This selection is on the theme of Carpe diem – these days usually translated as “seize the day”, but you could equally well translate it as “pluck” the day – Continue Reading
Thunder from a clear sky reveals to Horace the real presence of the Father of the Gods.
See and hear Horace’s Latin translated and recited here.
Glande sues laeti redeunt: the pigs come home regaled with acorns … in Virgil’s rural paradise, even the livestock live off the fat of the land. The swineherd knocking down mast from the trees for his animals is from a famous late-mediaeval Book of Hours, the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.
Hear Virgil’s Latin and follow in John Dryden’s charming but not very faithful 17th century translation here.
Horace reflects on the predicament of a beautiful courtesan who is becoming an object of indifference, or even scorn, as she ages and loses her looks. How far he sympathises, and how far he is pleased at the change, is hard to say.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
See the illustrated blog post here.
In his fourth poem about his lover, Cynthia, Propertius delivers a sharp response to an acquaintance who tells him he should be looking elsewhere. Her accomplishments include the arts, including music – and certain other things, he adds …
Hear Propertius’s Latin and follow in English here.
The efforts of Juno, queen of the Gods, to sow dissension between Aeneas and his Italian hosts are in full swing, with the help of the Fury, Allecto. Disguised at first as an old woman, Allecto now reveals herself to Turnus in her full and terrifying reality.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
Saturnalia on 17 December was the Roman’s midwinter party festival. It had a definite topsy-turvy element, with masters waiting on their slaves, as shown in the illustration, and a generally indulgent attitude towards high jinks.
Today’s poem was written for a different occasion: it is an extract from one of Virgil’s pastoral poems, or Eclogues, written in 40 BCE and looking forward to a birth which will herald the start of a new golden age. It is appropriate to the run-up to Christmas because, though few if any would agree today, a strong current of opinion among early Christians and in the middle ages interpreted it as a prophesy of the birth of Christ. Hear the Latin and follow in English here.