Hi All,
I’ve been reading from Laura Gibbs’ blog, Bestiaria Latina. I got through Spencer’s Scalae Primae pretty easily and now I’m working on the readings from Hart about Roman & Greek mythology. I’m trying to be meticulous. I want to understand each word; how it is used and why. I really appreciate this forum because it is the only place I have to ask my questions.
In the second reading “1.2 Saturni Aetas Aurea” it says "Saturnus, vinculis liberatus, cum in fatis esse cognovisset futurum ut ab eodem Iove regno spoliaretur, ille struxit insidias ac bellum etiam indixit.
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My problem is with “cum in fatis esse cognovisset futurum”.
What I get is: Saturn, freed from chains, when he had become aware in oracles … that the reign was to be robbed by the very same Jupiter, he (Saturn?) devises plots and also declares war.
Is “futurum esse” a future active participle. If so how do you translate it?
I have another question with reading “2.2 Cybele Depicta” It says, “Dicta quoque Vesta reperitur, vulgo tamen Vesta Saturni mater non coniunx, ponitur”.
My problem is with “Dicta quoque Vestra reperitur”
What I get for the second part is: …nevertheless, generally Vesta is placed as the mother of Saturn, not his wife.
I’m thinking that “Dicta” is a passive participle modifying Vesta but can’t see how to translate it.
Thanks for any help.
I’m glad you are finding the readings useful! I am having a lot of fun putting those together and I have a HUGE heap of books to work through, all piled up and waiting for summer (I don’t have a lot of time for Latin during the school year, but I have LOTS of time during the summer). Here’s re-arrangement of the Saturn bit - see if this helps:
http://anecdotalatina.blogspot.com/2011/03/12-saturni-aetas-aurea.html
cum cognovisset - when/since (Saturn) realized
in fatis - according to the fates, among the things that were fated
esse futurum - that it was going to happen (“it” is the ut clauses, which is like a subject of the infinitive)
ut regno spoliaretur - that he (Saturn) would be stripped of his kingdom
ab eodem Iove - by this same fellow, that is, by Jupiter
And here is that business with Vesta - the author starts off by saying that the goddess Cybele (whom he has just been discussing as the wife of Saturn) can also be called Vesta:
http://anecdotalatina.blogspot.com/2011/03/22-cybele-depicta.html
Cybele dicta quoque Vesta reperitur - Cybele can be found being called Vesta also,
vulgo tamen Vesta - but Vesta usually
Saturni mater ponitur - is posited as the mother of Saturn,
non coniunx - not his wife (i.e. Cybele is the wife of Saturn, not Vesta)
I don’t always check here at Textkit regularly, so please feel free to leave comments on the blog posts! I get an email notification for blog post comments, and I’ll be sure to reply. 
Thanks Laura. Even though you say you don’t have much time right now, you always make time to give a clear explanation.
I’m glad it helped. The readings from Hart are more difficult (that’s actually an old schooltext from 17th-century France!) - but take a look at his edition at GoogleBooks - it has review questions in English along the bottoms of the pages that can also be helpful in letting you know if you are understanding the Latin, since the questions should be easy to answer if you’ve got a good grasp on the meaning of the Latin - here’s a link to the GoogleBooks edition.
http://books.google.com/books?id=wlMMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false