The fulfilment of a prophecy shows Aeneas and his Trojan companions the site of their future city in Italy. Jupiter thunders three times and brandishes a fiery cloud to confirm the omen.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
In today’s extract, Aeneas learns in his journey to the underworld of Marcellus, the Emperor Augustus’s nephew. Augustus adopted him as his son and prospective successor and heir in 25 BCE, when he was still only a teenager. It was not to be: Marcellus would die only two years later with his potential unfulfilled. The illustration shows what might have been: the general making a triumphant entry to Rome may be the Marcellus with whose shade Aeneas sees the young man walking, an illustrious war leader of the third century BCE.
Hear the extract in Latin and follow in English here.
Yeats shows classical and Byzantine influences in a poem that expresses sadness at growing old but asserts the power of mysticism and intellect. He may have had this 6th century portrait of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in mind when making his references to golden mosaics and drowsy Emperors. Read the poem here.
It is time for Lavinia, the only child of King Latinus of Latium, to marry. Her mother, the Queen, has definite plans, but the omens are unfavourable, including a horrifying accident as Lavinia’s hair catches fire at the altar.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
Today’s poem consist of extracts from De Rerum Natura (on the nature of things) by Lucretius. He was a follower of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who taught that humanity should free itself from fear of the Gods, death and the tomb. See Lucretius’s poet page here, and hear the poetry in Latin and follow in English here.
In the illustration by Boulanger, the people bustling along the Appian Way do not seem to be taking much notice of the tombs which line the road, according to Roman custom.
But wishes she hadn’t Hear the Latin, which contains probably the most succinct summary of the Gods’ sexual misbehaviour, here and follow in English.
Hear Ovid’s version of the abduction of the beautiful Europa by Jupiter disguised as a bull here.
See and hear a selection of poems by Catullus, Virgil, Callimachus and Archilochus on the theme of loss and mourning here.
Who is this lecher boasting that he can go all night and one woman is not enough? What happened to the Propertius who is always pledging eternal loyalty to Cynthia alone, even when she is treating him like a doormat? It’s a reminder that poets are not necessarily diarists or autobiographers: if they are any good, they are artists, using their creative imagination. If you were a Roman who wanted to write love elegy and didn’t have a lover, you would invent one. If you did have one, you – and she or he – might have views on how literally the relationship should be turned into verse. Conversely, when they seem at their most imaginative and spontaneous, Roman poets may be following a convention or a model from centuries of Greek precedents that we may or may not know about. It all adds to the mystery that is one of the charms of poetry.
Hear the poem and follow in English here.