Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Athos

[Mt Athos]
 

I notice that one of the horses racing in today's Melbourne Cup is called Mt Athos. It just so happens I was translating this passage from Aeneid XII with my year 12 class today:


quantus Athos aut quantus Eryx aut ipse coruscis
cum fremit ilicibus quantus gaudetque nivali
vertice se attollens pater Appenninus ad auras.

Aeneas was as great as Athos, or as great as Eryx or as great as father Apenninus himself with his quivering pine trees, when he roars and rejoices in his snowy peak, lifting himself up into the sky.


Mt Athos is in Macedonia, Mt Eryx (these days Monte San Giuliano) on Sicily and Appenninus in central Italy. Here is a map. I recall a few years ago there was a horse in the Melbourne cup called Sirmione - I wonder if they're somehow related.

5 comments:

Mike Salter said...

My god, you're that far into Aen. XII already?!? Colour me embarrassed. We've only just gotten to the end of the first section. Or have you held off on Livy so far?

Anonymous said...

haven't done any Livy yet. I usually just do the one text at a time. Our half yearly exam will be just on Virgil, they have an assessment task in term ii just on Livy and the trial will be the first task they do on both authors together. i don't know if it's the best way to do it, but it works ok for me.

Anonymous said...

jm,
What did you think of the HSC exams (Cont and Ext) this year?
Are you planning to blog on them as in previous years?

Anonymous said...

what did i think of the exams? continuers was a bit odd in several places... extension was pretty good. i've almost finished my role in the HSC marking operation for the year, so perhaps i'll put some thoughts on-line soon... or perhaps not. i don't get around to updating the blog so often these days.

Expect Cowgirls said...

I am watching Grey's Anatomy and in the opening credits I saw the name GAIUS. There is a person who works on that show and his first name, in 2012, is GAIUS.

I wonder if he est agricola.

Just had to share that!

-Sarah S