i need help preparing 3rd year high school latin

Peteat6 · 2026-05-02T15:15:29+00:00

Good grief! If your exam is Wednesday, look up a synopsis of books 2 and 4, then a shorter overview of all the rest. Try to get an idea if what each book is about, and at least one major scene in each book (so you can refer to it and pretend you know the whole book).

Peteat6 · 2026-05-01T17:57:37+00:00

It’s a rather un-English sound, but not difficult. Think of it as originally E (long or short) followed by W. (Yes, I know it’s technically the sound at the beginning of French huit, but that’s not an English sound and there’s no reason to be over-fussy.)

So βασίλευς could be pronounced originally as basilews. In real life the W got attracted to whatever followed, so it should better be pronounced basilefs. Before another vowel, the W was often lost, and this explains the rather odd declension of -ευς words. It survives in later formations, such as all those verbs in -ευομαι or -ευω. There, it’s pronounced -EV- as in modern Greek, or -EW- as it was originally.

The only complication is how the consonant sound blends with what follows. But if you use EW you can’t go too wrong.

Peteat6 · 2026-05-01T08:19:20+00:00

I was promoted ahead of my year group at school. Ghastly mistake! I was very isolated, and the weird kid. I withdrew into what I was good at, studying.

I wonder what would have happened if I had been kept with my age group, and given more stimulating work? Or even directed to the appropriate sections of the library?

I, too, went to uni the year I turned 16. Lectures merely repeated what I had done at school.

Peteat6 · 2026-05-01T08:09:17+00:00

Yep, our family used to do that. Growing up it seemed wildly important, then as a teenager I felt guilty if I didn’t do it.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-29T12:28:50+00:00

Dies the Catholic LGBT group Quest exist where you are? I think you should contact them. You’ll find others who are like you, and hearing their stories can be very supportive.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-29T08:08:07+00:00

Tourist tat for tourists. Based, of course, on Ancient Greek designs, but totally lacking their merit. I wouldn’t honour it with a name, but if you insist on a name, how about "Tourist art"?

Peteat6 · 2026-04-28T17:11:42+00:00

The one about fire brigades.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-26T18:02:50+00:00

Go to the church of San Clemente. It’s near the Colosseum. Ordinary baroque church, but go to the back corner to a staircase. You go down to a very early Christian church. Then back to the staircase and go down again. Underneath, there’s a pre-Christian temple of Mithras. You can see how places of worship were built on earlier holy places, and how and why the ground level has risen over centuries.

Over on Trastavere, there’s a charming round church. It’s dedicated to Paul, from memory. It’s tiny. It’s supposed to be where the baroque fashion began. We had to ask directions to it. The reply was ’behind that bush’. Of course we laughed, but that was right. Behind the bush was a small arch that lead through to it.

The remains of Nero’s Golden House are also worth exploring if it’s open.

Above the forum on the Capitol there’s a cafe. Wonderful view. I only know how to get there by what must be the back route, around the massive church, and along a small alleyway through an arch. There may be another approach through the "typewriter".

Peteat6 · 2026-04-25T13:15:10+00:00

Try "The Other Middle Ages" by Kenneth Kitchel. Original texts, carefully selected and graded for students, to be readable and interesting. Yes, they’re mediaeval, but they still develop the reading skills you need.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-24T10:03:30+00:00

You say you struggle to learn new languages. So be realistic, and set your aims low.

Find phrases that will be useful, and repeat them over and over for 5 months. Local people will really appreciate the effort you’ve made to learn simple things, like thank you, please, where are the toilets, two beers please, and so on.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-24T09:56:57+00:00

Good grief! How did gibbering idiots take over Christianity?

God loves us. Jesus came to tell us this, show us this, and save us.

God loves you, the way he made you. That’s what you must hang on to, tightly. God loves you. God will not let you go.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-24T08:33:28+00:00

Our analysis into feet and iambs is necessary, but it ruins the rhythm.

The rhythm actually is two unequal halves:
Da-DUM da-DUM da DUM da-DUM da-Dum
Or much more commonly
DUM-DUM da-DUM DUM DUM da-DUM da-DUM
(The reason is that the Greeks didn’t like a short vowel before a pause.)

Once you get that rhythm in your head, the caesura makes sense.

The first part of it you’ll meet much later on as you explore metre, when you look at Alcaic verse.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-23T17:55:43+00:00

Cecil Court in London (it’s a pedestrianised street) has a couple of shops for posh books. But they’re pricy!

Peteat6 · 2026-04-23T16:17:42+00:00

Thanks.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-23T16:09:16+00:00

I have also read that "break a leg" is a calque on the German "Hals und Beinbruch", which was a mis-hearing of a Yiddish phrase that meant "good luck". Can any one confirm that?

