Catullus thought that Suffenus was a dud as a poet but – against form – was prepared to make allowances for the inability that we all have, as humans, to see ourselves as we are. The illustration shows that even real talent may get carried away by its own publicity …
Hear the Latin and follow in English here. The photograph of Oscar Wilde is by Sarony.
There aren’t any ancient Romans around to show us how they recited poetry, so we can’t be certain just how they did it. So what is the best approach to take, and why? Today’s post at Pantheon Poets is about the approach that we take and what it is based on. Read about it here.
The illustration shows a Choregos and actors in a mosaic from Pompeii.
King Evander of the Arcadians offers Aeneas 400 cavalrymen and the support of his valiant son, Pallas, and suggests in addition where even stronger reinforcements may be available.
The illustration is Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus, from a mosaic in the House of the Faun at Pompeii.
Hear the Latin and follow in John Dryden’s English translation here.
The perfume that Catullus will serve at his bring-your-own-dinner-party smells so good that Fabullus will wish to be all nose. Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
In Vulcan the fire-God’s forge, his workmen, the Cyclopes, are called on to stop work on Jupiter’s thunderbolts and make new armour for Aeneas. Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
See the opening of the greatest English epic poem here, with links so you can compare it with its classical models, the Aeneid, Iliad and Odyssey. In the illustration by William Blake, an Archangel warns Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the background, beyond the Tree of Knowledge, an elephant “wreathes his lithe proboscis” (Paradise Lost Book 4, line 347).
See the new Latin poetry selection here, with pieces from Boethius, Horace and Virgil.
The latest in Pantheon Poets’ Latin (and Greek) selections is of poems of travel by Catullus, Homer, Ovid and Virgil; enjoy it here.
The River Tiber has stilled his flow so that Aeneas with two ships can row upstream to meet a potential ally, King Evander of the Arcadians – whose city, Pallanteum, now stands where Rome will be in time to come. Evander gives a guided tour and welcomes Aeneas into his home, where previous visitors have included Hercules himself. The illustration is from a 5th century manuscript of Virgil in the Vatican.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.