In Need of Some Online Latin Resources? Bolchazy-Carducci Is Here to Help!

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers has made a variety of Latin-language resources available online on our Distance Learning webpage! Many of these resources are free for teachers to download and use in their classrooms, such as the beginning, intermediate, and advanced Latin activity packets. There are also a number of short Latin stories, which retell ancient myths, legends, and historical tales in language appropriate for beginning learners. Designed to correspond to specific chapters and reviews in Latin for the New Millennium, Level 1, these stories, written by Emma Vanderpool, can be used in any Latin classroom. Be sure to look out for updates posted to our Distance Learning webpage!

Read about Cloelia and Lars Porsenna here,
then complete the Lumina comprehension exercises.

Vanderpool’s Latin stories have also been embedded within Lumina for LNM. Lumina for LNM is an online interactive program that accompanies the first two levels of the Latin for the New Millennium textbook series. Available only to Lumina users, special comprehension activities have also been created for the supplementary readings. Like all Lumina practice, these new activities are self-grading and give automatic feedback so that students can assess their own progress immediately after completing a lesson. Want to learn more about Lumina? Be sure to try out the exercises keyed to the story Cloelia et Lars Porsenna at the following link.

Have fun with mythological monsters with this free Lumina activity. 

If you like what you see and want to learn more about Lumina, send an email to lumina@bolchazy.com to set up a live demonstration of the platform. This short video overview shows the layout and functionality of Lumina for LNM. And, if you are looking for a fun, quick enrichment activity for a Latin class, be sure to try out this mythological monster activity.

Author Emma Vanderpool on Her Latest Latin Novellas

The debut titles in Bolchazy-Carducci’s Latin-language easy reader series are available both at our website and via Amazon! Both books provide an immersive introduction to the multifaceted world of augury and birds in ancient Rome. Explore Latin: Avēs uses fewer than one-hundred unique Latin words to provide basics information about birds in a Roman context, with copious color images reinforcing the text. Augury Is for the Birds explains elements of augury through a relatable coming-of-age story in 144 unique words. There are three forthcoming follow-up novellas that will build on the vocabulary, themes, and concepts established in Explore Latin: Avēs and Augury Is for the Birds. 

Emma Vanderpool, award-winning Latin teacher and the author of several self-published Latin novellas, carefully crafted these two books to appeal to students and to be readily comprehensible to beginning Latin learners. Editor Amelia Wallace was pleased to speak to her about her inspirations, writing process, and larger goals. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

AW: How did you choose the topic of augury for your novella series? What themes and key cultural ideas were you hoping to address?           

EV: I was inspired by my first novella, Sacri Pulli: A Tale of War and Chickens, which focused on an instance of augury. I wanted to continue an exploration of this influential practice and its role in history, politics, and military endeavors. Its intersection with so many different areas seemed to make a great place to focus upon.

AW: One of the main goals of these readers is to draw in novice Latin learners with compelling and comprehensible material—a challenge since students may be using different textbooks or learning in very different settings. What strategies did you use to ensure that the language in your books met these two requirements? 

EV: To make sure these novellas are comprehensible, I carefully structured the vocabulary so that I consistently utilized a core vocabulary from book to book while gradually introducing new words. To make sure these novellas were compelling, I added some levity and comedy in the dialogue while still maintaining a focus on the rather complex topic of duty. I hope the combination of these two things will draw different types of students in and keep them reading.

I focused on high frequency vocabulary, drawing on Dickinson College Commentary’s Core Vocabulary, but also did not shy away from incorporating short phrases or vocab words from Cicero’s extant texts that touched on augury. In doing so, I hoped to allow students to read the text, while still learning subject-related vocabulary. 

AW: What sources did you draw on when writing these books? Did any of the material you learned while researching surprise you?

EV: I was able to draw upon my favorite author, Cicero, when researching these books, including his De Divinatione, De Natura Deorum, and De Legibus, to inform my understanding of augury. It was most surprising to realize how fluid the Romans’ understanding of sinistra and dextra was when deciding if a sign was secundum or adversum. 

AW: What process do you use when you first begin writing a novella? Does it change depending on subject matter or intended audience? 

EV: I always set out with an audience in mind. The clearer the audience I have, the easier it is for me to craft my story in terms of plot structure and to select vocabulary. Once I have an audience in mind, I make some “first draft picks” for vocabulary, words that I will need (or really want) to use. From there, I do my round of writing and crafting of the story before allowing any “second draft picks” for vocabulary to make their way into the text as I begin editing. 

AW: In Augury Is for the Birds, we meet the character of Marcus, a Roman boy who is studying augury at the behest of his father. While this book takes place in an ancient setting, I couldn’t help but notice how relatable the central conflict of the story is for modern students. Marcus is at an age where he is exploring who he wants to be while also contending with his parents’ expectations. Did your own work with students around Marcus’s age inform this story? Any other key inspirations for the emotional core of the work?

EV: I definitely had a certain set of beloved middle schoolers in mind when I was writing this book and imagining the kind of wise mischief Marcus was getting up to as he tries to get his way. This audience shaped both Marcus’s perspective but also the kind of humor in the book. 

While many existing Roman narratives have been dominated by a “good” son who knows his duty, I thought it important to imagine that for every son aware of his duty, there was also one who was still growing into that space. For every soldier willing to die for his country, there must have been another who was haunted by the horrors of war. While extant Latin texts have certainly shaped our views of the ancient world, those are only the ones we have left and not necessarily the only perspectives available. 

