Ransom

I've been reading novelistic retellings of myths lately, David Malouf's Ransom among them, and enjoying his reinterpretation of the story of Priam.

I was inspired to read Ransom because of the problems of teaching adult ed Latin and reading an English translation of The Aeneid. It's very different from teaching Latin IV, where students read brief chunks of the Latin text at a time and concentrate on translation. Reading in English, I'm confronted with the fatum-furor-pietas symbolic triad (fate--furor-- & recognition of duty to gods, country, and family) at an incredible speed. It's all there, all at once, a jumble, a grief, a tragedy, a weariness, terror, love, battles, and the epic agony of having to go on, whether one wants to or not. Aeneas, an unusual hero, ravaged and numbed by the destruction of his civilization, comes to terms with the difficulty and horror of his mission, to lead the Trojan people to Italy. (He is seven years on the road when the poem starts.) This ibeautifully sophisticated epic poem, deemed by T.S. Eliot the best poem in any language because it was written in Latin at the height of the maturity of the language when Roman civilization was at its peak, has countless allusions to the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the days when everyone took Latin, of course everyone knew this poem.

David Malouf's novel Ransom is an inspired reimagining of the Iliad, not the Aeneid, but it does, of course, at the end contain allusions to the account of Priam's murder by Achilles' son in Book II of the Aeneid. As Malouf says about his new novel, he "re-enters the world of the Iliad to recount the story of Achilles, Patroclus and Hector, and, in a very different version from the original, Priam's journey to the Greek camp."

At the heart of Ransom is Priam's questioning of fate. In a dream/vision Iris, a messenger of the gods, visits him, and tells him that perhaps it is chance, not fate, that has killed his sons and wrecked Troy. This goes against all the teachings: the gods condone or chastise, favor or destroy empires, seemingly on a whim, sometimes to punish one man's hubris, even when a country like Troy has honored the gods. Priam hatches a plan that will challenge and rethink the acceptance of fatum: he will go, a suppliant, in a humble cart, filled with gold and Trojan wealth, driven by a working-class driver, to Achilles' camp to ransom his son Hector's body. He will approach Achilles on a personal level, not as a king of Troy. He will change the assumptions of civilization.

He approaches his wife, Hecuba, and in an epic speech, tries to persuade her that his plan is sanctioned by his vision.

"But to Hecuba the image is a shocking one--she is more tied to convention than she believes--and as Priam warms to his subject she grows more and more disturbed."

This short, exquisite literary novel may not be for everybody, but I recommend it. Malouf writes beautifully, and one of my favorite books of all time is An Imaginary Life, the novel he wrote about Ovid in exile.

Sentence Attack

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced student, "sentence attack" is the key to translation.  Apply the following rules to sentences and you can't go wrong.  Remember that the Latin word order must be translated into the English word order, subject-verb-direct object, etc. 

SENTENCE ATTACK RULES: 

I.  Verbs, nouns (nom. & acc.), adjectives & prepositional phrases.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE 1: Amici bonos viros in agro vident.

1.  Find the verb(s) in each sentence and analyze the person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), number (sing. or pl.), tense (present, future, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, or future perfect), and mood (indicative, the mood we use  most often, states a fact, as in "I see," "you see," "he sees"); the infinitive (the second principal part, meaning "to see"), and imperative (command, meaning "See!").

In Ex. Sentence 1 above, the verb is vident.  It is 3rd person pl. present indicative and means "they see."

2.  If the verb has a 1st or 2nd person ending, the subject does not need to be stated.  The ending will tell you the subject is "I," "You," "We," or "You-all.) If the verb has a 3rd person ending, it is translated "he, she, it" or "they" unless a nominative subject is specified. If there is a nominative noun, it is always the subject and replaces the "he, she, it, they."

In Sentence 1, amici is the subject.  It is nominative plural and matches the 3rd person plural ending of the verb vident.  So far the translation is 

"The friends see..."

