This selection introduces us to beasts and monsters, starting gently with the wolf that Horace met one day. He was clearly frightened, but with the benefit of nature documentaries we Continue Reading
Pantheon Poets continues to offer you a direct taste of spoken Latin poetry. You can follow the poems in the original whether you know Latin or not – you might for example be interested in later European writers and curious about what Latin influences meant to them. Today’s post is the final part of the story of Laocoon from Book 2 of Virgil’s Aeneid. He has warned the Trojans not to trust the wooden horse that the Greeks have left – he fears Greeks even when they bring gifts. Now, as fate and the Gods bring the fall of Troy ever closer, Laocoon pays a terrible price for his warning.
The next step on Pantheon poets in bringing spoken Latin poems by such greats as Virgil, Horace, Catullus and Ovid to Latin and non-Latin speakers alike, and throwing light on Latin influence on great European writers, will be one of the best bits of the Aeneid, as monstrous snakes lay Laocoon, the wise Trojan priest, low. Does this herald the fall of Troy? Will the Trojan Horse enter the city? Hear it recited in Latin, follow the Latin poetry in English translation. Watch this space as Aeneas continues to tell his tale to Queen Dido …
On Troy’s last night, Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream. He tells Aeneas that the city is falling: he must escape and preserve the heritage of Troy by founding a great citadel for the City’s Gods across the seas. Hear the poem in Latin and follow it in English here.
As Aeneas tells Dido of the fall of Troy, there could not be a sadder contrast between the joyful celebration that Aeneas describes and the dark events that are to come. Follow the extract in English and hear it in Latin here.