AW: What are some of the features of Explore Latin: Avēs and Augury Is for the Birds? How will they enhance the reading experience for language learners (or the teaching experience for those using these works as a classroom text)?

EV: I think that the glossary is fairly innovative in the fact that it utilizes not only the traditional dictionary entry but also the different parsed forms, as students do not always recognize these forms as connected. I think this inclusion will make the book more accessible to students learning from different teaching styles [editor's note: look for an upcoming blog post that further describes these features].  

I’m also excited about the grammatica section [in Augury Is for the Birds], which provides a written example of a “grammar pitstop.” These short explanations will help students to understand the grammar on a need-to-know basis in terms of their reading. 

AW: Where will this storyline go in the future? What additional themes do you hope to explore?

EV: The next volume goes deeper into Marcus and his father’s story and their dueling views of the nature of war by looking at instances of augury within both a Homeric and ancient Roman history context. It explores further the possible tension between duty to family and duty to country. Although it may be focusing on the familiar topic of war and men, I hope to expand on existing narratives by adding layers of complexity to their characters and views.

Emma Vanderpool has been teaching Latin since 2017—two years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year at Trickum Middle School in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and now back in her beloved New England at Springfield Honors Academy, Springfield, MA. Vanderpool earned her Bachelor of Arts in Latin, Classics, and History from Monmouth College in Illinois and her Master of Arts in Teaching for Classical Humanities from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Among her awards, Vanderpool is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from UMASS Amherst (2019) and was honored as the Lincoln Laureate for Monmouth College (2017). She serves on the Executive Board for Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute and the Classical Association of New England and is an organizer for Lupercal. She has self-published nine novellae and is pleased to be an author for Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. 

In addition to writing her own novellas, Vanderpool has taught from them for several years. If you're curious to read her views on teaching and using novellas in the classroom more generally, check out her interview with editor Don Sprague in the December 2020 eLitterae newsletter.

Mythological Monster of the Month: Hydra

February’s Roman Calendar Feature

The 2019–2020 Roman Calendar features twelve mythical monsters from the 2019 edition of Martia Dementia, Bolchazy-Carducci’s annual spring bracket tournament. Visit us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog) for announcements regarding the 2020 Martia Dementia—starting later this month!

Behold, the Lernaean Hydra! According to Hesiod, this many-headed serpentine creature was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, prolific parents of some of Greek mythology’s most famous monsters. An inhabitant of the liminal lake Lerna, the Hydra breathed out poisonous vapors that made the environs nearly impossible for mortals to even approach. Heracles, during his twelve labors, was tasked with slaying the Hydra—no easy feat, especially because as Heracles severed one Hydra head, two more grew in its place. Unable to defeat the Hydra on his own, Heracles asked his nephew Iolaus for help. While Heracles sliced away each head, Iolaus used a firebrand to cauterize the wounds, preventing the Hydra from regenerating.

Hydra, sixth-century bce Caeretan hydria (water vessel) 

(Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program)

A victorious Heracles dipped his arrows in the Hydra’s poisonous blood, creating a potent weapon that helped him accomplish several of his other labors—but would ultimately be his own downfall. The body of the Hydra was placed in the sky as the constellation Hydra, which has a shape resembling a twisting snake. This constellation is the largest of the eighty-eight modern constellations.

The Hydra depicted among eleven other constellations, 

nineteenth-century star chart card from a set known as Urania’s Mirror 

(Public Domain, restored by Adam Cuerden)

Today, the term “hydra” is often used to refer to an intractable problem that is not easily solved; as when Heracles attempted to slay the mythical Hydra, an attempt to find a solution results in new problems cropping up. King Henry IV of France chose to portray himself as Hercules (the Roman name for Heracles) standing over a vanquished Hydra after he brought an end to France’s internecine religious wars at the end of the sixteenth century. In the painting, Henry—sporting a rather self-satisfied facial expression—casually stands over the beheaded monster, representing his recent political enemy, the Catholic League.

Portrait of Henry IV as Hercules Slaying the Lernaean Hydra by Toussaint Dubreuil (1561–1600) (Public Domain)

Another more modern application of the ancient Hydra occurs in the field of biology: Hydra refers to the genus of fresh-water organisms (related to jellyfish) that have a tubular body featuring a mouth at one end surrounded by an array of tentacles. Like its mythological namesake, a Hydra can regenerate damaged tissue: when cut in half, each half can grow into a whole, complete Hydra. Similarly, like the Lernaean Hydra, these creatures may be quasi-immortal. The same biological factors that allow Hydra to regenerate tissue mean that they do not senesce, or grow old. 

Hydra attached to a substrate (© Creative Commons 

Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported/Stephen Friedt)

The Hydra, with its symbolic and scientific iterations, illustrates how Greek and Roman myth continues to live on in new, often unexpected ways. Students may enjoy discussing other mythological figures that have taken on new meanings in the modern world. 

Still curious about how the ancients described the Hydra? In Ovid’s Metamorphoses (9.67–72) Hercules competes with the river god Achelous for Deianira’s hand in marriage. Taunting the god, he boasts about his victory over the Hydra, a feat that he claims was much more difficult than the one he is about to perform. Here, Hercules claims that the Hydra he vanquished had one-hundred heads!

“cunarum labor est angues superare mearum,”

dixit “et ut vincas alios, Acheloe, dracones,

pars quota Lernaeae serpens eris unus echidnae?

