azure

He has come at last that love of mine; a love that I would wish to flaut, not to hide—damn the rest. I call Love with a thought; Love calls my boy to me, and drops him in my lap, mine to have and to hold. She takes care of her kin. All you who have no love I can give you this gift: go out and speak of mine! I would not have my notes of joy hid in shame, that none might read them ‘fore him, what a bore that sounds like! Vice thrills, sin sweet and soft. I have no stake in games of fame, yet less of blame: we are on par in love.

a translation of sulpicia 1

my beautiful appian thank you for being here. tacitus tace challenge. florus you're unexpected but im never sad to see you

has anyone ever thought of cicerlina

when i use the word "like" in a sentence, i use it in the same way cicero used "enim" pre-punctuation to delineate new sentences. this is a conscious classicising writing choice, and it's on purpose and not because i got in the habit of stalling on my word choice

the fasti is so beatiful because ovid crafts a narrator who wholly believes what he is saying and that same narrator strongly implies that ovid is lying to you. and i love it when ovid lies to me

im always thinking about transfem aeneas. its supported by the text, even, if you're englightened enough to see it

we should start splitting infinitives in latin

this is the text that was marked as "restricted content" in the post right before this one but i have rephrased the thing that got me flagged as "end it." note that this is part of a wider phrase saying "dont end it" and also analysis of a play...

"my favourite part of the trojan women is hecuba’s characterisation. she tells andromache in one scene “don’t end it, submit to slavery and do what you need to survive.” in the very next scene she tells helen that a real woman would do so once separated from her husband."

another angle: to submit to slavery without complaint is virtuous for a slave. athenians didn't want slaves stubborn or dead. andromache inhabits the virtue of whatever her position is, wife or slave, while hecuba refuses that, and retains her status as noblewoman at the cost of her life.

virtue is presented threefold. her daughter’s virtue comes second to her daughter’s survival; she loves andromache more than andromache’s reputation; but hecuba will not do that, and will kill herself. and she cares not a whit for helen; she simply wants her dead, and is using virtue as a weapon.

my favourite part of the trojan women is hecuba’s characterisation. she tells andromache in one scene “don’t kill yourself, submit to slavery and do what you need to survive.” in the very next scene she tells helen that a real woman would kill herself once separated from her husband.

aeneid book 2:

priam: achilles would be ashamed of you

pyrrhus: well you can tell him that in hell. Die

#ancientbluesky

A #Roman mosaic underwater at Baiae. It once decorated a luxury villa in this town - a playground for Rome's elite, especially during the summer - but which is now submerged below metres of water due to geomorphic change on the coast (📷 Antonio Busiello) #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology AncientBlueSky

saw the httyd remake. it was decent but i have a gripe with the ending, which is that toothless encourages hiccup to walk on his own with the prosthesis. just as toothless cannot fly without hiccup, hiccup should not walk without toothless. otherwise they're unbalanced.

neither aeneas nor iulus are real people by the time they get to italy. iulus gets whammied literally book 1 where he's replaced with cupid and then aeneas comes out of the gate of ivory book 6. rome was founded by ghosts mirages and false desires

(disclaimer that i know the accusations of cheating/violence are literary devices by the poets to damn the puellae's poor behaviour, but they're still a representation of their ability to find someone else and fight back. there is power, even if the author finds that power disgraceful)

cf juno's speech; she must take revenge to soothe her dignity, but she cant take it out on her husband because he’s god! she’s married to god and there’s not much she can do to him. she's more constrained than even an elegiac puella, who can at least react

thinking about juno and the role of elegiac puella and the relative power which each of these have, especially juno's speech about semele in met 3, and the depictions of puellae cheating (cat 11, 58) or being violent (prop 1.3, 3.8)

thinking about carthage and the time loop

carthage is the land of the lotus eaters (lulls aeneas into wanting to stay) and the cyclopes (the idyllic perfect bay they find themselves in, the cave where a "monster" traps them) and ismarus (a city which they sack because of the time loop) etc. etc. you understand

SULPICIA I At last my love has come, and one that I would rather flaunt than hide, damn the consequences. My Muse calls Venus; Venus calls the boy and lays him in my lap, entrusts him to my care. What she has promised she delivers; let anyone devoid of love speak of mine instead. I would not want to order any of my letters sealed, that none might read them before him, for vice excites!—I tire of dressing up for them; let it be said, we deserve each other.

unable as i am to translate ovid, i present instead the first of sulpicia's poems