Summer Latin Institute - Day 50

Today is Day 50. The 49 instructional days are past. The day of celebration is past. It's final exam day. A passage from Vergil's Aeneid to translate at sight (glossed), with questions about syntax, scansion, and poetic interpretation. An Ode of Horace to translate at sight (glossed), with a similar range of questions to answer. A passage from each student's elective to translate, something they've seen before, with a prompt for writing an essay about the language and meaning of the passage.

Once exams are completed and handed in, the faculty will grade them as a team. That will be the first step in assigning course grades and honors.

Tomorrow, student will come back in the morning to get their final grades, course grades, commemorative tee-shirts (of their own design), and to bid their teachers farewell—in whatever spirit of fondness or recrimination they feel is suitable!

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - Day 49

Day 49 was yesterday, August 17, 2012. The last instructional day of the Summer Latin Institute. At last, the end is nearly here.

For morning drill, we read Horace's Odes 1.37 (Nunc est bibendum), 3.25 (Quo me rapis), and 3.30 (Exegi monumentum).
 

After morning drill, we went straight into electives: Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues.
 

The elective session was limited to one hour, after which we left the premises to celebrate our students' accomplishments offsite—Latin and Greek students alike. We like to keep the details of that celebration under wraps, so as not to spoil any surprises that may be in store for students in subsequent summers. Let me just say there may have been some singing and reciting of poetry in Latin and Greek, some drinking of Bacchic beverages, and some eating of delicious food. And perhaps a laurel wreath or two.
 

This is the first weekend since their "summer vacation" in July that they have no homework. They do, however, have to study for the final exam on Monday. On Tuesday, students will come in for a few minutes to get their final grades, course grades, commemorative tee-shirts (of their own design), and to bid their teachers farewell, hopefully with minimal recriminations for the rigors to which we have subjected them these past ten weeks.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - Day 48

Today is DAY 48.

For morning drill, we switch from Horace's Odes to his Epistles 1.2.

More lunchtime optional sight reading from Vergil's Aeneid.

After lunch, students continue reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.

Afternoon sight: A passage from Hobbes' De Homine.

The end is truly near. The final exam is made up. Students will translate passages of Vergil (Aeneid) and Horace (Odes) that they have not seen before, with glosses, and they will answer questions about syntax and scansion and write brief interpretive essays. Each faculty member has prepared a section of the final addressing the electives we taught—one for students who studied Tacitus' Annals, another for those who studied Augustine's Confessions, and one for those who read Vergil's Eclogues.

In another important development, students have designed a tee shirt to commemorate their experience at the Latin Institute this summer, bearing the words of Seneca: quod acerbum fuit ferre, tulisse iucundum est ("what was bitter to bear is pleasant to have born"). Those will be delivered next Tuesday, when students come to get their final grades and bid their faculty a fond (?) farewell. 

Some celebration may be in store for Day 49, but we like to keep the details of that in the family, so as not to spoil any surprises that may be in store for students in subsequent summers. 

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - Day 47

Today is Day 47.

In morning drill today we read Horace Odes 2.9 and 4.2.

Our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.

After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.

Afternoon sight: Selection from Descartes.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - Day 46

Day 46 was Tuesday, August 14.

I taught both hours of morning drill today, in which we read Horace Odes 2.3, 2.13, 2.14, and 3.13.

Odes 3.13 is the famous celebration of Horace's Spring of Bandusia (fons Bandusiae).  Here are pics of an inscription containing the Latin text, and a little waterfall on Horace's estate thought perhaps to be the very fountain addressed in the poem.

All this week, our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.

After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.

I led the afternoon optional sight reading from Aquinas' De Ente et Essentia. Fun, fun, fun: it's technical terminology makes about as much sense as that of the Aristotle from which it derives (okay, okay, so I'd never seen the word quiddity before!).

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - Day 45

Day 45 was Monday, August 13.

And yes, once again, I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading, which was our students' first foray into the Odes of Horace.

Morning drill: Horace Odes 1.5, 1.6, 1.9, and 4.7.

Lunchtime optional sight reading from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.

After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.

Afternoon optional sight reading from the Lives of Suetonius.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - Day 44

Day 44 was Friday, August 10. 

I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading.

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (642-705): That nothing may interrupt her plan, Dido sends away her late husband's old nurse Barce and kills herself with Aeneas' sword on top of the pyre.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

And that was that. Aeneid Book 4 notched into our students' belts right next to Caesar, Cicero, Sallust, Catullus, and all the other prose and poetry they have read.

Lunchtime optional sight reading from St. Augustine.

After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.

Afternoon optional sight reading from Jerome's letters.  

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - Day 43

Day 43 was Thursday, August 9.

Mirablile visu, the final couple of students recited their passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura.

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (553-641): Again urged by Mercury to hasten his departure, Aeneas arouses his sleeping comrades and hurriedly sails away by night. Dido's frenzy increases as from her palace window she sees the Trojan fleet depart. She again calls down curses on Aeneas and his followers and prays that some avenger may rise from her ashes to punish such perfidy.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

I led students in a lunchtime optional sight reading of Tibullus 1.1. After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective electives. We rounded off the afternoon with an optional sight reading of a selection from Bede.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 42

TODAY IS DAY 42.

Mirablile visu, students continued reciting passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura.

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (474-552): Concealing her plans from her sister, Dido builds a great funeral pyre in the palace court, pretending that she is preparing a magic rite which will bring back Aeneas or else free her of her love for him. Dido offers prayers and sacrifices to gods of the lower world. Dido bewails her fate and strengthens her resolve to die.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

After lunch, we took a visual tour through the Aeneid in Western art and sculpture, and Patrick presented a fascinating lecture on textual criticism and the manuscript tradition of Vergil.