Vulneribus fecunda suis erat illa, nec ullum

de centum numero caput est inpune recisum,

quin gemino cervix herede valentior esset.
Hanc ego ramosam natis e caede colubris

crescentemque malo domui domitamque reclusi.”

“It was the pastime of my cradle days

to strangle better snakes than you—and though

your great length may excel all of your kind,

how small a part of that Lernaean snake

would you—one serpent be? It grew from wounds

I gave (at first it had one-hundred heads)

and every time I severed one head from

its neck two grew there in the place of one,

by which its strength increased. This creature then

outbranching with strong serpents, sprung from death

and thriving on destruction, I destroyed.”

Translation in Ovid’s Metamorphoses by Brookes Moore

–Amelia Wallace, Editor

Mythological Monster of the Month: Griffin

January’s Roman Calendar Feature

The 2019–2020 Roman Calendar features twelve mythical monsters from the 2019 edition of Martia Dementia, Bolchazy-Carducci’s annual spring bracket tournament. Visit us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog) for announcements regarding the 2020 Martia Dementia.

January’s monster of the month is the majestic griffin, which according to legend had the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. The January image in the 2020 Roman Calendar shows a detail of a griffin taken from a fourth-century BCE tomb painting found in Paestum, Italy. In the full fresco, two griffins—note the leonine hindquarters and tail, massive feathered wings, and curved beaks—attack a panther, poised to pounce.

Two griffins and a panther, Lucanian fresco in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale
(© Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported/Sailko)

The griffin’s mythical origins lie in the ancient near east and Egypt, with depictions of the creature first appearing around 3,000 BCE. By the fifteenth century BCE, griffin imagery had made its way to the Greek world: the hybrid beast was vibrantly portrayed in a fresco found in the “Throne Room” in the Palace of Knossos on Crete. The griffin remained a popular artistic motif in much of the ancient Mediterranean world, and its prominence continued into the medieval era, when the griffin became a common symbol in heraldry. Griffins were not only used in medieval Christian art, but also in Islamic art of the same time period. The Pisa Griffin, a massive bronze sculpture created in eleventh-century Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain), incorporates Arabic text and patterns associated with textile designs.

 Griffin fresco in the “Throne Room,” Palace of Knossos, Crete
(© Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported/Paginazero)

The Pisa Griffin, an eleventh-century bronze now in the Pisa Cathedral, was originally
 a fountain spout (© Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported/Memorato)

While there are few early written accounts of the griffin, several Greek and Roman writers described griffins as the guardians of gold deposits located in Anatolia, Central Asia, or India. Various authors, including Pliny the Elder (see excerpt below), have detailed the enmity between the griffins and the Arimaspians, a neighboring tribe of one-eyed men who perpetually tried to steal the griffins’ gold. These legends of the griffin continued into the middle ages, and griffins were frequently featured in medieval bestiaries. The griffin still captures the imagination of writers today: the griffin makes an appearance in The Sons of Neptune by Rick Riordan. In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Harry and his friends are sorted into the Hogwarts house of Gryffindor, a name that evokes the bravery, strength—and even the ferocity—of the mythical griffin. The hippogriff, a related creature that is half-lion, half-horse, plays an important role in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

When discussing with students, ask where else they have seen the griffin. Answers may include other stories or literature, as well as architectural motifs, coats of arms, and logos.

Pliny’s Account

In the passage excerpted below from Natural History 7.10, Pliny describes the battles between the Arimaspians and the monstrous griffins, citing Herodotus and Aristeas of Proconnesus as his sources:

 

sed iuxta eos, qui sunt ad septentrionem versi, haut procul ab ipso aquilonis exortu specuque eius dicto, quem locum Gesclithron appellant, produntur Arimaspi, quos diximus, uno oculo in fronte media insignes. quibus adsidue bellum esse circa metalla cum Grypis, ferarum volucri genere, quale vulgo traditur, eruente ex cuniculis aurum, mira cupiditate et feris custodientibus et Arimaspis rapientibus, multi, sed maxime inlustres Herodotus et Aristeas Proconnesius scribunt.

In the vicinity also of those who dwell in the northern regions, and not far from the spot from which the north wind arises, and the place which is called its cave, and is known by the name of Geskleithron, the Arimaspians are said to exist, whom I have previously mentioned, a nation remarkable for having but one eye, and that placed in the middle of the forehead. This race is said to carry on a perpetual warfare with the Griffins, a kind of monster, with wings, as they are commonly represented, for the gold which they dig out of the mines, and which these wild beasts retain and keep watch over with a singular degree of cupidity, while the Arimaspians are equally desirous to get possession of it. Many authors have stated to this effect, among the most illustrious of whom are Herodotus and Aristeas of Proconnesus.

translation in The Natural History of Pliny the Elder by John Bostock

—Amelia Wallace, Editor

Mythological Monster of the Month: Cerberus

November’s Roman Calendar Feature

The 2019–2020 Roman Calendar features twelve mythical monsters from the 2019 edition of Martia Dementia, Bolchazy-Carducci’s annual spring bracket tournament. Visit us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog) for announcements regarding the 2020 Martia Dementia.

Cerberus, third-century BCE Sidonian Burial Caves 

(© Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic/Ian Scott)

The infernal hound Cerberus is famous for his three heads, as in this third-century BCE tomb painting. The painting was found in the Sidonian Burial Caves in central Israel. These burial caves belonged to a family that originated in Sidon in what is now Lebanon.

