16
votes
What declension is the name, Aeneas?
It is of the first declension, but not of the most typical kind.
I would divide the first declension into four classes:
Case
(Feminine) A-type
Masculine A-type
Feminine E-type
Masculine E-type
...
- 110k
12
votes
What would the ancient Romans have called Hercules' Club?
I'm not sure we have direct evidence of this particular pendant, but we do have what the Romans called the club and what they called pendants in general.
The club is called the clava. Varro (LL 8.26.6)...
cmw♦
- 50.6k
12
votes
Accepted
How can I translate the names of the Proto-Indo-European gods and goddesses into Latin?
Latin words/names from the roots *dyḗws and *dʰéǵʰōm
The usual form of the sky god's name in Latin was Iuppiter, or its variant Iūpiter, which pretty obviously goes back to *dyḗws ph₂tḗr. Specifically,...
- 26.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Can someone translate this paragraph from the book "Proxima" for me? And is it grammatically correct?
This is garbled Latin that looks like the misguided effort of a first-year Latin student (or perhaps, more likely, Google Translate). The meaning (in outline) is clear to me as an English speaker:
...
- 38.5k
10
votes
What would the ancient Romans have called Hercules' Club?
To add the Greek: the usual word for a club, including specifically Hercules' club, is ῥόπαλον rhópalon.
There are various words for a pendant or amulet, including περίαμμα períamma and περίαπτον ...
- 30.6k
10
votes
Accepted
What is the etymology and origin of the name of Dido's sister Anna?
The entry for Anna in Wiktionary certainly states that it derives from the Hebrew Hannah. And this is how Augustine uses it in The City of God against the Pagans, in book 17, when referring to Hannah,...
- 8,611
10
votes
Accepted
Beaver and Pollux?
The Online Etymological Dictionary states
His [Castor's] name was given to secretions of the animal (Latin castoreum), used medicinally in ancient times. (Through this association his name replaced ...
- 2,500
10
votes
Accepted
What would the term for pomegranate orchard be in latin or ancient greek?
Here's the Ovid passage in question:
cultis dum simplex errat in hortis,
Poeniceum curva decerpserat arbore pomum
While the carefree girl was wandering in the gardens,
She had plucked a ...
cmw♦
- 50.6k
8
votes
Accepted
How to translate "the Force" from Star Wars?
Numen isn't the best without either ignoring the "all around us" aspect or resorting to some discredited twentieth century arguments about the word. Still, as a means of personal power in a Jedi, I ...
cmw♦
- 50.6k
8
votes
Accepted
What would the ancient Greeks have called Herakles' bow and poisoned arrows? What would the Romans have called them?
Sophocles' Τραχίνιαι is about Deianeira and the death of Heracles and includes some references to Heracles' weapons. His bow is referred to with τόξα, the plural form of the word τόξον (512, 518). ...
- 26.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Does "acceptam" have any inherent special meaning related to sacredness or consecration?
acceptus, -a, -um means "welcome, agreeable" and is often used with the dative, e.g. senatui, plebi, populo Romano, but also diis et hominibus, deo, etc. It is similar in meaning to gratus ...
- 31.7k
8
votes
How would the Gates of Ivory and Horn from the Odyssey be said in ancient Greek and Latin?
As Homer put it:
τὸν δ᾿ αὖτε προσέειπε περίφρων Πηνελόπεια·
Then wise Penelope responded:
"ξεῖν᾿, ἦ τοι μὲν ὄνειροι ἀμήχανοι ἀκριτόμυθοι
"Well, stranger, dreams are strange and perplexing,
...
- 64.5k
7
votes
Feedback on my Latin note an a passage from Ovid’s Metamorphoses
This looks very good to me! Just a couple of small suggestions for the last sentence:
I think his auditis would be more usual than haec audiens, which would imply simultaneity with the main verb ...
- 30.6k
7
votes
Accepted
Is there a singular of 'manēs'?
Judging by the entry in Lewis and Short, the plural is also used to refer to a single entity.
Section I.B mentions examples like manes Anchisae/conjugis/Virginiae/Galbae.
