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Author Archives: Michael Hendry
Two Kinds of Textual Conjecture in One: Horace, I. 12.12
I have just written another textual note (a page and a half – 585 words), this one a really obvious, but apparently original, emendation of one of Horace’s dirtiest poems. Here is the link to the PDF. As always, comments … Continue reading
Martial 8.6.8
I have just written a textual note (half a page – 185 words) on a word in Martial 8.6 – one of his catalogue poems. Here is the link to the PDF. As always, comments will be very much appreciated, … Continue reading
Catullus 33: Helping Out in the Family Business?
I have just written an exegetical note (2 pages – 476 words) on Catullus 33 – one of the “few poems which for good reason are rarely read” left out of Fordyce’s edition. Rather than pasting in the whole note … Continue reading
Posted in Catullus, Exegesis
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Statius, Thebaid 1.250: Conjecturing an Intertext
Juno’s first words in the Thebaid (1.248-51) come in reply to Jupiter’s announcement (214-47) of his plan to punish both Argives and Thebans for their various sins: Sic pater omnipotens. ast illi saucia dictis flammato uersans inopinum corde dolorem talia … Continue reading
Books for Sale
I have somehow ended up with two copies each of five different Classics books, and am offering the spares for sale at competitive prices (a few dollars less than the lowest price for the same title in comparable condition on … Continue reading
Posted in General
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New for 2017: Cedo Alteram ePrompter
I have just uploaded a tool – a website – for memorizing passages of Latin literature, the Cedo Alteram ePrompter. The test module may be seen here, using Horace, Carmina 2.7 as a sample text. The site works in Firefox, … Continue reading
A Martial Acronym in Ennius?
I just reserved a room at a cheap motel in West Chester, PA so I can go to the Ennius conference at the University of Pennsylvania this Friday and Saturday. I hope I can find a parking place near campus: … Continue reading
A Tactful Cue (and Non-Q) in Horace (Ep. 1.13.17)
The last four lines of the epistle to Vinnius, on his way to deliver a copy of Horace’s Carmina to Augustus, are clear enough, but one of the conjunctions seems dubious (16-19): neu uolgo narres te sudauisse ferendo carmina quae … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Texts, Curculio, Curculio: Latin, General
Tagged Horace;Epistles;Augustus
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Vigils and Strigils: Juvenal 3.262
The man crushed by a collapsing stone-wagon never comes home, and his household, though still unaware of his death, finally gives up waiting for him (260-63): obtritum uulgo perit omne cadauer more animae. domus interea secura patellas iam lauat et … Continue reading
Marring Marlowe: A Low Pun in Edward II?
Contemporary humanists often seem to operate on the principle that any possible pun in Shakespeare and his contemporaries is real or intended (loaded word!) or somehow present to the alert reader, inevitably adding to the meaning of the passage. It … Continue reading
Mood and Voice: A Footnote on Horace, Epode 10
In their commentaries on the Epodes, both D. Mankin (Cambridge, 1995) and L. C. Watson (Oxford, 2003) note the appropriateness of the name Inachia in 12.17: “Inachia langues minus ac me; Inachiam ter nocte potes, mihi semper ad unum mollis … Continue reading
Catullus 41: Is the Line-Order as Screwed Up as the Subject?
I quote the whole poem, since it is so short, with Mynors’ apparatus, which is conveniently sized for my purposes:(1) Anneiana puella defututa, tota milia me decem poposcit, ista turpiculo puella naso, decoctoris amica Formiani. propinqui, quibus est puella curae, … Continue reading
Posted in Catullus, Critical Texts, Curculio, Curculio: Latin, POTIS
Tagged Catullus;transpositions
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Two Conjectures on Horace’s 16th Epode
Horace introduces his proposed solution for the corruption of contemporary Rome with a Greek precedent (17-22):(1) nulla sit hac potior sententia: Phocaeorum velut profugit exsecrata civitas agros atque Lares patrios habitandaque fana apris reliquit et rapacibus lupis, 20 ire pedes quocumque … Continue reading
G or L: Who Can Tell?
A few weeks ago, Laudator Temporis Acti blogged about a translated novel set in a Greek classroom, in which the Greek was badly botched. As he noted, “You’d think that, in a short novel that takes place inside a Greek … Continue reading
Two Kinds of Crux, neither of them Christian (Maecenas, Fr. 4.4)
Thousands of lines of excellent verse dedicated to Maecenas survive, but only a few precious bits of his own – precious in more ways than one. Seneca (E.M. 101.10-12) preserves, and comments on, one of the most interesting (Fr. 4 … Continue reading
Lost in the Etymological Jungle
Etymology is a tricky business. Here’s a simple proof for doubting students: English cognates are routinely formed from the present and participial stems of Latin verbs, often from both stems of the same verb. The present and participial stems of … Continue reading
Posted in Etymology
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Iccius’ Socratic Domus: Horace, C. 1.29.14
The last stanza of Horace’s Ode to Iccius (1.29.13-16) follows some adynata – ‘Who will deny that anything is possible . . .'(1) cum tu coemptos undique nobilis libros Panaeti Socraticam et domum mutare loricis Hiberís, pollicitus meliora, tendis? Commentators … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Texts, Curculio: Latin, General
Tagged Horace;Apollonius of Rhodes
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No Adduction Needed: A Tense Problem in Persius 4.2
Persius opens his fourth satire with an obscene double entendre and a couple of historical presents:(1) ‘Rem populi tractas?’ (barbatum haec crede magistrum dicere, sorbitio tollit quem dura cicutae) ‘quo fretus? dic hoc, magni pupille Pericli. 2 dura αGL : … Continue reading
Not Just Any Old Things: Horace, Ep. 1.2.57
Forms of res are found three times in eight lines in Horace’s second epistle: rebus in 50, res (singular) in 51, rebus again in 57. This seems excessive, and the last instance is dubious in itself.(1) The context is clear … Continue reading
A Minimal Solution for a Ruined Punchline: Martial 12.50.2
Martial describes a selfish rich man’s estate (12.50):(1) Daphnonas, platanonas et aerios pityonas et non unius balnea solus habes, et tibi centenis stat porticus alta columnis, calcatusque tuo sub pede lucet onyx, pulvereumque fugax hippodromon ungula plaudit, et pereuntis aquae … Continue reading
