Ajax unburied?? Horace, Sat., II, 3

Latin Learning Latin
1

Context: a question is proposed for an authoritative reply, possibly alluding to a literary work that I don’t know.

cur Aiax, heros ab Achille secundus,
putescit, totiens servatis clarus Achivis,
gaudeat ut populus Priami Priamusque inhumato, 195
per quem tot iuvenes patrio caruere sepulcro?

Translation:

Why does Aiax, greatest after Achilles,
rot, famous for so many times saving the Greeks,
So that [ut] Priam and his nation may gloat over him unburied [Aiax?]
Through whom so many young [Trojan?] men were denied graves alongside their fathers?


inhumato: this was the problem word for me, because I don’t know a story of Aiax dead, being gloated over by Priam. However, Charlton Lewis uses the quotation above in his definition of gaudeo. So when I borrowed Lewis’s interpretation, the sentence fell into place. Still I’m unsure about it.

The sentence seems to be a question, containing a result clause ( Priam ut . . . gaudeat), as well as another dependent clause (per quem . . caruere). I’d be grateful for a some grammar hints on questions that contain dependent clauses. That’s a weak area for me.

2

You have everything right here, and there’s nothing special about subordinate clauses in questions–they simply follow the usual rules for subordinate clauses.

If I had to quibble, I might feel that “denied graves alongside their fathers” is a little too free, but I think you understand the meaning. “Lacked [a place in] the tombs of their ancestors/fathers” might be closer to the Latin.

3

Thanks for the comments, Hylander. Because I couldn’t depict what “patrio . . . sepulchro” referred to, I replaced my first effort with a freer one.