Later in the afternoon, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective electives.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 41

Day 41 was yesterday, August 7, 2012.

Students have begun reciting passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, taking careful pains with their elision, pausing at their principal caesurae, and showcasing the coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura. Mirablile visu.

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (388-473): After cursing Aeneas and all his race, Dido hurries from his presence and falls fainting into the arms of her attendants. Her own efforts proving unavailing, Dido sends her sister Anna, hoping that she may persuade Aeneas; but he is deaf to all entreaties. Terrified by omens and disturbed by dreams, Dido determines to die.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

After lunch, we had our final poetry survey reading of the summer, the description of Pygmalion and the statue from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Later in the afternoon, we resumed our electives, with some students reading Tacitus' Annals, others reading Augustine's Confessions, and still others reading Vergil's Eclogues.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 40

Day 40 was yesterday, August 6, 2012.

Eight weeks down, two weeks to go!

This was our second week with Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid.  The morning was devoted to the reading that students prepared over the weekend...

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (296-387): Dido, learning that the fleet was being equipped and suspecting the truth, bitterly reproaches Aeneas and with tears and prayers attempts to prevail on him to remain. Aeneas replies that he is not following his own desires but the plans of the gods and the stern decrees of fate. Carried away by her furious passion, Dido curses Aeneas and all his race, promises to reproach him even after death, and insists that he will pay the penalty for his cruelty.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

After lunch, we began our two-week electives: Akiva and his students began reading Tacitus' Annals, Patrick and his students began reading Augustine's Confessions, and my students and I began reading Vergil's Eclogues.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 39

Day 39 was Friday, August 3, 2012.

Vergil in the morning...

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (219-295): Moved by the prayer of Iarbas, Jupiter sends Mercury to Aeneas to remind him of his high destiny and of his duty to his son Ascanius. Mercury hastens from Olympus to Carthage. Mercury finds Aeneas busily engaged in furthering Dido's plans; he delivers his message and disappears. Obeying the divine commands, Aeneas instructs his followers to prepare secretly for the voyage, and seeks a favorable opportunity for informing Dido of his plan to depart.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

Vergil's phrase in tenuem auram ("into thin air"), with which he describes the sudden disappearance of Mercury (4.278) may have inspired Shakepeare to write: "These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air." (Tempest, IV.1.148-50)

After lunch, Patrick led students in reading some poems of Catullus and Horace in a variety of lyric meters. I closed out the instructional day with an optional sight reading of the opening passage of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.

The end of the day brought us to the end of Week 8. Next week, our electives begin, with different students choosing to study Vergil's Eclogues, Tacitus' Annals, or Augustine's Confessions.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 38

Day 38 is TODAY, August 2, 2012.

The morning started off with some Vergil...

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (129-218): Aeneas and Dido go on a hunting party. While all are intent on the chase, Juno sends a sudden tempest, scattering the party and driving Aeneas and Dido to the same lonely cave, where they go through a form of marriage under unlucky omens. Rumor (a goddess) spreads exaggerated reports of the love affair, finally carrying the news to Iarbas, an African chieftain and spurned suitor of Dido. Iarbas prays to his father, Jupiter Ammon, for help, reproaching him that he had allowed Aeneas, a mere adventurer, to be preferred to himself.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

 

Then Patrick gave a lecture on lyric meters, followed by the afternoon poetry survey reading of passages from Lucretius, and an optional afternoon sight reading of excerpts from Petrarch.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 37

Day 37 is TODAY, August 1, 2012.

The morning started off with some Vergil...

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (54-128): Love drives Dido to frenzy. Juno favors the marriage of Dido and Aeneas, in order that she may turn Aeneas aside from Italy, and so agrees to help Venus consummate the affair, promising to devise a suitable situation.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

Lunchtime optional sight reading from the works of Ovid. After lunch, one hour of the poetic fragments of Ennius, another hour of Plautus (currently in progress). My colleague Patrick just did a beautiful job of presenting the zany iambic senararius meter of Roman comedy. Take an essentially iambic rhythm, allow all shorts to be substituted for with longs, and then allow any and all longs (whether long originally or by substitution) to be resolved into two shorts, and you get a dizzying array of possibilities, which Patrick explained brilliantly.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 36

Day 36 was yesterday, July 31, 2012.

Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid in the morning, optional sight reading from Vergil's Eclogues at lunch, a lecture on lexicography in the early afternoon, followed by an 80-minute romp through fragments of Livius Andronicus and Naevius.

That's right--in 10 weeks of Latin class, our students are not only getting a complete grounding in first-year college Latin grammar, and an in-depth exposure to Cicero, Sallust, and Vergil, but also a rich survey of Roman poetry and prose going back to archaic inscriptions and the Arval Hymn and continuing through the beginnings of Rome's cultural engagement with Greece, Rome's own Golden and Silver Ages, and the Latin of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.

TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (1-53): Dido, madly in love with Aeneas, discloses her feelings to her sister Anna. Anna encourages Dido to look forward to marriage to Aeneas.

—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon...

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.

Summer Latin Institute - DAY 35

Day 35 was Monday, July 30.

Eventful start of an eventful week!

Students took a prose final exam in the morning, and I presented introductory lectures on Vergil, the Aeneid, and dactylic hexameter in the afternoon. By 3:30, students were scanning, eliding, identifying their principal caesurae, and singing their verse--they got the moves like Vergil, they got the moves like Vergil.

After the instructional day, students got right down to reading Aeneid, Book 4, lines 1-53. We'll be reading all of Book 4 in the next two weeks, plus a poetry survey in the afternoons, and ongoing optional sight readings of poets and prose authors. Still doing about a week of traditional Latin class every day.

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!

More soon... 

Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.