"quem sese ore ferens" HELP!

Lupa · Post by **Lupa** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 4:42 pm

Alright, line 11, the first clause, of Book IV of The Aeneid (Pharr's) reads in Latin:

"quem sese ore ferens"

Pharr's usually handy little notes claims this means "how noble in appearance," and while I trust Pharr I just don't see how he came to that conclusion. I can see how ore=appearance, but how does ferens=noble? Is it one of those things that just doesn't make sense in English? Does it have something to do with him "carrying" himself well perhaps?

HELP! THANKS!

Lupa

Skylax · Post by **Skylax** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 7:31 pm

Quem sese ore ferens (hospes successit)
SESE is direct object of FERENS and QUEM (from QUI exclamative, literally "what a man !") is predicate of SESE, ORE "face" being an ablative of Specification (Bennett page 142 [152]) thus it means something like : "as what a man appearing by his face !" (SESE FERENS : "bringing himself (before our eyes)").

Lupa · Post by **Lupa** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 3:06 am

THANKS! (mumbling) all my studying of Book IV and I wasn't even tested on it...oh well, at least now I know why most of the people that read the Latin think Dido is a whinning little cannam. For some reason she just doesn't sound as annoying in English.

Thanks again,
Lupa