“Last Statues of Antiquity” Database
I just learned about this from a review in BMCR. Looks pretty nifty: “a searchable database of the published evidence for statuary and inscribed statue bases set up after AD 284, that were new, newly dedicated, or newly re-worked.”
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Conventiculum Latinum at Kentucky (July 2013)
If you want to practice speaking Latin with some of the people who know best both how to do it and how to help others learn comfortably, then check out the Conventiculum Latinum, Annual Workshop for Spoken Latin at the University of Kentucky (Lexington). The workshop is run by the venerable duo of Terence Tunberg and Milena Minkova. I attended a one-day workshop of theirs at Dickinson college, and it was a great experience.
You can learn more on their site and sign up to attend the eight day (!) event, held July 17–24 next year. $100 to attend, and $140 for 7 days of breakfast and lunch and 5 nights of dinner. You can find your own lodging or stay in the dorms for $27/night.
Quite a deal for such an opportunity. If you’re a teacher, just think of the PD hours you can get out of that!
Verbal Artistry in Vergil: Elision in Aeneid 1.520
While Aeneas hides in a cloud, an embassy comes from other Trojan ships that, it turns out, hadn’t been lost after all. Their entry to the temple of Juno is described as follows:
Postquam introgressi et coram data copia fandi,
maximus Ilioneus placido sic pectore coepit…. (A. 1.520-1)
The blending of the first three words (postquintrogresset) gives a sound-picture of the men crossing the threshold, and the quickened pace at the end of the line (vv-vv-x), carried through to the next line, entirely dactylic except for the fourth foot, reminds the reader of their haste. Once again, sound and rhythm reinforce sense. Note that the -eu- in Ilioneus is a diphthong.
In memoriam: Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun has died.
Jacques Barzun, a Columbia University historian and administrator whose sheer breadth of scholarship — culminating in a survey of 500 years of Western civilization — brought him renown as one of the foremost intellectuals of the 20th century, died Thursday. He was 104.
His death was announced by Gavin Parfit, his son-in-law, the Associated Press reported.
Dr. Barzun was 92 when he published what is widely regarded as his masterwork, “From Dawn to Decadence, 500 Years of Western Cultural Life: 1500 to the Present.” Journalist David Gates spoke for a majority of critics when he wrote in Newsweek magazine that the book, which appeared in 2000, “will go down in history as one of the great one-man shows of Western letters.”
(Thanks to John J. Miller for the link.)
Verbal Artistry in Vergil: Allusion in Aeneid 1.498-504
As Dido enters the temple of Juno in Aeneid 1 she is likened in a simile to Diana (Artemis):
Qualis in Eurotae ripis aut per iuga Cynthi
exercet Diana choros, quam mille secutae
hinc atque hinc glomerantur Oreades; illa pharetram 500
fert umero, gradiensque deas supereminet omnis:
(Latonae tacitum pertemptant gaudia pectus):
talis erat Dido, talem se laeta ferebat
per medios, instans operi regnisque futuris.
Dido is like Diana leading the hunt as she proceeds carrying her quiver (pharetram), towering above the other goddesses. One cannot help but recall here the description of Venus disguised as a Tyrian huntress earlier in Book 1; for instance, she too carried a quiver (virginibus Tyriis mos est gestare pharetram, 336). She there presents herself as one of Dido’s subjects: she dwells in the Punic realms (Punica regna, 338; cf. regnis futuris, 504). Aeneas suspects from the beginning that she is a goddess (dea certe, 328), even thinking she might be Diana (an Phoebi soror?, 329). Diana in the simile is followed by Nymphs (Oreades, 500), while Aeneas previously thought Venus might be a nymph (an nympharum sanguinis una?, 329).
The irony is rich: Venus, an immortal, is likened in appearance within the poem to a mortal; Dido, a mortal, is likened by Vergil in a simile to an immortal, the same goddess for whom Aeneas had mistaken Venus; Venus-as-mortal is on a hunt; Dido-as-immortal is on a hunt; Venus presents herself as a subject of Dido, though we know that Dido is and will be shown to be subject to Venus. The picture of Dido as chaste maiden strikes an odd note when one remembers what happens in the poem, just as the earlier picture of Venus did. Thus Dido is drawn into a symbolic connection to Venus, only for the dark irony of the connection to be exploited later.