Ancient sources differ in their depictions of Cerberus. The Greek poet Hesiod (ca. 750–650 BCE) describes Cerberus as having fifty heads (Theogony 306–12):

            τῇ δὲ Τυφάονά φασι μιγήμεναι ἐν φιλότητι

            δεινόν θ᾽ ὑβριστήν τ᾽ ἄνομόν θ᾽ ἑλικώπιδι κούρῃ:

            ἣ δ᾽ ὑποκυσαμένη τέκετο κρατερόφρονα τέκνα.

            Ὄρθον μὲν πρῶτον κύνα γείνατο Γηρυονῆι:

310      δεύτερον αὖτις ἔτικτεν ἀμήχανον, οὔ τι φατειὸν

            Κέρβερον ὠμηστήν, Ἀίδεω κύνα χαλκεόφωνον,

            πεντηκοντακέφαλον, ἀναιδέα τε κρατερόν τε:

            Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her [Echidna], the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bore Orthus the hound of Geryones, [310] and then again she bore a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong.

translation in Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

In Horace’s telling (Odes 2.13.33–36), the songs of the poets Alcaeus and Sappho transfix a hundred-headed Cerberus and other denizens of the Underworld:

            quid mirum, ubi illis carminibus stupens

            demittit atras belua centiceps

35        auris et intorti capillis

            Eumenidum recreantur angues?

            What marvel, when at those sweet airs

            The hundred-headed beast spell-bound

            Each black ear droops, and Furies' hairs

            Uncoil their serpents at the sound?

translation in Horace: The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace by John Conington

Orpheus was also famous for enchanting Cerberus and other intimidating figures on his journey to the Underworld, as in Vergil’s rendition (Georgics 4.481–484):

            Quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Leti

            tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues

            Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora

            atque Ixionii vento rota constitit orbis.

            Nay, even the deep Tartarean Halls of death

            Stood lost in wonderment, and the Eumenides [Furies],

            Their brows with livid locks of serpents twined;

            Even Cerberus held his triple jaws agape,

            And, the wind hushed, Ixion's wheel stood still.

translation in Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics Of Vergil by J. B. Greenough

Hercules and Cerberus on a sixth-century BCE red-figure 

amphora now housed at the Louvre (Public Domain)

Cerberus is often discussed in association with the labors of Hercules, who was ordered to abduct the creature from the Underworld. Deianira, wife of Hercules, describes Cerberus in a catalog of Hercules’s labors (Ovid, Heroides 9.91–94):

            Prodigiumque triplex, armenti dives Hiberi

                 Geryones, quamvis in tribus unus erat;

            Inque canes totidem trunco digestus ab uno

                Cerberos inplicitis angue minante comis;

            You tell also of the heads that were fixed upon Thracian gates, and the mares fattened by the blood of men; of Geryon, that three-fold monster, rich in Iberian herds, who had three bodies in one; of Cerberus, forming three dogs from the same trunk, having his hair wreathed with hissing snakes . . .

translation in The Epistles of Ovid, translated into English prose . . .

Hercules presenting Cerberus to Eurystheus on a sixth-century BCE 

black-figure hydria, also at the Louvre (Public Domain)

Teachers may wish to ask students to discuss other depictions of Cerberus that they have encountered, and which written descriptions match them most closely.

—Laurel Draper, Editor

Dolus aut Dulce 2019 Winners

Amy Bernard-Mason and her son
as Medusa and Perseus.

After due deliberation on the Dolus aut Dulce entries, Bolchazy-Carducci editors have come to a decision! Plurimas gratias to all who participated in our annual classics costume contest, expanded this year to include a classroom decoration category. From a modern maenad to Persephone with pomegranate . . . to Elmo in a toga (yes, seriously!) and more, we loved seeing the various ways in which contestants interpreted the classical world in costume form. Classroom décor tended toward the macabre, with tombstones and underworld-related iconography emerging as major themes.

Congratulations are in order for Amy Bernard-Mason, Latin teacher at Voorhees High School and North Hunterdon High School in New Jersey. The winner of this year’s costume category dressed as Medusa to her son’s Perseus; in their submission, the young hero is in the process of slaying his monster mom. Amy has kindly provided some more photos from her trunk or treat event this year, in which she recreated Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium from the Percy Jackson young adult mythology series. Check out the Medusa crime scene chalk outline!

Amy Bernard-Mason's Medusa crime scene
chalk outline. 

Our second winner transformed her classroom into the Greek underworld with the help of her middle school classes. Emma Vanderpool, Latin teacher at Trickum Middle School in Lilburn, Georgia, asked her students to create museum displays for the multitude of monsters that inhabit Hades. The result was a spine-chilling spectacle. See below for an explanation of her assignment. If you’d like to do something similar in your class, you may also want to use Bolchazy-Carducci’s monster of the month calendar blogs (read September’s blog here and October’s here). 

Did you miss out on this year's Halloween contest? Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to keep up to date with upcoming contests, new books, and conference and webinar schedules! 

  

Emma Vanderpool’s Greek Underworld Museum Display Assignment

Create a life-size decoration for the wall depicting an assigned underworld figure or monster

• must be in color
• may have items printed out (ask Magistra)

Create a museum card (with group members’ names and a four to five sentence summary of figure).

