Roman Pederastic Poetry: The Problem of the Puer Delicatus

Abstract

This thesis examines the poetry of Catulus, Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, and Statius in an attempt to trace the development of a Roman pederastic poetics. This project aims to demonstrate how the status of the puer delicatus constitutes a point of contention for the Roman poets as they attempt to craft an elevated literature for the homoerotic amor between Roman citizen and subaltern. To legitimize an otherwise commonplace and inherently unequal configuration between citizen and slave, the poets participate in a project of assimilation that refigures the subaltern puer as a citizen youth and, in the poetry of Statius, even re-imagines the puer as a quasi-citizen within the aristocratic Roman family. To conclude, this study urges scholars to reevaluate Roman pederastic poetry as a cultural elaboration that attests to the problem that the stigma of the beloved's status posed to a standard homosexual configuration at Rome.