Verbal Artistry in Vergil: Sense and Word-Choice in Aeneid 1.483-7
As Aeneas inspects the pictures in Juno’s temple, he sees Hector dragged three times around the walls of Troy by Achilles:
Ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora muros
exanimumque auro corpus vendebat Achilles. (483-4)
Vergil describes Aeneas’ reaction thus:
Tum vero ingentem gemitum dat pectore ab imo,
ut spolia, ut currus, utque ipsum corpus amici
tendentemque manus Priamum conspexit inermis. (485-7)
The triple repetition of ut corresponds to the triple-sensed ter in 483. Aeneas sees Hector dragged three times around the walls and gives forth a groan as he sees the (1) spoils, (2), chariots, and (3) the body of his friend and Priam’s outstretched hands (these last two being joined after the third ut). Note the expansion in the third member (tricolon crescens). The verb is delayed to the last-but-one word, and that choice is important: delaying inermis, of Priam’s hands, increases pathos.
Aeneas’ groan is reminiscent of an earlier one, discussed here.
The Best Ancient Armies?
Right now, discovery.com has a quiz called “Who boasted the best ancient armies?” if you’re interested.
In memoriam: J. Rufus Fears
J. Rufus Fears, Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma and widely recognized as an outstanding teacher, has died:
Friends,
It is with heavy hearts that we announce that our friend and colleague, the historian of liberty J. Rufus Fears, died Saturday night. Dr. Fears was the Dr. David and Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow for Freedom Enhancement at OCPA and we had the distinct honor of working closely with him for the last several years.
Dr. Fears wrote many books and articles and even served as dean for the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences. But, as anyone who knew him can tell you, one word describes him best: teacher. He taught large classes. He graded students’ papers himself. He was a master storyteller who brought history to life. His students loved him. In all, he amassed more than 25 awards for teaching excellence.
University of Oklahoma president David Boren said simply: “Rufus Fears was one of the greatest teachers in the history of our state.”
There is more here:
Three-time student-selected OU Professor of the Year J. Rufus Fears died Saturday, according to a press release. He was 67. Fears was well known for his classes Freedom in Rome and the Freedom in Greece, which were two of the most popular courses on campus, according to the press release. The cause of Fears’ death was not given.
“Rufus Fears was one of the greatest teachers in the history of our state,” OU President David Boren said in a statement. “His death is not only a great loss to the university but to the future generations of students who will be deprived of learning from him in the classroom … Our hearts go out to his wife, Charlene, and their children.”
And remembrances from students here.
Verbal Artistry in Vergil: Alliteration in Aeneid 1:479-82
In Aeneid 1.479ff. we see the Trojans approaching the temple of Athena as depicted in the temple of Juno in Carthage:
Interea ad templum non aequae Palladis ibant
crinibus Iliades passis peplumque ferebant, 480
suppliciter tristes et tunsae pectora palmis;
diva solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat.
In these lines, pathos is effectively conveyed by the consistent repetition of the pathetic labial “p” sound alternating with the harsh sound of “s.” The “s” sounds strike me as particularly apt in passis (“disheveled”), describing the hair of the suppliant Trojan women. In 481, “p” is replaced briefly by “t” with “s”: the dental “t” represents the beating of the breasts, and plays off (again) the disconcerting “s” sounds. “S” is carried over into the final line cited, where it reinforces the harshness of the unresponsive Athena. One can hear this well by reading the line aloud.
Verbal Artistry in Vergil: Anaphora in Aeneid 1.421-29
After Venus departs, Aeneas continues on and climbs a hill, from where he can descry the building of Carthage. Vergil writes:
Miratur molem Aeneas, magalia quondam,
miratur portas strepitumque et strata viarum.
Instant ardentes Tyrii: pars ducere muros,
molirique arcem et manibus subvolvere saxa,
pars optare locum tecto et concludere sulco. 425
Iura magistratusque legunt sanctumque senatum;
hic portus alii effodiunt; hic alta theatris
fundamenta locant alii, immanisque columnas
rupibus excidunt, scaenis decora alta futuris.
Not all of the words in bold above are examples of anaphora but should just be classed as repetition more generally. They do, however, contribute to the overall effect. One gets the sense of several (related) things all going on at once, but taken in piece by piece. In that respect the effect is rather cinematic, as Aeneas takes in the scene before him–perhaps adverted to by the references to theatra and scaenae at the close of the description?
Finally, the use of alta twice in the same line-position but with different senses is a nice touch; it takes the view from the low (alta fundamenta) to the high (and future) (decora alta).