aloft sweet signals to his sad sire, showing himself safe when in sight of Erectheus' haven."

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.)

Date: 54 B.C.

"[N]or gladly and with joyous breast do I send you, nor will I suffer you to bear signs of helpful fortune, but first from my breast many a complaint will I express, sullying my grey hairs with dust and ashes, and then will I hang dusky sails to the swaying mast, so that our sorrow and burning of...

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.)

Date: 54 B.C.

"These charges, at first held in constant mind, from Theseus slipped away as clouds are impelled by the breath of the winds from the ethereal peak of a snow-clad mount."

— Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.)