Salvete,
I’ve been used to medieval Latin, and I’ve decided to dip into some classical for a change. However, in trying to read through Lucretius’ De rerum natura, I’ve been coming across some unfamiliar patterns. One in particular has been stumping me: patefactast. Here is the context:
nam simul ac species patefactast verna diei
et reserata viget genitabilis aura favoni
And here is the Loeb translation:
For as soon as the vernal face of day is made manifest, etc.
On Perseus, the word is parsed as being a perfect passive participle in various forms ending in -a. So, my guess is that the word patefactast is a crasis of patefacta + est. I’m not sure how else to make sense of it. Maybe I’m overlooking something obvious here; can anyone else see what’s going on better than me? Thanks!
- Michael Anderson