#latin literature

[latinare]

Here's the long-promised Latin resources masterpost! Resource recs are always appreciated and I'll try to update this post from time to time. :)

Study and fluency tips, plus my review of a few different Latin textbooks here

Free online resources here

Suggestions for if you've studied Latin in the past and want to brush up/re-learn here

Tips for expanding vocabulary here

Links for Latin literature and suggestions on which works to start with here

Salvete!

[thoodleoo]

finally someone asks the questions that matter

[cinematic-literature]

The Holdovers (2023) by Alexander Payne

Book title: Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν in Ancient Greek; 180 A.D.) by Marcus Aurelius

[lykeios]

once i start posting in latin it’s over for y’all

[acertainidontknowwhat]

As late as the fourth century CE in a satire attributed to the emperor Julian, Octavian (the later Augustus) is described as “changing many colors, like a chameleon: becoming now pale and now red”. In the satire, the god Silenus reacts to seeing Octavian by saying, “Bless me, what changeable beast is this! What terrible thing will he do to us!”

For comparison we have Pliny the Elder's comment on chameleons from his Natural History 8.120: "And [the chameleon] is more miraculous for the nature of its color, for it constantly changes its eyes and tail and entire body, and always resembles whatsoever it touches last, except red and white”

Pliny’s mention of the chameleon’s inability to turn “red and white” (rubrum candidumque) makes Julian’s description of Octavian turning pale (ὠχριῶν) and red (ἐρυθρὸς) take on a greater significance because it shows that Octavian is then more skilled than a chameleon at changing color by possessing the capability to turn both red and white.

Although Silenus' comment makes it clear that Octavian's color-changing should be seen as a reflection of his instability and danger, the change in color could also be an allusion to Octavian's constant change in health as ὠχριῶν refers to becoming pallid. Pliny further strengthens this reading by writing that when dead, chameleons are pale (defuncto pallor est). Thus Octavian is constantly changing between a state of near-death and great vitality as implied by Julian's ἐρυθρὸς and Pliny's rubrum, both of which can mean having a ruddy complexion.

[sherdnerd]

I stg if I see one more "Justice for medusa's TRUE story!" post I'm gonna kill someone.

(TW: Assault mention)

The medusa is assaulted by posidon then cursed by athena for being assaulted in her temple only appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, which is written as a purposeful subversion of Greco-roman myths. most are reframed or rewritten from just kinda a thing that exists or a black and white moral tale of why you shouldn't be hubristic to full on tragedies on the part of the person often getting their comeuppance or the monster. Heck in book 13 we get a love story starring Polyphemus, the cyclops from the Odyssey.

In general mythology, Medusa is just another monster. Ovid revises the myth to turn it into a tragedy. I absolutely love ovid's work, he does so many clever things with the myths, but for the love of the gods its the furthest from the real version you can get

[latin-literature-tourney]

Latin Literature Tournament - Round 2

Propaganda under the cut!

Vergil Propaganda:

The vates himself, everyone. The poet so good that the Church was like "okay yeah this one magical pagan can stay"

The Fourth Eclogue is such a weird little delight. Is it about the children of Antony? Augustus? Is it a prediction of the birth of Christ? Is it somehow, as I heard one professor suggest for some reason, about Gallus? The possibilities are endless

Are you going to vote against the world-shattering masterpiece that is the Aeneid?

Side note, if you spell it "Virgil" you are my enemy

Catullus Propaganda:

When I was teaching Latin, one of my 8th grad students said of Catullus "He's the worst man who ever lived. I love him."

The only Roman writer to talk about clit envy

Fucking loved Sappho, so you know he has good taste

[classics-cassandra]

If the Aeneid has a million fans, I'm one of them

If the Aeneid has one fan, I'm that one

If the Aeneid has no fans, my soul, indignant, has fled down to the underworld with a sigh

[brimo5]

Grim Cerberus wagg'd his tail to see Thy golden horn, nor dreamd of wrong. But gently fawning, follow'd thee, And lick'd thy feet with triple tongue. (Horace, Odes, 2.19)

[doogiehowserluvrs]

[amicus-noctis]

“The descent into Hell is easy” ― Virgil, The Aeneid

Painting: "Dante and Virgile in Hell" by Gustave-Claude-Étienne Courtois

[oresti-s]

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius.

[arylleth]

It is not a disease to be in love, but not to be. Because if love comes from the eyes, blind are those who are not in love. Philostratus 170s – 240s AD

[apis-vergilii]

Hello Classics Tumblr, herein my humble pinned post of presentation.

Call me Laeta, here among friends Romans and countrybeings. Pronouns are she/her, I live in the USA, I speak English and Italian, and I am currently diving back into a lifelong fascination with the ancient world and trying to finally, by way of independent study, make up for the classical education I never got.

I am, full disclosure, [Samantha Jones voice] thirty-fucking-five in this our year 2777 ab urbe condita. For a combination of reasons, I had a very isolated, narrowly focused and specialized conservatory education that I ended up not even going into professionally, so I’ve spent the past decade and a half feeling like I missed the intellectual boat while I was stuck in a tiny room practicing my instrument for six hours a day and getting looked at like I had three heads if I tried to hesitantly talk about the influence of Romantic poetry on Beethoven or whatever.

Now that I am nel mezzo del cammin della mia vita, I have realized that regret will not, in fact, stop the passage of time nor turn it backwards upon itself. Paying real money to go back to actual school for Classical Studies is not a thing I should do, but I have a shelf full of books and an internet full of resources and I am, as of the Kalendae of October, officially taking myself to my own school of one for a self-study course in Classical Latin, Ancient Greek and Roman history, and Greek and Latin literature and their descendants/reception. I am typing up syllabi in the notes app on my phone. I am going to write papers that no one else will ever read. I am going to speak Latin to the bathroom walls.

Is this tragic? Embarrassing? Academic cosplay? 100% it is, and my last fucks burned on a pyre somewhere in the summer of my 35th year. I deeply love history and literature and mythology, and I WANT to be an eccentric self-taught Latinist while also going about my underemployed-Millennial waitressing-and-freelancing life. So I’m going to.

I have no intention of coming for any of your jobs, dear real academics and teachers on this site. Rather, I want to quietly and unobtrusively take my place at last among your students.

I’m going to shitpost here and I’m sorry in advance for all the Aeneid jokes and the parasocial relationship with P. Vergilius Maro. I’m also going to try and write some paragraphs of commentary and critique, some little mini-essays. If I can start discussions with some of them, or make some like-minded internet friends, I will be absolutely delighted. If I am politely ignored, I will still keep studying and using this blog as a sort of personal scrapbook and notepad.

May Fortuna favor the weird.

~ M. Rutilia Laeta, October 2024

[sunshinesere]

Camila Sosa / Las Malas

[sherdnerd]

My number one classics ick is when a scholar will just insert untranslated passages of Greek and Latin into their paper. good job on the artificial inaccessibility you guys, glad you were able to gatekeep the field so none of those dirty peasants may learn stuff. its just for us cool guys who speak Greek or Latin