Some Questions from LLPSI Cap XL

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pmda
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Some Questions from LLPSI Cap XL

Post by pmda »

De LLPSI...

De Orberg Cap XL

1) Prima luce Annam sororem sic alloquitur: "Anna soror! Qualis hospes tectis nostris successit, quam nobilis, quam fortis!

- Nonne 'tectis nostris' dativus est? succedere + acc aut dat. ?

2) Quae bella exhausta narrabat!

Nonne 'Quae bella exhausta' accusativus est (exhausta participium est; 'quae' adj. interrog. est.)

3) Fateor enim, Anna: post mortem miseri Sychaei coniugis hic solus animum meum flexit - agnosco veteris vestigia flammae!

- 'hic' ? This alone turned my mind - I know only the remnant of the old flame!

4. Sed velim prius terra me devoret vel Iuppiter me fulmine percutiat, quam pudorem solvo aut fidem fallo!

- quam + indicitivus: ...as cause shame or break my word...

5. Ad haec Anna "O soror mea dilecta!" inquit, "Solane maerens aetatem ages? Nec dulces liberos nec Veneris dona noveris?

- 'noveris' fut perf.? You shall not have known sweet children nor the gifts of Venus.

Qimmik
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Re: Some Questions from LLPSI Cap XL

Post by Qimmik »

1. Yes, tectis nostris is dative, the complement of successit. Compound verbs formed with a preverb/preposition such as sub frequently take a dative complement.

2. Yes, accusative. quae is interrogative, used in a exclamation.

3. "he alone has bent/moved/affected my mind -- I recognize the traces of my old passion (literally, "flame").

4. "I would sooner [prius] [i.e, I would prefer] the earth swallow me or Jupiter strike me with lightning, than [quam] to relax my chastity or betray my vow."

5. Yes, future perf., but the perfect system of nosco (in its most basic meaning, "begin to know", "learn") is treated as the present tense of a verb meaning "to know", so the fut. perf. can be translated as Engl. future "you will know neither sweet children nor the gifts of Venus [i.e., sex]."
Last edited by Qimmik on Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

pmda
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Re: Some Questions from LLPSI Cap XL

Post by pmda »

Thanks Quimmik

pmda
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Re: Some Questions from LLPSI Cap XL

Post by pmda »

Actually Quimmik

3) Fateor enim, Anna: post mortem miseri Sychaei coniugis hic solus animum meum flexit - agnosco veteris vestigia flammae!

'hic' refers to Sychaeus and NOT Aeneas. i.e. it means this (Sychaeus) has been the sole object of my mind..and not 'Since the death of Sychaeus only this (i.e. Aeneas) is the object of my mind...

Qimmik
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Re: Some Questions from LLPSI Cap XL

Post by Qimmik »

'hic' refers to Sychaeus and NOT Aeneas. i.e. it means this (Sychaeus) has been the sole object of my mind..and not 'Since the death of Sychaeus only this (i.e. Aeneas) is the object of my mind...
I think it's clear that Dido is talking about Aeneas, not Sychaeus, when she says hic solus animum meum flexit . This doesn't mean that she has only been able to think about Aeneas since the death of her husband--it means that Aeneas is the only man since the death of her husband who might divert [flexit] -- or who already has diverted -- her mind from Sychaeus and her vows not to take another husband. The use of the perfect here is significant: she's poised between a possibility and a fait accompli, something that has already occurred. This is a confession. She is confessing to her sister Anna that she is falling, or has already fallen, for Aeneas.

In the Aeneid, Vergil qualifies animum with the word labantem--"tottering," "collapsing," "slipping." And solus hic echoes the phrase, a few lines earlier, huic uni forsan potui succumbere culpae "I might succumb to this sin alone," i.e., her love for Aeneas. Again the use of the perfect says she has already succumbed, even though forsan suggests that her lapse is still only a possibility.

Aeneid 4.15 ff.:

si mihi non animo fixum immotumque sederet
ne cui me uinclo uellem sociare iugali,
postquam primus amor deceptam morte fefellit;
si non pertaesum thalami taedaeque fuisset,
huic uni forsan potui succumbere culpae.
Anna (fatebor enim) miseri post fata Sychaei
coniugis et sparsos fraterna caede penatis
solus hic inflexit sensus animumque labantem
impulit. agnosco ueteris uestigia flammae.
sed mihi uel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat
uel pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
pallentis umbras Erebo noctemque profundam,
ante, pudor, quam te uiolo aut tua iura resoluo.

pmda
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Re: Some Questions from LLPSI Cap XL

Post by pmda »

Thanks Quimmik..

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