Mary DeForest | University of Colorado Denver (original) (raw)

Review, 2024

Review of Paula Billups' memoir.

Apollonius' <i>Argonautica</i>, 1994

Sinon's Fake News (Vergil, Aeneid 2.116-19). As Robert Cowan pointed out, the oracle quoted by Si... more Sinon's Fake News (Vergil, Aeneid 2.116-19). As Robert Cowan pointed out, the oracle quoted by Sinon is a fake, since it does not conclude at the end of a line. The Trojans should have seen this, but their minds were not working properly, shown also when they failed to investigate the contents of the Horse. But if a Trojan had challenged the oracle's authenticity, Sinon had a ready explanation, one that he did not use because he did not need to: the language barrier.

Woman's Power, Man's Game: Essays on Classical Antiquity in Honor of Joy K. King, 1998

When Orestes is about to kill her, Clytemnestra reveals to him her naked breast, a potent symbol ... more When Orestes is about to kill her, Clytemnestra reveals to him her naked breast, a potent symbol of maternal devotion. In the Iliad, Hecuba revealed her breast to Hector, conjuring him to stay safe inside the walls. Instead of trying to protect her son, Clytemnestra, of course, wants to lure him into the palace, where she can have him killed.
The many allusions to the evil eye throughout the trilogy find their visual counterpart in this scene. After he has slain his mother, the Furies, with their bulging eyes dripping with blood toment him with the memory of the matricide.

A problem for scholars who assign an early date to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite is the goddess' ... more A problem for scholars who assign an early date to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite is the goddess' deceptive explanation for why she speaks Trojan. Pretending to be a Phrygian princess, she claims she was raised by a Trojan nurse. She did not need to explain: in Homer, no language barrier prevented Greeks from talking to Trojans or even a Cyclops.

Scholars believe the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5) is archaic, contemporaneous with the other lon... more Scholars believe the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5) is archaic, contemporaneous with the other long Homeric hymns, also thought to be very ancient. 1 Certainly, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo is old since Thucydides attributed it to Homer (3.104), but the other Hymns lack such corroboration. The Hymn to Aphrodite, praised as "carmen Homeri nomine dignissimum," certainly sounds Homeric, but that is because the poet took lines and formulas out of Homer and recombined them. This recombination, Freed and Bentman argued long ago, implies that the writer used written texts.

Underneath the Homeric surface there lurks a modern sensibility. The Hymn has less in common with the Hymn to Apollo than with the Hellenistic Argonautica, the Batrachomyomachia ("Battle of Frogs and Mice"), and even Roman poetry for the following reasons:

This is the appendix of my book, Jane Austen: Closet Classicist, and covers ancient literature fr... more This is the appendix of my book, Jane Austen: Closet Classicist, and covers ancient literature from Homer to the New Testament.