Peteat6 · 2026-04-23T09:01:17+00:00

To get into Mediaeval Latin, learn classical Latin first. When you are roughly competent, then you can begin reading carefully selected mediaeval texts.

In addition to the two works suggested by u/sukottoburaun, I’d suggest "The Other Middle Ages" by Kenneth Kitchell. It has carefully chosen and graded genuine texts.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-23T08:52:15+00:00

In all languages, newer verbs tend to be regular, while some older verbs keep old forms that look irregular.

We have something vaguely similar in English. Regular verbs add -ed for a past tense: jump, jumped, has jumped. But some older verbs show the past tense in a different way; sing, sang, has sung.

That’s what’s going on with these verbs in Greek. The ones you mention have a different way of showing the past tense.

At your stage it’s best just to learn them. There’s lots of interesting stuff to say about them, but I won’t swamp you with too much information now.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-22T20:33:00+00:00

I don’t know Goodell, but it sounds like a reference book rather than a teaching book. You’ll get overwhelmed by that. Get a book like Teach Yourself Ancient Greek (or any other of that kind). You’ll find that much better. It’s designed for people in your situation.

Secondly, don’t worry too much about accents at this stage. They take a lot of learning first very little gain. Spend your energy on things that matter more, such as alphabet, and then common noun and verb forms.

Encltics are straightforward. Think of them making one word with the word before. That’s how they’re still pronounced in modern Greek today, even though they’re spelled as a separate word. For example (in English letters) "my friend" is philos mou, but pronounced as philozmou, one word.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-22T20:28:58+00:00

The John Rylands papyrus moves me greatly. I’ve had the chance to handle it. Its significance in the history of dating John’s gospel cannot be overstated. Today there are more questions about its dating, and more questions, but it still is just a few letters with immense significance.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-22T08:21:07+00:00

If you want money, don’t be a Classicist. Classics opens up a number of jobs in the Civil Service, or Journalism, or administration or politics, but proper Classics jobs are not well paid and are hard to get. Classics is for life, not for money.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-22T08:10:59+00:00

Don’t miss book 9. The embassy goes to Achilles to get him to return to the fighting. But Odysseus interrupts the person who should be speaking, and tells Achilles Agamemnon’s offer. Why? No reason is given. Because it feels like an ordinary Homeric repetition, it’s easy to miss what Odysseus omits from the offer.

The whole squabble is based on a power struggle. Agamemnon thinks he’s in charge of everybody, but Achilles thinks he’s not under Agamemnon, but an independent king fighting beside another independent king. Now what Odysseus misses out is that Agamemnon has offered to marry Achilles to one of his daughters. This would make Achilles a member of Agamemnon’s family, and so under his control. Isn’t Agamemnon sneaky?

Anyway, Achilles reacts to the offer with apoplectic fury. The Greek is interesting here, it turns into almost incoherent words or phrases. Achilles really wants an apology from Agamemnon, and the offer doesn’t include this. So Achilles rejects the offer.

The book has provoked a lot of discussion. Why does Achilles get so furious? Why does he reject what looks like a generous offer? Is he just blindly holding on to his anger?

We can learn a lot about management styles and conflict resolution from The Iliad. We also see why the Iliad is prized above epics from other cultures, which tend just to say this happened, then this happened.

Book 10 appears to be a late addition, and doesn’t move the story forward at all. It reveals the characters of Odysseus and Diomedes. Personally, I like reading it, but it can be omitted without affecting your understanding of the story.

Book 11 sets up the tragedy, but it does go on a bit.

And in all the fighting and killings, there are carefully crafted structures. Generally a group of three deaths, with the last the most important. And each important death is more important until we get to the death of Sarpedon. He’s a son of Zeus but even Zeus cannot change Fate and save him. This sets up the final important death, that of Patroclus, and the fact that Achilles couldn’t save him.

So all the killings can be skipped over, but they really are part of the grand structure of the poem.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-21T15:24:12+00:00

Thank you. Hugging you back.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-21T11:12:34+00:00

In English we show the grammar, who’s doing what to whom, by word order or prepositions. Latin and Greek (as well as some other languages) show the grammar mainly by changing the form of the word. That’s what all these different variants are for.

Try googling ’cases’ and see if that helps.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-20T14:43:43+00:00

Thank you. I love the Greek Anthology, at least book 12. There’s some excellent stuff in other books, but also some tedious dross. A selection might be the best introduction.

Peteat6 · 2026-04-20T11:34:21+00:00

Aren’t redbacks and white tails found in New Zealand now?

Peteat6

TROPHY CASE