Assignments for Wednesday, September 7, 2021
Omnibus:
What if you spend more than 75 or 45 minutes, not because I require it or because you don't have a life, but because, like me, you lose track of time. I've been told, though I hasten to say I have yet to find out for absolute certainty, that 'losing track of time' is the way to Heaven, I am only half-joking; the other half is Parmenides. I bet I lost you on "Parmenides" (or, as I hear Addison mumbling to herself, "You lost me long before Parmenides.") We'll find out soon enough who are the real philosophers among us. Hey, if you can't be a philosopher, give poetry a try. It's the house next door.
Latin I: 45 minutes 1. Make sure you can do the noun chart and ProScadies at the drop of an old man's hat (petasus). 2. Translate the Sententiae Antiquae in Chapter II. Words that you see that you are not familiar with are probably in the vocabulary section of the chapter. Be sure to copy the Latin or English sentence you are translating. 3. If time remains get a start on the Catullus passage that comes after the sententiae -- it represents a stage before the "odi et amo" but expresses a similar contradiction. There are some erotic suggestions in the passage that I will leave you to discover. It's more likely than not that all but one of you are too young and innocent to get the hidden meaning. Who is that one? Maybe it will be you, Bella, who are already too wise for your own good, or you, Jessie, wide-eyed lady of the lowlands, or, Natalia, you may be the one if you let your playful spirit prevail, or Addison, even you, ever battle-ready, but who may have already forgotten what it is that you are being asked to do. Talk about a damsel in distress! (I know I will have rotten eggs and tomatoes flying at me from all directions.) I confess I didn't get the 'secret meaning' myself at first, over 55 years ago, but now, as they say, I can't 'unsee it'. The truth is more likely that for you there will be nothing hidden at all: it will be all too obvious, and this whole parlay of mine little more than a witness to my own puritanical upbringing or juvenile inclinations.
Latin II: 45 minutes 1. Prepare for a quiz on the voodoo words, remembering I will add a few of my own. Know them all, principal parts, genitives, marital status, the whole kit and kaboodle. Aliquid minus quam perfectio est tua culpa. 2. Translate the passage on friendship in Chapter X (it follows the Sententiae Antiquae) 3. Oh my, there's time left over. 15 minutes to be exact. (How did I know?) Think: What would Tristen, my go-to gal, do? Since I know Tristen better than she realizes, I will answer for her . . . channeling, channeling. . . There it is! Do the Sententia Antiquae! Thank you, Tristen. When in doubt about some obscure, poorly formulated assignment, it's important to have Tristen's lofty perspective and a little of her commons sense as well. Don't ask Iullianus! He will make the question an existential one, a matter of life or death. Give yourself a break, Iullianus. Ask Tristen and get on with the Sisyphean routines of everyday life. And, Magna Caesaris Umbra (Great Caesar's Ghost), don't ask Marly. She will have already done the Sententiae and, through no fault of hers, make you wonder if you will ever get through this obstacle course we call life on your own dime. As for the 9 other Latin II Apostles, those Peters and Pauls (why no Marys or Marlys?), they have other commitments, far worthier than ours, and are just happy to have some spare time for a little soul-work, confident as ever that the word 'soul' is as denotative as the word 'chair'.
AP: 75 minutes 1. Go over I.4 and then go on to I.5. Before translating, look through the clutter of Latin words and find the skeleton of the sentence: main verb, parallel structures like "constituerunt . . . . comparare . . . coemere . . . facere . . . confirmare," indirect statement (introductory verb of mental action, infinitive and the accusative subject of that infinitive), subordinate clauses (often subjunctive, look especially for ut-clauses), note where a clause begins and ends (usually with a verb unless it doesn't), ablative absolutes, simian subversives, etc. If necessary, I will send you to an ophthalmologist I know who can fit you out with new eyes, for a tidy price. The only drawback is that everything you see afterwards will be skeletal as well -- I've been told it's a real horror show. 2. Worry over the list of most frequently used vocabulary in the AP readings for Caesar and Vergil. Use 15-30 minutes of your ‘mandated’ time for this.
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