Counts as a test grade for culture

• 10 points for accuracy
• 5 points for creativity
• 5 points for effort

Assigned figures, entrance of the underworld

• Charon: ferryman of the dead
• Hermes: guide of souls to the underworld
• Cerberus: multiheaded dog and guardian of the underworld
• Gorgons: snake-haired monsters with a deadly stare
• Geryon: fearsome giant with many heads (and sometimes, bodies)
• Chimera: a fire-breathing hybrid monster
• Centaurs: hybrid horse-human creatures
• Furies: goddesses of vengeance
• Fates: three goddesses who decided the fate of humans and gods
• Judges: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus
• Hydra: snake-headed water monster
• Harpies: half-human half-bird figures
• Personification of grief (penthos), anxiety (cura), diseases (nosoi), old age (geras), fear (phobos), hunger (limos), need (aporia), death (thanatos), agony (algea), sleep (hypnos), war (polemos), and discord (eris)

Assigned figures, Tartarus inmates

• Danaides: condemned to carry water in a sieve for eternity
• Ixion: bound to a fiery wheel in the afterlife
• Sisyphus: forced to perpetually push a heavy boulder up a hill
• Tantalus: eternally unable to reach food and drink just beyond his grasp
• Tityus: tortured by vultures who ate his liver, which regrew daily
• Titans: the twelve pre-Olympian gods

To see how Emma's classroom transformation turned out, check out the following video!

Mythological Monster of the Month: Manticore

October’s Roman Calendar Feature

The 2019–2020 Roman Calendar features twelve mythical monsters from the 2019 edition of Martia Dementia, Bolchazy-Carducci’s annual spring bracket tournament. Visit us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog) for announcements regarding the 2020 Martia Dementia.

Manticore, thirteenth-century CE manuscript (Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program)

The manticore is a mythical leonine creature with the body of a lion, the head of a human, and a tail resembling either that of a scorpion or the quills of a porcupine. Tales of the manticore originated in Persia (where it was known as the martikhoras) and spread to Greece (called μαρτιχόρας martichoras or μαντιχώρας mantichoras) and Italy (adapted into Latin as mantichora).

Medieval authors often included manticores in bestiaries, following the description in Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis. The Roman Calendar’s October image accompanies a Latin description of manticores found in the Northumberland Bestiary, a mid-thirteenth-century work produced in England.

Teachers may wish to ask students to name additional mythological or fictional creatures that are composites of real animals.

Manticore chasing a man, ca. ninth–tenth century CE sculpted sandstone monument, Meigle Museum 

Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) describes the manticore in his Historia Naturalis (8.34 in the Latin edition; 8.30 in the English edition):

Apud eosdem nasci Ctesias scribit quam mantichoran appellat, triplici dentium ordine pectinatim coeuntium, facie et auriculis hominis, oculis glaucis, colore sanguineo, corpore leonis, cauda scorpionis modo spicula infigentem, vocis ut si misceatur fistulae et tubae concentus, velocitatis magnae, humani corporis vel praecipue adpetentem.

Latin text from the edition of Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (1906) available at Perseus

Ctesias informs us, that among these same Æthiopians, there is an animal found, which he calls the mantichora [manticore]; it has a triple row of teeth, which fit into each other like those of a comb, the face and ears of a man, and azure eyes, is of the colour of blood, has the body of the lion, and a tail ending in a sting, like that of the scorpion. Its voice resembles the union of the sound of the flute and the trumpet; it is of excessive swiftness, and is particularly fond of human flesh.

translation by John Bostock (1855) available at Perseus

A manticore featured on the album cover of Pictures at an Exhibition by the rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1971)

Although the works of Ctesias (late fifth century BCE) are now fragmentary, his description in Indica of the manticore is summarized by Photios I of Constantinople (ca. 810–893 CE) in his Bibliotheke (57.7):

Καὶ περὶ τοῦ μαρτιχόρα τοῦ ἐν αὐτοῖς ὄντος θηρίου, ὡς τὸ πρόσωπον ἐοικὼς ἀνθρώπῳ μέγεθος μέν ἐστιν ὥσπερ λέων, καὶ χρόαν ἐρυθὸς ὡς κιννάβαρι· τρίστιχοι δὲ ὀδόντες· ὦτα δὲ ὥσπερ ἀνθρώπου, καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς γλαυκοὺς ὁμοίους ἀνθρώπῳ· τὴν δὲ κέρκον ἔχει οἵανπερ σκορπίος ὁ ἠπειρώτης, ἐν ᾗ καὶ τὸ κέντρον ἔχει, μείζω ὑπάρχουσαν πήχεος. ἔχει δὲ καὶ ἐκ πλαγίου τῆς κέρκου ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα κέντρα· ἔχει δὲ καὶ ἐπ’ ἄκρῳ ὥσπερ σκορπίος, κέντρον. καὶ τούτῳ μὲν, ἐὰν προσέλθῃ τὶς, κεντεῖ τῷ κέντρῳ, καὶ πάντως ὁ κεντηθεὶς ἀποθνήσκει· ἐὰν δέ τις πόῤῥωθεν μάχηται πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ ἔμπροσθεν ἱστὰς τὴν οὐρὰν ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τόξου βάλλει τοῖς κέντροις, καὶ ὄπισθεν ἐπ’ εὐθείας ἀποτείνων. βάλλει δὲ ὅσον πλέθρον εἰς μῆκος· καὶ πάντας οὓς ἂν βάλῃ πάντως ἀποκτείνει, πλὴν ἐλέφαντος. τὰ δὲ κέντρα αὐτοῦ ἐστι τὸ μὲν μῆκος ὅσον ποδιαῖα, τὸ δὲ πλάτος ὅσον σχοῖνος λεπτότατος. μαρτιχόρα δὲ Ἑλληνιστὶ ἀνθρωποφάγον, ὅτι πλεῖστα ἐσθίει ἀναιρῶν ἀνθρώπους· ἐσθίει δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ζῷα. μάχεται δὲ καὶ τοῖς ὄνυξι καὶ τοῖς κέντροις. τὰ δὲ κέντρα πάλιν φησὶν, ἐπειδὰν ἐκτοξευθῇ, ἀναφύεσθαι. ἔστι δὲ πολλὰ ἐν τῇ Ἰνδικῇ. ἀποκτείνουσι δὲ αὐτὰ τοῖς ἐλέφασιν ἐποχούμενοι ἄνθρωποι, κἀκεῖθεν βάλλοντες. 

