I have posted this topic, regarding Virgil - Orpheus et Eurydice, in the Open Board since it requires some analysis of the English rather than the latin. Here is the English for the Latin that I have covered so far. I should be very grateful if some one might answer any of the questions below!
-
“When the evening or the winter rain drives them from the mountains”
In what sense do you think is when, is habitual or a sudden part of the plot rather than description which is implied by the habitual action? -
“Mothers and husbands, and the bodies of great-hearted heroes
Who are finished with life, boys and unwed girls,
And youths put upon the pyres before their parents faces,”
Are all these mothers husbands… and youths put on the funeral pyre? It’s a bit random because the “Mothers…” starts right after the “When the evening…” line above. -
“Whom the black slime and the ugly reeds
And the hateful marsh enclose around with its sluggish course
And the nine tributaries of the Styx [lit. the Styx nine times interflowing] confine.”
Can any one at all point out what is happening here? A picture? Is there a funeral pyre in the middle of a marsh? And I don’t understand at all what’s going on with the tributaries
-
“And the Furies with sea-green snakes woven in their hair,”
Who were the furies? How is this Latin “caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues Eumenides” rendered as the above? Indeed in the book with just the Latin that I have, they gave a rare translation of this line. -
"Indeed, the very abodes were spellbound, as were the innermost regions of Letum (Death)
And the Furies with sea-green snakes woven in their hair,
And Cerberus opening wide his three mouths, holds still,
And the revolving wheel of Ixion has stopped in the wind. "
Does this mean that the abodes, the regions of Death, the Furies were all spellbound? By the River Styx with her nine tributaries? Or the funeral pyre?
He (Orpheus), consoling his sorrowful love with his hollow lyre,
Would sing of you, sweet wife, you with him on the deserted shore,
You as the day was dawning, you at its dying.
He even went into the jaws of Taenarus, the high doors of Dis [=Pluto],
And the grove which was gloomy with dark terror,
And came to the souls of the dead, and the terrifying king,
And the hearts not knowing how to be softened by human prayers.
But the slender shades, stirred by the song, and the ghosts of those lacking light
Were moving from the deepest resting-places of Erebus,
As many as the thousands of birds which hide themselves in the leaves,
When the evening or the winter rain drives them from the mountains,
Mothers and husbands, and the bodies of great-hearted heroes
Who are finished with life, boys and unwed girls,
And youths put upon the pyres before their parents faces,
Whom the black slime and the ugly reeds
And the hateful marsh enclose around with its sluggish course
And the nine tributaries of the Styx [lit. the Styx nine times interflowing] confine.
Indeed, the very abodes were spellbound, as were the innermost regions of Letum (Death)
And the Furies with sea-green snakes woven in their hair,
And Cerberus opening wide his three mouths, holds still,
And the revolving wheel of Ixion has stopped in the wind.
And now Eurydice retracing her steps had escaped from all the hazards
And having been given back was coming to the airs above
Following just behind (for Perspehone had given this condition),
When a sudden madness seized the heedless lover -
Indeed it was forgivable, if the souls of the dead knew how to forgive:
Finally a hopeful request that does relate to Latin to some extent: is there any website that teach hexameter? I recall one a long time ago that I found from textkit. It was good.
Many thanks for your patience!
