sine doctrina animus

ut ager quamvis fertilis sine cultura fructuosus esse non potest, sic sine doctrina animus

Just as a field, however fertile, is not able to be fruitful without cultivation, so it is for the mind without instruction.

Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, II.5.13

[My attention was drawn to this quote by the article The Romans Gave us more than Just Latin; the Latin source comes from LatinLanguage.us.]

Juno

I saw the film Juno the other day, and really enjoyed it. In one part of the movie Juno explains how she got her name:

Juno: My dad had this weird obsession with Roman or Greek mythology or something and he decided to name me after Zeus' wife.

Mark: Zeus' wife?

Juno: Yeah and I mean Zeus had tons of lays but I'm pretty sure Juno was his only wife. And apparently she was supposed to be super beautiful but really mean, like Diana Ross.

The name fits Juno's character well, I think; she's beautiful, but has the potential to be pretty cruel. That's not the only way in which it's an appropriate name though- Juno (Hera in Greek) was also the Roman goddess responsible for childbirth.

In the Aeneid the goddess Juno plays the role of Aeneas' tormentor, opposing him at every turn. Her jealousy is based on her hatred of the Trojans, stemming from Paris' rejection of her in favour of Venus (Aphrodite). At the very beginning of the poem she is described in this way:

cum Iuno, aeternum servans sub pectore vulnus,
haec secum: 'Mene incepto desistere victam,
nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem?
Quippe vetor fatis...
Ast ego, quae divum incedo regina, Iovisque
et soror et coniunx, una cum gente
tot annos bella gero!'

Juno brooded, still nursing the eternal wound deep in her breast: 'Am I to admit defeat and give up my attempt to keep the king of the Trojans away from Italy? So what if the fates do not approve... Here am I, the queen of the gods, the sister of Jupiter and his wife, and I have waged war all these years against a whole race of men!'

At the end of the Aeneid Juno has somewhat of a change of heart. Jupiter convinces her that it is Aeneas' fate to defeat his enemy Turnus and to establish a city whose descendents will one day rule the world, and that not even the gods can change these things. Juno gives in, but asks for a few conditions of her own:

'et nunc cedo equidem pugnasque exosa relinquo.
illud te... obtestor...
ne vetus indigenas nomen mutare Latinos
neu Troas fieri iubeas Teucrosque vocari...
sit Latium, sint Albani per saecula reges,
sit Romana potens Itala virtute propago:
occidit, occideritque sinas cum nomine Troia.'

'And now I give in, and withdraw from these battles which I hate so much. But I entreat you... do not command the Latins to change their ancient name in their own land, to become Trojans and be called Teucrians... Let Latium live on, let there be Alban kings throughout the ages, let the Roman stock be powerful with Italian courage: Troy has died, let its name stay buried.'

And she gets her way; Jupiter replies:

'es germana Iovis Saturnique altera proles, irarum
tantos volvis sub pectore fluctus.
verum age et inceptum frustra summitte furorem:
do quod vis, et me victusque volensque remitto.
sermonem Ausonii patrium moresque tenebunt...
faciamque omnis uno ore Latinos....
nec gens ulla tuos aeque celebrabit honores.'

'You are the sister of Jupiter and the second child of Saturn, such waves of anger do you set rolling deep in your heart. But come now, lay aside this fury that arose in vain. I grant what you wish. I yield. I relent of my own free will. The people of Ausonia will keep the speech of their fathers and their ancient ways... I will make them all Latins, speaking one tongue... and no other race will be their equals in paying you honor.'

Related posts:

• Which Roman goddess are you?
• By Jove

Gladiatores

My year 8 class have been looking at gladiators recently, so I've put together a few sites for them to look at this afternoon.

• You Wouldn't Want to be a Roman Gladiator is a fun site that follows the fate of a Gaul captured by Roman soldiers, sold as a slave and trained as a gladiator.

• Roman Gladiatorial Games is not as fun, but has lots of good information

• This BBC site is also pretty good, and has a cool game to play (dress your gladiator correctly to help him win in the arena).

• Finally have a look at the Cambridge Site to do some vocab revision and grammar games.

Olympics

I'm finding it a bit hard to get excited about the Olympics at the moment, but there are a few interesting things around the internet at the moment which talk about the ancient Olympics.

About.com has a good introduction to the ancient Olympics, as well as information on more specific questions, such as were women involved and what was training like.

The Perseus exhibit is pretty cool too, especially the stories about particular athletes whose athletic feats have been passed own to us.

Then there's this page which desribes the emperor Nero's hilarious visit to the Olympic Games in 67AD- as a participant, not a spectator!

Lewis Carroll

Until I stumbled across it earlier this week on wikipedia, I never knew that Lewis Carroll (the author of Alice in Wonderland) is credited with inventing word ladders. Lewis Carroll wasn't actually his real name, but a pseudonym created by translating his first two names (Charles Lutwidge) into Latin (which gives you Carolus Ludovicus apparently), switching the order of the two names, then translating them back into English*.

To find out what your name would be in Latin, have a look at this site (though some of the names it comes up with are a bit lame), or for a more serious look at Roman names you can try here- scroll down to the bottom of the page for tips on Latinising your own name.

Lewis Carroll's other notable link to the Classics is that the character of Alice seems to have been in some sense based on or inspired by Alice Liddell, the daughter of Henry Liddell, who helped write the Liddell and Scott Classical Greek dictionary, still in use today. I was sure he was also somehow related to Charlton T Lewis, who wrote most of the Lewis and Short Latin dictionary, but I can't find any evidence- even on wikipedia.

*[Carolus is the Latin equivalent of Charles, which is why Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus in Latin) is known as a Carolingian king, and if Prince Charles ever becomes king we will be living in Carolingian times.]

word ladders

When I was in primary school I used to love doing word ladders- where you start with one word and change one letter at a time to arrive at a new word in a certain number of steps. For example, to change dog to cat in three steps would be dog, dot, cot, cat.

Here are a couple of Latin word ladders (scala verborum?) I made for my year nine class, see if you can work them out.

• canis to lupus in five steps
• nox to die in five steps

10 points for the first correct solutions!

[N.B. Apparently for proper word ladders jumbling letters or adding/subtracting a letter can count as a step, but for these ones it's not necessary.]

Related Posts

• Latin Wordplay