He describes an animal called the martikhora, found in India. Its face is like a man’s—it is about as big as a lion, and in colour red like cinnabar. It has three rows of teeth—ears like the human—eyes of a pale-blue like the human and a tail like that of the land scorpion, armed with a sting and more than a cubit long. It has besides stings on each side of its tail, and, like the scorpion, is armed with an additional sting on the crown of its head, wherewith it stings any one who goes near it, the wound in all cases proving mortal. If attacked from a distance it defends itself both in front and in rear—in front with its tail, by up-lifting it and darting out the stings, like shafts shot from a bow, and in rear by straightening it out. It can strike to the distance of a hundred feet, and no creature can survive the wound it inflicts save only the elephant. The stings are about a foot in length, and not thicker than the finest thread. The name martikhora means in Greek ἀνθρωποφάγος (i.e. man-eater), and it is so called because it carries off men and devours them, though it no doubt preys upon other animals as well. In fighting it uses not only its stings but also its claws. Fresh stings grow up to replace those shot away in fighting. These animals are numerous in India, and are killed by the natives who hunt them with elephants, from the backs of which they attack them with darts.

translation in Ancient India as Described by Ktêsias the Knidian (1882) by J. W. McCrindle

—Laurel Draper, Editor

Mythological Monster of the Month: Argus

September’s Roman Calendar Feature

The 2019–2020 Roman Calendar features twelve mythical monsters from the 2019 edition of Martia Dementia, Bolchazy-Carducci’s annual spring bracket tournament. Visit us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog) for announcements regarding the 2020 Martia Dementia.

Argus by Pintoricchio (Bernardino di Betto, 1454–1513) (Public Domain)

September’s Roman Calendar image highlights Argus, sometimes called Panoptes (Greek for “all-seeing”), famous for his hundred eyes. Argus is perhaps best known for his role in the story of Io, a young woman turned into a heifer because of Jupiter’s lust for her. Some sources say that Jupiter transformed Io in an effort to hide her from Juno, while others say that Juno transformed her as punishment. Regardless, Juno charged Argus with watching over Io in the form of the heifer to prevent Jupiter from visiting her again. Jupiter then sent Mercury to slay Argus and free Io.

Pintoricchio (1454–1513), whose name means “little painter” in Italian, was a Renaissance painter known for his frescoes. Though his real name was Bernardino di Betto, he acquired the nickname Pintoricchio due to his short stature. This fresco appears in the Room of the Saints in the Vatican’s Borgia Apartment. The room takes its name from large frescoes depicting seven Christian saints. Smaller frescoes of scenes from Egyptian and classical mythology feature bulls (or, in Io’s case, a heifer) in reference to Pope Alexander VI (1431–1503), whose heraldic emblem was a bull. Please note that for the calendar, the border of the image (including Io) was cropped to better display Argus’s features.

Sixth-century bce Greek vase depicting Argus and Io (Public Domain)

Depictions of Argus don’t always feature extra eyes, as in this sixth-century bce Greek black-figure vase. Found in Italy, it is now in the collection of the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich, Germany.

Teachers may wish to ask students to compare and contrast the images above with Ovid’s description below, using the Latin or English texts as appropriate for the class.

Ovid describes Argus in his Metamorphoses (1.622–629)

Latin (text and notes from A. G. Lee’s Ovid: Metamorphoses Book I)

paelice donata non protinus exuit omnem

diva metum, timuitque Iovem et fuit anxia furti

donec Arestoridae servandam tradidit Argo.

centum luminibus cinctum caput Argus habebat;         625

inde suis vicibus capiebant bina quietem,

cetera servabant atque in statione manebant.

constiterat quocumque modo, spectabat ad Io;

ante oculos Io, quamvis aversus, habebat.

(p. 62)

622

exuit: cf. Am. 3, 4, 43-4: 'vultusque severos / exue', Cic. Att. 13, 2, 1: 'humanitatem omnem exuimus'.

623

-que: 'but'; cf. 15 n.

furti: cf. 606 n.

624

Arestoridae: the only occurrence of this patronymic in Latin poetry. Arestor was a shadowy Argive hero.

625

centum . . . cinctum: for the similarity of sound cf. 489: 'vetat votoque', 633: 'toro terrae', 739: 'fitque quod ante fuit'.

626

inde: 'of these'; cf. Plaut. Mil. 711: 'dant in de partem mihi', Met.13,829: 'lac mihi semper adest niveum: pars inde bibenda / servatur . . . ' The French en derives from this word.

suis vicibus: 'in their turn', cf. 4, 218: 'noxque vicem peragit', 'night takes her turn, completes her round'.

