Introduction
I am late to this long awaited post. I would put the blame on the fact that I am in the middle of moving, but the honest truth is that other ventures on the site (youtube videos which you all should take a look at) have consumed much more time than anticipated. Anyway, enough with my excuses. Last week, participants were asked to compose a short encomium in praise of the elephant, an animal with a plethora of praiseworthy attributes.
I want to thank everyone who participated. I hope that the process of writing gave you an opportunity to learn something new and that some fun was had along the way.
Winner
This week’s winning composition, a very clear and rhetorically sweet bit of prose comes from Vicentius:
quis tantam molem praeteriens sese reprimere possit quin animans tam grande tamque elegans laudat? corpulentus mollius tamen ingreditur quam frater hippopotamus et multo amicior quam leones pardalesque. proboscis, ei quam natura insevit, omnibus ferme aliis negatum est aut quod divina mens iudicaverat singularem dotem animanti singulari gratia donandam, aut quod rata hanc feram esse promeritam quo foetus commodius (ne dicam humanius) tueatur quippe cuius ingenium propemodum accesserit ad speciem humanam. nihil formidat nisi murem, ad cuius adspectum propemodum exanimatur et quem fugit quam citissime potest. (sic enim fama fertur. Ipse equidem numquam huiusmodi spectaculum nec vidi nec ex tanto corpore expectem). Caeterum, si verum est elephantos longe aufugere murem, bestiolam tantae moli omnino innocentem, suspicor hoc timore instructos quo nos homines intelligamus ingenium minus ferum.
Congratulations to Vicentius.
New Prompt
Rewrite the following from the famous opening of Cicero’s speech against Cataline into dactylic hexameter.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?
Obviously, in order to accomplish this, you are going to have to alter some of the vocabulary for the meter’s sake, but, in the end, the sense of the passage should be about the same.
Submissions will be judged on the following –
1) Adherence to the prompt. i.e. is their composition in dactylic hexameter. Did they translate the entirety of the prompt?
2) Classical Latinity – You will lose points for any neoteric constructions.
3) Style i.e. is the hexameter well written and unforced?
4) Creativity – There is room for creativity here, but the main task is to preserve the sense of the passage while expressing dactylic hexameter, so be judicious in your application of “creativity”.
Submissions are DUE by WEDNESDAY JULY 5th. Good luck!
Submission Form
Submissions will be announced publicly here and on many social media platforms. If you would prefer that your name not be mentioned, please use a “pen name” in the form or simply write “anonymous”. If, on the other hand, you would like to be recognized upon winning, you may also provide us with twitter/instagram handles for the purpose of making your win more public.
Photocredit By © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53809379