3.  Every noun in the sentence has a relationship either to the verb or another noun.  After you've found the subject and verb, look for the direct object (accusative) and identify the gender, no., & case.  In Ex. Sentence 1,  viros is m. pl. accusative.  It means "men" and will be the DIRECT OBJECT of the verb, not the SUBJECT.  So far the translation is:

"The friends see the men."   

4.  An adjective may be used to describe a noun.  It will agree with the noun it modifies in gender, no., and case.  In the sentence above, bonos is an adjective and means "good."  Identify the gender, no., & case to see what noun it describes.  Bonos is masc. sing. acc. and modifies the noun viros.  So far the translation is 

"The friends see the good men."

5.  Some nouns are objects not of verbs but of prepositions.  Prepositions (in, with, without, into, towards, etc.) can take either the acc. or the abl.  You have to memorize the the preposition with the case it governs.  In the sentence above, in agro is a prepositional phrase.  The translation of Sentence 1 is:

"The friends see the good men in the field."

II.  Nouns (gen., dat., & abl.)

EX. Sentence 2:  Philosophiam magni magistri mihi libris tuis docuisti.

1.  Identify the verb form and subject as in the first sentence.  Docuisti is the 2nd. person sing. perfect indicative of doceo and means "You taught" or "You have taught."  "You" is the subject so we don't have to look for a nom. noun (though in somce cases you might see Tu).

2.  Identify the direct object.  Philosophiam is f. acc. sing.  So far the sentence says:

"You taught philosophy..."

3.  Identify the other forms of nouns and adjectives one by one.  

a.  Magni magistri is an adjective-noun phrase.  In this sentence, the phrase is gen. sing. and shows possession.  A genitive is always used to describe another noun.  In this case, magni magistri shows possession of philosophiam and means "of the great teacher" or "the great teacher's.)  So far the sentence says,

"You taught the philosophy of the great teacher..."

b.  Mihi is the dative singular form of the pronoun ego.  It is the indirect object of the verb means "to me." The sentence now says

"You taught the philosophy of the great teacher to me..."

c.  libris tuis is abl. pl.  It is an ablative without a preposition, hence the abl. of means, and means "with or by your books."

"You taught the philosophy of the great teacher to me."

Presto!  It's not so hard, is it?  I will put up a "Sentence Attack" exercise post over the weekend.

Homework Due April 6

Wheelock, Chapter 15, pp. 100-101:

Learn vocabulary; P&R, 1-10; Sententiae, all; "Dying Words on Immortality"

Read half of Book 8 Aeneid

And an Optional Latin Challenge TBA!

Optional Latin Challenge: Aeneid, Book VII, vv. 475-482

In addition to the assigned lines of the Aeneid, I encourage you to read more on your own. Haec gloriae gratia lege (gratia is an ablative here: the ablative of gratia preceded by a genitive means "for the sake of"). The optional lines are Book VII, vv. 475-482. We will review these in class. I'm using a different text but assume ours both show the alternate 3rd-declension accusative endings which I explain in the notes below.

Bonam fortunam! (Accusative of exclamation.)

NOTES VV. 475-482:

476 Allecto: one of the Furies. This is the nominative form. (nom. f. sing.)

477 speculata: "having spied or gazed at." This is the nominative feminine singular form of a perfect deponent participle. Perfect participles are usually passive: deponent verbs have passive forms, active meanings. For information on traditional perfect passive participles (though you don't need to know this for deponents!) look here.

477 quo litore: "on which shore"

480 naris = nares This is a common alternate 3rd-declension acc. plural ending

481 ut...ardentes agerent: "so that the eager (dogs) might drive..." This is an example of ut + the subjunctive, here a purpose clause. For now you only need know how to translate it.

481 quae: "which," nom. fem. sing. of the relative pronoun, but here is better translated as "and this."

482 agrestis=agrestes: see note 480

The Sibylline Prophecy: How Long Does It Take to Learn Latin?