627

servabant: the word is used absolutely as in 684, cf. Pl. Most. 451: 'nemo in aedibus servat'; it is prob. from the military vocabulary. serva is frequent in the comedians in the sense of 'look out, take care', cf. Gk. φυλάττου.

in statione: 'on duty, at their post'; another military phrase. Cf. Caes. B.C. 1, 43 : 'quae in statione pro castris erant Afranii cohortes'; Cic. Sen. 73: 'de praesidia et statione vitae decedere'.

628-9

Ovidian repetition to drive the point home.      

(p. 133)

English

Juno regardful of Jove's cunning art,

lest he might change her to her human form,

gave the unhappy heifer to the charge

of Argus, Aristorides, whose head                               

was circled with a hundred glowing eyes;

of which but two did slumber in their turn

whilst all the others kept on watch and guard.

translation by Brookes More (1922) available at Perseus

—Laurel Draper, Editor

5 Reasons to Learn Latin with Lumina: Artes Latinae

What makes Lumina: Artes Latinae the best choice for learning (or reviewing) Latin on your own, at your own pace? Artes Latinae features a comprehensive scope and sequence that gives students all the tools they need to master Latin.

1. Artes Latinae is a time-tested, award-winning Latin program that uses a variety of strategies to empower students as they learn Latin.

Artes Latinae, the self-teaching Latin program designed by Dr. Waldo Sweet, has been helping students succeed in their Latin-learning endeavors for nearly sixty years. The innovative program employs a structural approach to language, incorporating research about the deep inner workings of Latin in order to help students more confidently tackle distinctive elements of Latin syntax. At the same time, Artes Latinae makes use of a wide variety of teaching techniques to facilitate internalizing the vocabulary and grammar of Latin. Many of these strategies remain remarkably relevant to today’s students and adhere to key principles of second language acquisition theories. Artes Latinae is now offered as an online interactive program via Lumina: Artes Latinae, giving students even more flexibility in learning Latin.

2. Artes Latinae employs innovative and effective Latin pedagogy.

Notably, Artes Latinae treats Latin as a language that was (and continues to be) spoken aloud, not just written and read. Students routinely listen to Latin recordings of individual words, traditional sayings and maxims, and questions; in turn, students respond to prompts orally and can check their answers against model audio. Furthermore, Artes Latinae offers the option of three pronunciation styles: American Scholastic (the default pronunciation), Restored Classical (an attempt to reconstruct how Latin would have been spoken c. 100 bce–100 ce), and Ecclesiastical.

With an emphasis on an “active Latin” learning process, Artes Latinae employs methods that require students to think in Latin without using English as an intermediary. When introducing new vocabulary, the program relies on images, Latin synonyms and antonyms, and eventually, more involved Latin definitions. Use of Latin questioning techniques (today, commonly referred to as “circling”) ensures that students receive repeated input of new vocabulary and target forms, while also gently leading students to a fuller understanding of ancient and medieval Latin sayings (and later, longer poems). 

3. Artes Latinae’s programmed learning design helps students learn how to learn.

In its use of active Latin methodologies, Artes Latinae always provides extensive scaffolding for students. On a micro level, this program repeatedly scaffolds new pieces of information. In each unit as students answer questions in Latin, they are first asked to echo questions and responses based on the model recordings. They then respond to similar questions with only one word in Latin, before finally giving longer responses based on the original models. Students at last transform models through substitution and transformation. Another such technique involves beginning with short “kernel” sentences and gradually adding modifiers to create a much more complex thought (what is sometimes called amplificatio, or expansion).

Similarly, the structure of the program as a whole is firmly rooted in principles of scaffolding. In early units of the program, English is frequently used to introduce words, concepts, and grammatical terms. But as students progress, Artes Latinae begins to slowly fade out English explanations, replacing them with Latin words and phrases. By the end of the first course, students have even begun to use Latin grammar terms to describe morphology and syntax!

Additionally, the program begins with explicit instruction on how to approach and study new material, asking students to think about techniques that they personally find helpful (i.e., helping build metacognition). Artes Latinae then gradually “vanishes” some of the help once provided. For example, when first introducing students to Latin sentences, Artes Latinae breaks down the structure of each sentence word-by-word, giving explanations about how to think about and interpret Latin sentences. This sort of explicit instruction fades away, although the program continues to remind students to think about previously learned principles and study methods.

4. Artes Latinae features rich and varied content from classical, medieval, and Renaissance Latin. 

The content of Artes Latinae offers students immense benefit. In particular, the program introduces authentic ancient and medieval Latin from the beginning, using such sentences as models for students to get a sense of Latin’s structure. While Artes Latinae draws from many of the “greats” (e.g., Cicero, Horace, Ovid), the course also makes clear the rich and varied history of Latin literature: using excerpts from the Latin Vulgate, for example, and comparing Renaissance-era epigrams with those of Martial.

Another emphasis of Artes Latinae is word building, both in Latin and in English. English derivatives are always introduced alongside Latin vocabulary. But perhaps more importantly, the course frequently breaks down Latin words into prefixes, roots, and suffixes and shows how new words can be made from these building blocks. As students encounter these key elements of Latin words, they also learn how they changed as they came into English. For instance, as students encounter the word avaritia in Latin, they learn that the –tia suffix is used to turn adjectives (in this case, avarus) into abstract nouns. Likewise, they learn that –tia became the suffix –ice in English (here, avarice).

