The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

I just finished this and, well, am torn.  On the one hand, Miller has some really cool ideas on how to re-imagine the Trojan War from the perspective of Patroclus, Achilles' brother-in-arms...  Or something.  And it's the or something part where I get iffy; Miller has done her research and there are many good details about Ancient Greece but...  A lot of anachronism too.  And it feels wedged in.

Still, if nothing else she does Odysseus justice; here's a passage towards the end of the book whre Odysseus is talking to Achilles' son, Pyrrhus, who is arguing that Patroclus should not be given an honorable burial:

"Patroclus was no commoner.  He was born a prince and exiled.  He served bravely in our army, and many men admired him.  He killed Sarpedon, second only to Hector."
"In my father's armor.  With my father's fame.  He has none of his own."
Odysseus inclined his head.  "True.  But fame is a strange thing.  Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade.  What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another."  He spread his broad hands.  "We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory.  Who knows?" He smiles.  "Perhaps one day even I will be famous.  Perhaps more famous than you."
"I doubt it."
Odysseus shrugs.  We cannot say.  We are men only, a breif flare of the torch.  Those who come may raise us or lower us as they please..."  (Miller, Song of Achilles, 363-364)

My wife's fault...

Leave it to my wife, the writer, to find a ten minute video that explains, in ten minutes, what it took Winston Churchill four volumes.  Watch it, and enjoy.

Making math harder

So, I'm in the middle of this biography of a medieval philosopher (yea, I know; laugh-a-minute) and found a good (more importantly concise!) explanation of how math and numbers worked before the Arabs gave us their numerals from India.  It also contains one of my new favorite words: sexagesimal.  ;)

"Mathematicians in the Arab/Islamic world employed the system of Indian reckoning (al-hisab al-hindi), using nine figures and a zero (indicating a vacant place) as the basis for calculations in a decimal place-value system of numeration, or positional notation [i.e. tens place, hundreds-place, etc.]...  Though the ancient Mesopotamian system was decimal, fractions were often expressed in the sexagesimal system (based on the number 60), so 1/2 was 30 parts of 1 (30/60).  Ptolemy used the decimal system for whole numbers and wrote fractions (hence minutes and seconds) in the sexagesimal system, which Greek astronomers had adopted from the Babylonians.  We still use the sexagesimal system for time, where a fraction of an hour is 1/60, and so on, as well as for angles and degrees of a circle."  Kraemer, Maimonides (2008: New York), p. 67.

Spring fOrVvIrD

Two items today from the Writer's Almanac:

1. "Today is the first day of spring, or the vernal equinox, when the earth's axis is aligned with the center of the sun. The word equinox comes from Latin: aequus means equal, level, or calm; nox means night, or darkness. The equinox, in spring or fall,is a time when the day and night are as close to equal as they ever are, and when the hours of night are exactly equal for people living equidistant from the equator either north or south."

Aaand...

2.  "It's the birthday of the Roman poet Ovid, born Publius Ovidius Naso in what is now Sulmo, Italy (43 B.C.) He became a famous, beloved poet in Rome, privy to the inner circles of the court. He published erotic poems, including his Ars Amatoria (2 C.E.),whichinstructed people on the arts of seduction and lovemaking. And he wrote Metamorphoses (8 C.E.), for which he is best remembered today, which traces Greek and Roman mythology through the lens of humans' metamorphoses into other objects — plants, stones, stars, and animals.  But then suddenly, in 8 C.E., he was exiled, and even today nobody knows why. In his writings, he talks about Emperor Augustus' anger toward him, and he alludes to having seen something he shouldn't have seen, but nothing more specific. Whatever the reason, Ovid was sent to Tomi, in what is now Romania, and he was isolated and lonely, longing for his beloved Rome. But even after Augustus died, the next emperor, Tiberius, did not allow Ovid back, and he died in Tomi after about 10 years in exile."

Reading Olympics: Found poetry

Wow!  Check some of this action out!  In no particular order...

"Take the twist
Red twist of these tarts
Fluffy love
But sour hearts"--B.B.

"A winter solstice
Sweet, cold and fresh like champagne
All is silver ice."--B.D.

Warning bless the abundant
love.  Open the long lasting silver star
that you loved from afar.  On the tree
top you mix and match your feelings
up ahead you see the limit."--Z.H.

"Wink in the mirror
Drying crops of spring
Put on your breaks
and explore abundant love."--B.B.

"my army progresses to cut down the green pastures of the oppressors that make the earth to quake in a total disaster"--C.H.

"Speed limit 35
children crossing
Gas station to my right
I still be on Alston"--C.J.

"I'm in love with a beautiful
dove who flies right above
but I'm trying to be kind
but I'm lost in my mind"--K.M.

"Air fresheners smelling sweet
but they got nothing on me
'cuz I'm fresh as Crest breath is
sit back and watch me
wreck, smack Satan with
lettuce, but the Hell is upon us
but this can only go from bad
to worse, while we shining like diamonds
y'all just penny cash, and yes sir I'm quite
bizarre, but I'm like a quasar"--B.H.

And for those of you wondering what the Romulus and Remus I was on about with the translation challenge yesterday...  Here is both the Latin and English:
Hoc mane                                                       This morning
Spectavi corvos duos                                      I saw two ravens
et eorum inqui:                                                And I asked of them:
"Avete corvi!  Meministine                              "Hail ravens!  Do you remember
Alter Idus, quem manducaverunt                     Another Ides, when you feasted
Bene?"                                                           Well?"
Nec responsaverut,                                        And they did not respond,
Sed ansers canadorum                                   But Canadian geese
A me inquit:                                                   Said to me:
"HANC!!!"                                                    "HONK!!!"

May I have the envelope please...

Ok, so some of you got some of the joke, one of you got another and yet one more got the punchline (I think).  But ultimately, it comes down between two Latin 3s.  One in first period, the other in fifth.

Closest to the sense goes to the Latin 3 student in fifth period.  I'll leave y'all on tenterhooks until tomorrow though as I do not like to name names in a blog post.

Cave Idus Tortae!

Beware the Ides of Pi!

Ides of March are tomorrow as are your 24-hour-Ides projects.

12 and 13 March

Whoops!  I forgot to put up the homework from last night:

~Dux, duxis (m)--General or leader
~Uxor, uxoris (f)--Wife
~Do, dare, dedi--To give

Also, my wife pointed out the following quote from Cicero to me: “Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.”   I've not yet had the chance to chase it down and find out where he said it.

Friday reminder

Remember, all Latin classes have a quiz tomorrow and composition books are due.  Latin 1 has the second draft of the warrior myth as well.

Vocab words for the week were:
~Sol, solaris (m)--Sun
~Pater, patris (m)--Father
~Mater, matris (f)--Mother
~Rex, regis (m)--King
~Nec (adv)--And not
~Sed (adv)--But

7 March, 2012

Today's homework words are...

Sol, solaris (m)--Sun

Rex, regis (m)--King

Sed (conj)--But

Also, I have been passing back some of the quizzes from last week today; be sure that do quiz corrections on them!