Boethius Consolatione, help with parsing

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hlawson38
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Boethius Consolatione, help with parsing

Post by hlawson38 »

Here is the passage, the first four lines of the poem at the beginning of Book II, part III, p. 185 in Loeb Classical LIbrary version.

Cum polo Phoebus roseis quadrigis
lucem spargere coeperit,
pallet albentes hebetata vultus
flammis stella prementibus.

(My translation, as literal as I can make it.)
When in-the-sky Phoebus with his rosy chariot
the-light to-scatter begins,
the star dimmed grows pale
by-flames oppressing the whitening looks.

Here is my reasoning for the last two lines, which I find difficult.

pallet: "grows pale", predicate of subject stella
albentes: accusative plural, modifies vultus, "whitening looks"
vultus: "looks", accusative plural, direct object of prementibus
hebetata: perfect passive participle, modifies stella
flammis: ablative plural, ablative of cause or manner
prementibus: ablative plural, present active participle, modifies flammis

Cheers, Hugh
Hugh Lawson

rkday
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Re: Boethius Consolatione, help with parsing

Post by rkday »

hlawson38 wrote:Here is the passage, the first four lines of the poem at the beginning of Book II, part III, p. 185 in Loeb Classical LIbrary version.

Cum polo Phoebus roseis quadrigis
lucem spargere coeperit,
pallet albentes hebetata vultus
flammis stella prementibus.

(My translation, as literal as I can make it.)
When in-the-sky Phoebus with his rosy chariot
the-light to-scatter begins,
the star dimmed grows pale
by-flames oppressing the whitening looks.

Here is my reasoning for the last two lines, which I find difficult.

pallet: "grows pale", predicate of subject stella
albentes: accusative plural, modifies vultus, "whitening looks"
vultus: "looks", accusative plural, direct object of prementibus
hebetata: perfect passive participle, modifies stella
flammis: ablative plural, ablative of cause or manner
prementibus: ablative plural, present active participle, modifies flammis

Cheers, Hugh
I'd say ablative absolute for prementibus flammis, but otherwise, looks fine - the prose would be something like flammis prementibus albentes vultus, hebetata stella pallet (because the sun's flames were outshining the whitening faces, the star dimmed).

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thesaurus
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Re: Boethius Consolatione, help with parsing

Post by thesaurus »

You might find this version of the poem useful--it includes Latin paraphrases, notes, etc. I don't know about you, but I love working with Latin in Latin.

http://books.google.com/books?id=vNATAA ... us&f=false

The lines are paraphrased thus:
Ubi primum Sol rubeo curru quadrijugo vectus incepit diffundere diem per coelum, nocturna sidera retusa ignibus instantibus Solis, contracto candore, pallent.
Horae quidem cedunt et dies et menses et anni, nec praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest. Quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse contentus. --Cicero, De Senectute

adrianus
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Re: Boethius Consolatione, help with parsing

Post by adrianus »

Literally // Verbatim
"When in the sky Phoebus from his rosy chariot
daylight to strew has begun,
pales its bright appearances the weakened
star on account of [L&S: palleo + dative] the suppressing flames"
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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