Posted by Dennis » Add Comment »
This is a quick post to mention two new Latin literature Twitter bots. I’ll post the technical stuff elsewhere, but if you’d like a little Latin in your Twitter feed, or would like to have your fortune told by Vergil, look no further.
@DistichaCatonis:
The distichs of Cato, tweeted randomly by the hour. These two-line hexameter poems giving moral guidance were long used as a standard text book and were admired by everyone from Erasmus to Ben Franklin.
Example:
@LotsByVergil:
The Sortes Vergilianae (Vergilian Lots) were reportedly used by Hadrian, among others, and now they can easily be consulted by you on Twitter. Address the bot formally with a colon (e.g., “@LotsByVergil: …”) and he’ll tell you your fortune. It’s up to you to interpret the results.
Example:
Posted by Dennis » Add Comment »
I only just now spotted this item about a library in New Jersey:
Officials had thought the phrase “Nos Secundus Coniecto Omnia” meant “we confirm all things twice.” But it actually means “we second-guess all.”
It doesn’t mean that. It doesn’t strictly mean anything by itself since the phrase was written in English and the Latin seems to result from a quick search through the back of a pocket dictionary.
Since coniecto is 1st person singular, the subject is “I” and must agree with the nominative singular secundus, which is best taken adverbially (rather than, say, “I’m the second one to conjecture”).
The verb can take an accusative/infinitive construction, which is the only way to make sense of nos and omnia.
So if it meant anything, it would be (something like) this:
I successfully conjecture that we are everything.
(The translation of secundus is generous, and could be made more nonsensical or more damning.)
Posted by Dennis » 1 Comment »
On the left: Achilles and Hector on the field of battle at Troy. On the right: Odysseus and Polyphemus in the cyclops’s cave. But THIS is the real showdown.
Which epic is the most epic?