Latin Made Simple

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Penthiselea would and did amaze the ancient due to her struggle against her own nature. She was an incredibly beautiful woman who preferred to be admired for her strength and bravery rather than her looks. She was the Queen of the Amazons. Boccaccio in his book “De mulieribus claris” says that Penthiselea fell in love with Hector without even seeing him. Hearing of the Trojan War she travelled to Troy leading troops of fellow Amazons to fight by Hector’s side against the Greeks. Penthiselea, as a woman warrior was admirable not only for her “external”, but also “internal” struggle. The ancient thought that as a woman, although capable, physically should not be able to compete against any man. Yet her determination prevailed. Boccaccio, an Italian medieval-renaissance writer concludes: “Some may be surprised that women, even when armed, may have the courage to attack men. However, we will be less surprised when we see that custom can become human’s second nature. That is why the Amazons were much braver than the men, to whom the nature gave the strength, but who, through their idleness, became women or rather helmet-wearing hares”.

https://youtu.be/ovmCQg5lrVo

Nicostrata - Carmenta - the Inventor of the Latin Alphabet. This video is telling a story of Nicostrata, a Greek woman who settled in Italy with her son Evander before the Trojan war, dated in the 12th or 11th century...

Beware the Ides of March!
“Destiny, it would seem, is not so much unexpected as it is unavoidable”-says Plutarch in his 'Life of Caesar'. Caesar’s life came to an end in the beautiful month of March, almost exactly 2080 years ago. And even though the gods sent Caesar multiple warning signs as if hoping he would try to attempt to avoid his fate, he would conduct business as usual. But wouldn't we all? With their obsession for divination, the Romans often treated the language of the gods as a tool to achieve their political goals. Caesar, who himself certainly wasn’t a stranger to that, possibly had become habituated to ever-present supernatural signs.

But in the afterthought the signs were indeed more than clear, at least to an experienced augur: some men all on fire were seen rushing up, a man was seen having a flame coming out of his hand and the flame didn't injure him at all. No heart could be found in Caesar’s sacrifice victim. There was a chilling conversation at a dinner party, directly the day before the Ides of March. When Caesar and Lepidus started discussing the best type of death, Caesar apparently said – it is the unexpected death that is the best”.

And there was more: “ (...) while he was sleeping as usual by the side of his wife, all the windows and doors of the chamber flew open at once, and Caesar, confounded by the noise and the light of the moon shining down upon him, noticed that Calpurnia was in a deep slumber, but was uttering indistinct words and inarticulate groans in her sleep; for she dreamed, as it proved, that she was holding her murdered husband in her arms and bewailing him.” (Plutarch)

The most famous sign though, by Shakespeare himself carried through the centuries and ingrained in our consciousness as the epitome of the "fate or free will” dilemma, was a foreboding warning given to Caesar by a certain soothsayer. Two times Shakespeare makes the soothsayer say to Caesar “Beware the Ides of March!”. Plutarch mentions that when Caesar appeared in the senate house on the Ides of March, half-jokingly said to the soothsayer “Well, the Ides of March are come!” to which he responded “Aye, they are come, but they are not gone...” Fate, not free will was about to prevail.
(Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1919. 7)

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Most of us, being curious about Roman culture of history, find the name Evander quite familiar. He was, using modern terms, a Greek emigrant who settled in Italy and later became the legendary supporter of Aeneas in his struggle against Turnus. But who was his mother? Her Greek name was Nicostrate, yet in Italy she received a new name- Carmenta. A brilliant linguist, Carmenta invented the Latin alphabet, altering fifteen letters of the Greek alphabet to their Latin versions. This must have been done with the help of the divine, so Carmenta was worshipped as a goddess. She was also a powerful prophetess and her Latin name reflects that – “Carmenta” is derived from the word “carmen” meaning “oracle”, “song”, “magic spell” and which is the root of English word “charm”. Carmenta also protected children, therefore, through the mixture of her skills, she became the epitome of the perfect early learning teacher. In this XIV-th century image she leads a child to the Tower of Learning keeping him interested by holding her divine invention in front of his eyes – the alphabet.

DO YOU WANT TO LEARN LATIN? CHATTING ABOUT GRAMMAR HAS NEVER BEEN SO EXCITING! GCSE, IGSCE and A-LEVEL PREPARATION.

Horace's Ode 1.11, with its famous "carpe diem" speaks volumes. These challenging times highlight to us its wisdom and relevance. Antiquity, modernity seem fading artificial concepts when juxtaposed with the continuity of human experience.

Leuconoë , don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,

whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,

futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,

whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,

one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.

Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short: limit that far-reaching hope.

The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:

Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can. (Translation A.S. Kline)

Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati.
seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare
Tyrrhenum: sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.

In first book of Iliad we learn how Apollo punished the Greeks with a devastating plague during the siege of Troy. Apollo was avenging his priest Chryses whose daughter was given as a “war prize” to the Greek king Agammemnon. Narrative context aside, the image of Apollo inflicting the terrible calamity on the Greeks is both distant and close to our own experience:
"Down he came, in fury, from the heights of Olympus, with his bow and inlaid quiver at his back. The arrows rattled at his shoulder as the god descended like the night, in anger. He set down by the ships, and fired a shaft, with a fearful twang of his silver bow. First he attacked the mules, and the swift hounds, then loosed his vicious darts at the men; so the dense pyres for the dead burned endlessly". (Translated by A.S. Kline, Poetry in Translation. For original text please click here: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D33
Illustration: A 16th-century statue of Apollo, portrayed with a golden bow.

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