The same section also ...
- 110k
6
votes
What is the etymology and origin of the name of Dido's sister Anna?
Just to come back to part of the original question, Virgil did not come up with this part of the story himself. Anna as sister of Dido already occurs in Naevius and Varro; this does of course not ...
- 166
6
votes
Pentheus as "Divine Suffering"
Not every theta automatically makes a word cognate with 'god.' If the apparent etymology of the name Pentheus is correct, it's just formed from the noun πένθος, 'grief'/'misery,' and the -εύς suffix (...
- 19.2k
6
votes
Accepted
Are there literary attestations of werewolves in the Classical period?
Here's an example I remember, Verg., Ecl., 8, 96
Has herbas atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena
ipse dedit Moeris; nascuntur plurima Ponto.
His ego saepe lupum fieri et se condere silvis
...
6
votes
What is the most thorough description of Hades from Greek or Latin sources?
Theseus's description in Seneca the younger's Hercules furens (lines 662ff.) (English translation, Latin text) is quite detailed in terms of geography/topography, architecture, atmosphere, vegetation, ...
- 19.2k
6
votes
Is there a singular of 'manēs'?
Appius has the singular attested:
In sing.: “nomine Manem deum nuncupant,” App. de Deo Socr. 15, p. 50, 19.
He's a bit late, but I suppose this proves it's possible. Running a PHI search "manem ...
cmw♦
- 50.6k
5
votes
What is the most thorough description of Hades from Greek or Latin sources?
Book VI of the Aeneid is over 900 lines of dactylic hexameter describing a catabasis to the Underworld. (Out of those 900-some, about 600 lines actually describe the Underworld; the remaining 300 are ...
- 64.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Where does strīx come from?
For some reason, “strix” and “striga” have not found their way into de Vaan’s etymological dictionary. The older dictionary by Walde does connect “strix” with “strideo”, tracing them back to an IE *...
- 17.5k
5
votes
Dioscuri and Discord
Setting aside the impossibility of a linguistic connection, there's also the issue that only one of the brothers, Pollux, was known for boxing (not wrestling); Castor was known for something having to ...
- 19.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Dioscuri and Discord
Some of this is already included in the comments, but let me try to organize the various thoughts into an answer.
First, discordia is quite literally "separate-heartedness".
The prefix dĭs- (...
- 110k
5
votes
Did Ovid know of Mt. Ararat?
Of course, this is a very interesting question. From a purely chronological point of view one could imagine that Ovid might have run across a copy of the Septuagint and read there of how Noah’s ark ...
- 17.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Does iron have magical properties?
According to Pliny the Elder, iron seems to be resistant to magic.
Several remedies require things being done sine ferro (translations via Loeb):
XXIV.VI:
quidam id religione efficacius fieri ...
- 64.5k
5
votes
What is the etymology and origin of the name of Dido's sister Anna?
Penelope's survey of available evidence seems to be virtually complete. I chiefly want to observe — with no detriment at all to Penelope's answer — that it relies wholly on mythology, which is really ...
- 18k
5
votes
What would the term for pomegranate orchard be in latin or ancient greek?
For Latin and as indicated by cmw's answer above, this comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses (in 5.536, link to Perseus) and only mentions the pomegranate as poeniceum pomum.
When it comes to Greek, it's ...
- 464
4
votes
Can someone translate this paragraph from the book "Proxima" for me? And is it grammatically correct?
I agree with the assessment that this is poorly imitated Latin, or perhaps a robotic translation from the web. I disagree that in an imaginary universe Latin could possibly have evolved to sound like ...
4
votes
Did Ovid know of Mt. Ararat?
" I do not see that there is any evidence that the Septuagint, or any other version of the Hebrew scripture, was known to or read by anyone outside the Jewish community until the time when ...
4
votes
Accepted
Description of Eurus in Ovid's Metamorphoses
This passage (Met. 1.61-2) is about the creation of the world, and the winds are taking up their allotted quarters. Eurus isn't blowing towards the East, he's taking up his station there to become the ...
- 30.6k
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