By Noah Apter
The opening lines of the Iliad could not capture the essence of the text more. The imagery of Apollo storming down from Olympus, the rattling of the arrows on his back, and the audible twang of the silver bow all give rise to immense feelings of dread, fear, and despair.
Category: Translations
Returning to the Aeneid at Cumae: Aeneas’ Visit to the Underworld
Over fall break, I had a top-ten life experience. My visit to Parco Archeologico di Cuma (Cuma Archaeological Park), located in the ancient city outside of Naples, Italy, transported me back to the eight years I spent studying Latin. With newfound knowledge from Dr. Tartaron’s Introduction to Mediterranean Archaeology course, I explored the secluded yet rich remains of the first Greek colony and its ties to Rome’s founding.
By Janet Pearce
Power and Poverty: A Translation of Phaedrus’ “Asinus ad Senem Pastorem”
Power and Poverty: A Translation of Phaedrus’ “Asinus ad Senem Pastorem”
Dara Sánchez
While little is known about Phaedrus, he proclaims his identity to be that of a freedman of Augustus, thus situating his own status and work within the boundaries of an enslaved person’s experience.
An Appeal to Death: A Dialogue between Apollo and Thanatos (Alcestis 24–76)
An Appeal to Death: A Dialogue between Apollo and Thanatos (Alcestis 24–76) by Alethea Lam. The titular character of Euripides’s play Alcestis chooses to die for her husband Admetus as she eyes the glory of being known as ἀρίστη γύνη (“the best wife”), a title with which she is repeatedly crowned throughout the play.
Brawn and Brains: An Avian Alliance (Phaedrus 2.6)
The tortoise’s best-known appearance in fable might be as the embodiment of “slow and steady wins the race,” but in Phaedrus’s Aquila et cornix, “The Eagle and the Crow,” the shelled reptile meets a less happy end. The titular characters conspire to break open the tortoise’s natural armor via another tried-and-true principle: gravity.
Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority
Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority
By Daniel Campos-Rojano
A strange funerary inscription dedicated to a certain Allia Potestas has puzzled philologists for its language, layout, and outlandish content. The epitaph, written primarily in dactylic hexameter, was found near the Salary-Pinciano burial ground in Rome, a site that was primarily in use from the decline of the Republic to the end of the Flavian Age. Although the dating is controversial, the inscription is generally dated to the early Imperial Age. The poet often alludes to or outright quotes Ovid as a source of literary inspiration which supports this dating…
Lucretia Moribunda: Honor and Suicide at the Hands of Sexual Assault in Livy’s Book One
Lucretia Moribunda: Honor and Suicide at the Hands of Sexual Assault in Livy’s Book One
By Dara Sánchez
After translating and analyzing a section of The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, I chose to translate a passage from the first book of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita because, like the early Christian martyrs Perpetua and Felicity, Lucretia was a martyr who died for her moral beliefs. Although these women had different religious creeds, they were both concerned with virtues like modesty and honor. Moreover, the horrible conditions that they endured because of a violent outside world, such as Tarquinius’ sexual assault of Lucretia and the bodily harm Perpetua experienced during the circus games, made these women sympathetic yet courageous personalities…
Plutarch, Life of Antony Chapters 4 and 24.6–7
Plutarch, Life of Antony Chapters 4 and 24.6–7
By Noah Apter
Of all the classical historians on offer to us, what appeal does Plutarch have? What, if anything, causes him to stand out amongst the likes of Tacitus, Suetonius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and others? I believe the allure of Plutarch’s writing is that he captures the humanity and psychology of his subjects with greater depth than any of his contemporaries or those before him. There is no greater example of this than his writing on Mark Antony. Plutarch remarks on his jests and camaraderie with fellow soldiers, his great generosity, and (briefly) his efforts to deliver justice to those who were wronged…
Vulpis et Ciconia
Vulpis et Ciconia
By Dara Sánchez
The poem “Vulpis et Ciconia” tells a tale in which the Fox’s cunning nature does not come to its advantage. In this fable, a Fox invites a Stork to dinner but gives her a plate with liquid broth, which restricts the Stork from eating while the Fox enjoys her meal.1 In response, the Stork invites the Fox to dinner and puts the food in a vase, disabling the Fox from enjoying her dinner as the Stork satisfies herself. The lesson readers are meant to get from this, as explained in the promythium and re-emphasized by the Stork as a dialogued epimythium, is that: harm must not be done, but when it is, the one who caused harm must endure the same punishment for there to be justice…
A Close Translation of Demosthenes’ Letter 1.5-7
A Close Translation of Demosthenes’ Letter 1.5-7
By Isaiah Weir
Around 324 BC, the city of Athens condemned Demosthenes, one of their greatest orators and statesmen, on charges of embezzlement and bribery. Forced into exile, he wrote several letters pleading his case but to no avail. However, after the death of Alexander the Great, Demosthenes, a lifelong enemy of Macedonian rule, wrote this letter, urging Athens toward political unity and a general uprising for the freedom of the Greeks…