The pile of books in the photo above depicts a "Latin factory." The red book is my Virgil. The open book behind it is a dictionary. The shiny taped-up blue book in the back is a well-used grammar. And then of course there is the beat-up relic of my original Virgil word-list notebook, which I photographed to show solidarity with your reference-book dependence.

After my Sibylline prophecy that it will take seven years (magic number) to learn Latin, I decided I should clarify. There are stages of learning Latin. You are in one of them. You may have to look up everything in a dictionary or Wheelock at this point, but that is the respected method of classicists everywhere. Eventually, when you finish Wheelock, you may become a whiz at Caesar, Seneca, Virgil, or Catullus, but it takes practice, practice, practice, and experience. Will you reach a magic moment when all conjugations, declensions, grammar, and syntax converge? Yes, many times. But then a few sentences later you may find yourself doing hard work again. It can be humbling. It is, however, always challenging and fun. You will eventually find yourself reading paragraphs or stanzas without consciously translating.


See this faded, stained notebook? This is the ancient receptacle of my original Aeneid Book 2 word lists. When you translate a Latin author, it is necessary to keep a running word list. You look up words you don't know, and often words you do know when they express a unique meaning in a specific passage. You work from your word lists to translate. These two pages covered Book II lines 39-104. I looked up almost 60 words.

When you translate even a few lines of the Aeneid, make a word list. Once you have the vocabulary, you can use Wheelock to identify grammatical forms, which are the backbone of your translation. The word lists can also help you prove your translation, or show where you went astray.

Homework due March 30

Wheelock, Ch. 14, pp. 92-94: Practice & Review, 1-9; Sententiae, all; "Store Teeth."

Fourth Year Latin, p. 241. Translate one sentence, lines 107-11. Notes will be posted by Thursday.

Read English Aeneid, Book VII, or the following selections (which correspond to the Latin selections from Fourth Year Latin):

lines 1-161, 292-340, 475-522, 572-654, 783-815

Optional Latin Challenge TBA!

Optional Latin Challenge: Aeneid, Book IV, vv. 586-596

The Optional Latin Challenge this week includes some arduous but compelling lines about Dido's dolor and furor: Book IV, vv. 586-596. Try some or all of these for fun, and the reward will be the usual satisfaction in a job well done. Do it for the virtus! Errare est humanum. And use the notes below. They're not as detailed as usual, but e-mail me or leave a comment if you get absolutely stuck, or ask me in class.

1. 586: begin the sentence with ut: here it means "when" or "as"

2. 586-87: the two direct objects of the verb here are accusatives with infinitives.

3. 587: aequatis = is the perfect passive participle (the fourth principal part of the verb), declined like a first and second declension adjective. A participle is a verbal adjective: this would literally be translated "leveled" or "having been leveled," but "favorable" is more common here. You can read more about perfect passive participles here.

4. 588: portus = acc. plural of the 4th-declension noun, portus, -us, m.

5. 589: percussa is another perfect passive participle (see note 3) in form, but is here translated with the MIDDLE voice (don't ask:; it's just like the active voice here), "having struck."

6. 590: flaventisque abscissa comas = abscissa flaventes comas. Abscissa is another perfect passive participle (see note 3). It is used with what we call an accusative of respect: in respect to comas flaventis (flaventis is an alternative acc. pl. form for a 3rd declension adjective. We haven't learned the 3rd declension adjectives yet, but they're declined much like 3rd-declension nouns).

7. 590: ibit = "will go" A future form of the irregular verb, eo.

8. 592: sequentur is a future form of sequor, a deponent verb (which forms we haven't learned yet). The -ntur ending is translated exactly like the -nt ending of other verbs (3rd plural).

9. 593: ite = plural imperative for irregular verb , eo (go!).

10. 594: ferte, plural imperative of irregular verb, fero (bear or carry or something more polished for translation!)

11. 595: loquor = dico. It is the present first person sing. of deponent verb (endings of which we don't know yet). It means: "I speak." See note 8 for more information.

12. 595: quid = what? (interrogative pronoun); quae = what and modifies insania (interrog. adjective).