I want to host a host of hosts?!

A simple question today in Latin 4 led to, of course, a complicated answer.  Because it's Latin.

The word "host" in English has three distinctly different possible definitions...  Why?

Ok, here we go.  According to my go-to guide on the history of words and their uses (etymology.com, though I would prefer the OED if I had access), a host who receives guests is a portmanteau of the Latin word hospes (could mean either 'host' or 'guest') from which we get 'hospitality' etc and the Old English word ghostis which means 'stranger.'

Option two is a host, as in an army (archaic, but you see it still); as in, "our men were set upon by a mighty host of the enemy."  This version comes from the Latin hostis which means an enemy of the state (a personal enemy is an inimicus in case you were curious).

Option three is consecrated bread for a Christian service, from the Latin hostia, 'a sacrifice.'

You may all groan and roll your eyes now. 

Quizzes for everyone tomorrow!!!

All sections of Latin and Mythology; fun for the whole family! 

Latin 4: Participles and the Huns.

Latin 1: Note, notes and names.  Overview of Roman History and the beginnings of Latin Literature.  Plus Roman names.

Myth: Remember the movie and be prepared to apply Jung to it.

Latin 3: Perfect and Ghosts.

Latin 2; Trojan Horse.

Homework for 29 August

Latin 4: Nothing formal, but be ready to go over the sentences tomorrow.

Latin 1: Clean up your name and do it if you haven't already...

Mythology: Who are these guys anyway?  (Freud, Jung and Campbell)

Latin 3: 1.3 of Ghosts--And take notes this time, please. 

Latin 2: Do the homework you were supposed to have done yesterday...  :\

And if a Latin 4 offers you a piece of jerky?  NOLI EDERE!!!  (don't eat it)

27 August homework

Latin 4: Find or speculate fourth-principal part of some verbs you already know.  Also, I am soliciting ideas for read-alouds dealing with King Arthur, the Middle Ages, etc.  PG or PG-13 please.  I like my job.

Latin 3: Completely (Latin forms and English translations) go through the perfect tense (active) of the verb studio, studere, studi--To study

Latin 1: What is your name?  What does it mean?

Mythology: Any further thoughts or ideas prompted by today's clip or the handout?

Latin 2: Completely (Latin forms and English translations) go through the present tense (active and passive) of the verb cupio, cupere--To desire or to want.

Also, for Latin 1, in case you didn't get the summation of our note-taking exercise, here it is:

• The big pic: the story of Romulus and Remus, the founding of Rome and how the Romans saw it (and what it can tell us about them)
• The story: Amulius steals Numitor's throne.  Makes Numitor's daughter a priestess (no sex).  She gets pregnant by Mars and has twins.  Amulius orders twins thrown into the Tiber River.  Twins saved by a wolf and a woodpecker (or some guy and his _____ wife).  Twins grow up, kill Amulius and put Numitor back on the throne.  Go off to found their own city, Romulus kills Remus. 

Visi-visi-visigoths

The following blurb from the Writer's Almanac today:

"It was on this day in the year 410 that Rome was sacked by the Visigoths. It was the first time in 800 years that Rome was successfully invaded.

The leader of the Visigoths was a man named Alaric. They came from what is now Germany, and were one of the many tribes who were suffering at the hands of the Roman Empire. Roman leaders enforced higher and higher taxes on the people in their outer provinces, and corrupt local officials grew wealthy while the people stayed poor. Rebellions broke out, and the Visigoths started moving toward Rome. Once it became clear that the Visigoths were preparing to invade the city, about 30,000 Roman soldiers and slaves defected to Alaric's army — many of them had been captured from the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire and forced into servitude.

The Visigoths began their siege of Rome in 408, and soon residents were starving. Alaric agreed to end the siege in return for 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silk tunics, 3,000 pounds of pepper, and 3,000 leather hides. But Alaric's next round of negotiations fell apart; furious, he returned to his siege on Rome, and the city soon fell to the Visigoths.

St. Jerome, one of the great Church leaders of the day, was living in Bethlehem when Rome fell. He wrote: "My voice sticks in my throat; and, as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken." Those who were not Christians blamed Christianity for destroying the long-lived Roman Empire. St. Augustine, living in Hippo, wrote an entire book called City of God to reassure Christians that the fall of Rome was not a judgment on Christianity.

The 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon, who is most famous for his book The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), called Rome's fall "the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the history of mankind.""

What the Myth?

The following are the quotes used during today's discussion about mythology in the Mythology class.  Latin students may choose to disregard.  Or not.  ;)

}  Definitions from the board:

◦      “Teachings too old to know whether or not they are true, so they are experimented with and investigated.”

◦      “Big scary gods.”

◦      “Mythical, folklore, creatures, stories.

Quotes:

}  “Myth [is] a dramatic presentation of the moral wisdom of the race.  The myth uses the totality of the senses rather than just the intellect.”—Rollo May

}  “Myth is the secret opening through which inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestations.”—Joseph Campbell

}  “Myths are things which never happened but always are.”—Carl Sagan

}  “Myth… is the distilled essence of human experience, expressed as metaphoric narrative.”—John Alexander Allen

}  “Myth is whatever a people believe or behave as though they believe.”—Richard Guches

}  “Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.”

The functions of mythology (according to Campbell):

1. Awakens and perpetuates a sense of wonder and participation in the mystery of the universe.
2. Gives a deep and mystical importance to the shared image of the universe.
3. Validates and maintains moral systems and customs.
4. Conducts individuals through the cycles of their lives.
1. i.e. birth, childhood, maturity, old age and death.