5. The Lumina platform for Artes Latinae offers extensive student support.

In addition to providing students supportive scaffolding, Artes Latinae ensures that students receive immediate feedback as they go frame by frame. Moreover, Bolchazy-Carducci is proud to offer Artes users several options for obtaining additional Latin support as needed. On the Lumina site, users can access a general discussion forum to chat with others using Artes Latinae. A Q&A forum invites students to ask questions of a Bolchazy Latin instructor, who will regularly respond to queries. As B-C expands and builds on Lumina: Artes Latinae, we anticipate adding more options for students to receive individualized support.

Latin, Greek, and an American Pastime

Moe Berg: Catcher, Linguist, Spy

Imagine the quintessential baseball game: it’s a warm, languorous summer day, the scent of freshly mowed grass wafts in the breeze, vendors are hawking hot dogs and roasted peanuts, and then you hear it . . . someone calling out in what at first seems an unfamiliar tongue. Listening more closely, you wonder—could that possibly be ancient Greek?!

If you were attending a Chicago White Sox game in the 1930s, experiencing this scene was a real possibility. As the story goes, whenever Hall of Fame White Sox pitcher Ted Lyons teamed up with catcher Moe Berg, the two relied on communicating in ancient Greek when an opposing runner was on second base. Berg’s own words from his essay “Pitchers and Catchers” (in which he also describes the catcher as the “Cerberus of baseball”) reveal why he and Lyons resorted to this rather unusual practice:

The catcher gives the signals only because he is in a better position than the pitcher to hide them. In a squatting position, the catcher hides the simple finger, fist, or finger-wiggle signs between his legs, complicating them somewhat with different combinations only when a runner on second base in direct line of vision with the signals may look in, perhaps solve them, and flash back another signal to the hitter.

In ancient Greek, Lyons and Berg found an ingenious way to signal each other secretly.

Berg had a history of using ancient languages in the context of baseball. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, he studied Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Sanskrit and later attended the Sorbonne in Paris to study experimental phonetics. While playing on Princeton’s baseball team, Berg (playing shortstop) and second baseman Crossan Cooper used Latin as their own “secret language” to communicate who would “cover the bag” in the presence of an opposing base runner.

An abiding interest in the ancient Greeks and Romans—as well as cultures and languages from the world over—revealed itself in various aspects of Berg’s life both on and off the baseball field. Sports Illustrated quotes an anonymous teammate as saying, “We'd all sit around and listen to him discuss the Greeks, Romans, Japanese, anything. Hell, we didn't know what he was talking about, but it sure sounded good.” Toward the end of his baseball career, Berg made several appearances on the popular radio quiz show Information Please, successfully answering an array of questions on Latin and Greek etymology, among other topics. Later, during World War II, Berg’s linguistic skills and extensive knowledge of international affairs aided him in his spying efforts for the United States. He played an important role in atomic counterintelligence, relaying information about the development of Germany’s nuclear program.

A. Bartlett Giamatti: Scholar, Leader, Commissioner

The history of the relationship between classical languages and baseball does not stop with Moe Berg. Perhaps the most famous Latin enthusiast in baseball was A. Bartlett Giamatti, seventh commissioner of Major League Baseball. Formerly a professor of Renaissance literature, and then the president of Yale University, Giamatti eloquently expressed the continued relevance of Latin in a letter responding to the query of a junior high school student:

Ask not, noble Dunn, what prompts us to study a “dead language,” for the language is not dead. We study Latin because without it we cannot know our history and our heritage. And without that knowledge, we cannot know ourselves. Nosce teipsum, brave Dunn. If one can read that, one can—in one's life—begin to do that. The link between Latin and our lives is deep, and abiding.

Giamatti wrote several articles affirming his deep love of baseball prior to becoming baseball commissioner. His praise for baseball linked the sport together with his scholarly interests, particularly his celebration of the color green. For Giamatti, the green of the baseball diamond was “the color of hope,” symbolism that he noted is particularly meaningful in Dante’s Divine Comedy. He also commented on the significance of the word park, derived from the Persian word for paradise, further observing that the first “true” baseball game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, at a place popularly called the Elysian Fields. It’s almost as if the perfection of the baseball park can only be properly expressed in the language of epic.

Try It Yourself

Are you a fan who’d like to try calling a few baseball plays in Latin? Check out some Latin baseball vocabulary, courtesy of John Traupman’s Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency, listed below. If you have any other vocabulary that you typically use to describe baseball—Latin or Greek—please share in the comments!

baseball: (the ball itself) basipila -ae f, (the sport) ludūs -ī m basipilae

     play baseball: basipilā lūdere

base (first, second, third, home): basis -is (acc. -im) (prīma, secunda, tertia, summa or domestica)

baseball game: basipilae lūsus -ūs m, basipilae certāmen -inis n

baseman (first, second, third): (prīma, secunda, tertia) basiārius -ī m (-a -ae f)

bat: clava -ae f

batter: clavātor -tōris m (-trīx -trīcis f)

catch: excipiō -ere excēpī exceptus

catcher: exceptor -ōris m, exceptrīx -trīcis f

fly ball: pila volāns

glove: digitābulum -ī n

hit: pulsāre

     hit the ball out of the park: pilam extrā campum lūsorium pulsāre

hit a home run: circuitum basium facere

inning: missus -ūs m

outfielder: externus (-a) custōs -ōdis mf

pitcher: coniector -ōris m, coniectrīx -īcis f

shortstop: intermedius (-a) basiārius -ī m (-a -ae f)

–Amelia Wallace, Editor