Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Horace on the wrong side of battle
I thought it was very interesting in class today when we were talking about how Augustus pardoned Horace for fighting on the wrong side. I was trying to research more about it tonight and I found a passage that said Horace's family's property in Venusia was confiscated. I couldn't find any more sources that went on into more detail about it, but I was wondering if that information was correct. Also, was it just part of Horace's style that he didn't mention Augustus directly in the poem, or did it have to do with the politics of the time? I was guessing it was more of Horace's style because he often alludes to something but leaves it up to the reader to figure out just what that something is, but I wasn't sure.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Ode 1.37
I found this ode to be one of the most interesting we have translated so far. After learning about it's place in history, I found things in the poem I did not think about before. The way the poem starts out with the repetition of "nunc" presents a certain kind of urgency for celebration, but as the poem continues, the pace slows. Horace has time for similes and talks of Cleopatra's "serene expression" on her face. To me, this is Horace allotting a long period of time to reflect back on Cleopatra, amidst the frenzied celebration that is about to take place. I also think, how we discussed in class, that Horace really admired her, even if she appeared crazed at time. I like the complexity of the emotion in this ode.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
By chance I was going through the sacred road, that is my custom,
I know not of such things of trifles, contemplating totally in this.
A man ran to me, known by such a great name and seized my hand:
"How do you go, sweetest thing?" "Pleasingly, just as is now," I said,
"and I desire all, which you wish." When he was following: "You wish nothing?"
I take over, but that one says "You should know me, I am taught (learned?)."
I said this: "You will be more to me." Miserable, seeking to leave, I go, just as fast, to stop in between, I do not know to say what in the ear of the boy when sweat remained at the bottom of my ankles. "Oh you, Bolanus, lucky temper." I was saying softly, when he was chatting of what things, he was praising the city by neighborhoods. That I was responding nothing to that one: "You desire to leave miserable," he said; "Already I see that for a long time. Hence, I will pursue who now is where you go." By you go nowhere: "I will keep on continuously. It is not necessary to go around you: I wish to see certainly not known to you; across the long Tiber close to the gardens of Caesar he resides." "I have nothing, what I am doing and I am not lazy: I follow you continuously." I send away ears, just as a donkey is confused, when he goes under the heavy task of a hill. That one said "If I know me well, you will not make Viscus Varius not more of a friend: for who is able to write more or faster of verses than me? Who to move limbs softly? Because Hermogenes would be jealous of how I sing." This was a place of interrupting: "Is your mother known, what of you is healthy? Not anyone left of me; I buried all." Lucky! Now I remain. Finish! And for a sad fate stays over me, A Sabine who in a divine way shaking her urn said when I was a boy: this boy neither terrible poison or hostile sword will kill, neither side pain or late gout: a great chatterbox will consume him sometime. If he is smart, he will avoid speech (speaking people?), at the same time as the middle of his life." We had come to Vesta, now the fourth part of the day had passed, and he had to respond to a priest, because if he did not make he would owe to lose the case.
***The Yellow is where I had trouble/questions/unsure how to construct those parts.
I know not of such things of trifles, contemplating totally in this.
A man ran to me, known by such a great name and seized my hand:
"How do you go, sweetest thing?" "Pleasingly, just as is now," I said,
"and I desire all, which you wish." When he was following: "You wish nothing?"
I take over, but that one says "You should know me, I am taught (learned?)."
I said this: "You will be more to me." Miserable, seeking to leave, I go, just as fast, to stop in between, I do not know to say what in the ear of the boy when sweat remained at the bottom of my ankles. "Oh you, Bolanus, lucky temper." I was saying softly, when he was chatting of what things, he was praising the city by neighborhoods. That I was responding nothing to that one: "You desire to leave miserable," he said; "Already I see that for a long time. Hence, I will pursue who now is where you go." By you go nowhere: "I will keep on continuously. It is not necessary to go around you: I wish to see certainly not known to you; across the long Tiber close to the gardens of Caesar he resides." "I have nothing, what I am doing and I am not lazy: I follow you continuously." I send away ears, just as a donkey is confused, when he goes under the heavy task of a hill. That one said "If I know me well, you will not make Viscus Varius not more of a friend: for who is able to write more or faster of verses than me? Who to move limbs softly? Because Hermogenes would be jealous of how I sing." This was a place of interrupting: "Is your mother known, what of you is healthy? Not anyone left of me; I buried all." Lucky! Now I remain. Finish! And for a sad fate stays over me, A Sabine who in a divine way shaking her urn said when I was a boy: this boy neither terrible poison or hostile sword will kill, neither side pain or late gout: a great chatterbox will consume him sometime. If he is smart, he will avoid speech (speaking people?), at the same time as the middle of his life." We had come to Vesta, now the fourth part of the day had passed, and he had to respond to a priest, because if he did not make he would owe to lose the case.
***The Yellow is where I had trouble/questions/unsure how to construct those parts.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Catullus 66
When the poem talks about the me in line 7 is it referring to the lock of hair? Also, I believe line 13 is a golden line? "dulcia nocturnae portans vestigia rixae."
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
On feasts and slabs
Love the dinner party feast illustration! There are many mosaic floors that show the food dropped on the floor after the dinner party-- you have to wonder what the slaves who were cleaning up and polishing the floor mosaics after the party thought of that particular visual joke.
I like your hendecasyllabic couplet as well-- right on subject, and hendecasyllabic as well. I might have chosen a different monosyllable than "slabs," however, as that word always reminds me of mortuary slabs. Too many episodes of CSI, perhaps.
I like your hendecasyllabic couplet as well-- right on subject, and hendecasyllabic as well. I might have chosen a different monosyllable than "slabs," however, as that word always reminds me of mortuary slabs. Too many episodes of CSI, perhaps.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Ancient Roman Dinner Party
Like we were talking about in class...
http://www.historynotes.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/roman-feasts2.jpg
http://www.historynotes.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/roman-feasts2.jpg
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