Homer interrupted Diomedes's victories in Book 5 to describe a victory on the Trojan side. Sarped... more Homer interrupted Diomedes's victories in Book 5 to describe a victory on the Trojan side. Sarpedon, son of Zeus, and Tlepolemus, son of Heracles, attack each other with deadly effect. Sarpedon's spear goes all the way through his foe's neck, while his own thigh was pierced by Tlepolemus's spear. Tlepolemus is left for dead, and Sarpedon dies too. "His soul left him," (Il.5.696). Parallels collected by Elton Barker leave no doubt.1 Homer had just killed off one of his best characters. Homer corrected himself in the next line. Sarpedon's lost breath was restored to him: "Immediately he breathed again, for the breath of Boreas caught him alive breathing on him" (Il.5.697-98). As Elton points out, Homer emphasized the restoration of Sarpedon's breath of life by three forms of-pn-"breath."2 Who better than the wind-god, the god of big breath, to give Sarpedon mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? Even if Sarpedon died, the breath of life, his psyche, was abundantly restored to him, from the immortal lips of Boreas. Sarpedon's resurrection is the third divine rescue of Book 5, but it differs from those of Diomedes and Aeneas. First, unlike them, he actually dies. Second, they were rescued by Olympian gods, Athena Aphrodite and Apollo. Unlike these gods, Sarpedon's preserver is not an Olympian. He is a nature god. Unlike these Olympians, Boreas does not take sides in the Trojan War. Does he just happen to be in the neighborhood and feel sorry for a dying warrior? The poet does not explain. In fact, Boreas's motive is personal, not partisan. Centuries after Homer, Apollonius of Rhodes provided a plausible motive: Heracles had murdered Boreas's two sons (Arg. 1.1298-1303).3 To confirm his revenge, Boreas resurrects Sarpedon, the slayer of Heracles' son. In the heroic world, nothing cements a friendship like a common enemy. His feud with Heracles motivated Boreas to join Hera's campaign of persecution. When the hero was returning to Argos after sacking Troy, Boreas blew him off course (Il. 15.26; 14.250-56). A common enemy induced the wind god both to ally with Hera and to save Sarpedon. Boreas has every reason to visit the battlefield. He naturally wants to gloat over the death of his enemy's son, who, had just boasted of his father's exploit of sacking Troy (Il. 4.640-42). A listener familiar with Boreas's Heracles's difficulty in returning home after tht war might anticipate some reference to Boreas at this point. But why did Homer kill Sarpedon in the first place? Elton Barker points out that major heroes, Greek and Trojan, almost die, but their psyche does not leave them. He suggests that the death and revival increase the prestige of Sarpedon and eventually that of Patroclus as Sarpedon's slayer. 1 Elton Barker, "The Iliad's big swoon: a case of innovation within the epic tradition?" Trends in Classics 3 (2011), 1-7. 2 Barker, 9. 3 See James J. Clauss, "A Mythological Thaumatrope in Apollonius Rhodius," Hermes 119 (1991), 484-88, for another nexus of Boreas, Heracles, and a man named Sarpedon. Boreas begat his sons, whom Heracles would one day murder, on the Sarpedonian Rock, named for the Thracian Sarpedon, murdered by Heracles.

Parallels between Achilles and Polyphemus.

One can deduce the performance of the Odyssey by the instructions left in the poem.

Homer structures the story of how Odysseus got the scar behind his knee so that the shape of the ... more Homer structures the story of how Odysseus got the scar behind his knee so that the shape of the narrative mirrors the shape of the scar.

Choruses of women in Greek Tragedy are uniformly weird

Just as the Homeric gods disguised themselves as human beings to affect human events, so the nurs... more Just as the Homeric gods disguised themselves as human beings to affect human events, so the nurse in Euripides' Hippolytus and Orestes' tutor in Sophocles' Electra were actually gods in disguise.

In the Aeneid, two omens ordain the end of the long wandering. First, the Trojans land in Latium ... more In the Aeneid, two omens ordain the end of the long wandering. First, the Trojans land in Latium and, ravenous with hunger, eat not only their supper but also the bread underneath (7.107–134). This fulfills the curse of the Harpy Celaeno, who foretold that hunger would drive them to eat their tables. Her prophecy is harmlessly fulfilled when Ascanius says in jest, “Look, we are eating our tables!” In Book 8, with war flaring up in Italy, Aeneas finds the white sow destined to show him where to found a city (8.43–48, 81–85). The picnic and the nursing sow symbolize two phases of Roman history: the Republic and the rule of Augustus.

The sacrifice of Palinurus demanded by Neptune is part of a pattern whereby the gods who hated Tr... more The sacrifice of Palinurus demanded by Neptune is part of a pattern whereby the gods who hated Troy in the Iliad are placated by human sacrifice in the Aeneid.

Apollonius structured the Argonautica in the shape of an eye, specifically Medea's eye, which gla... more Apollonius structured the Argonautica in the shape of an eye, specifically Medea's eye, which glares out from the text entrapping the eye of the unwary reader.

The similes likening Cleopatra to a dove and rabbit chart her mental journey to her glorious ance... more The similes likening Cleopatra to a dove and rabbit chart her mental journey to her glorious ancestors whose memory strengthens her to face defeat and death.

Jane Austen by Mary DeForest

Persuasions the Jane Austen Journal, 2000

Eighteenth-century Fiction, 1989

Review, 2024

Review of Paula Billups' memoir.

Apollonius' <i>Argonautica</i>, 1994

Sinon's Fake News (Vergil, Aeneid 2.116-19). As Robert Cowan pointed out, the oracle quoted by Si... more Sinon's Fake News (Vergil, Aeneid 2.116-19). As Robert Cowan pointed out, the oracle quoted by Sinon is a fake, since it does not conclude at the end of a line. The Trojans should have seen this, but their minds were not working properly, shown also when they failed to investigate the contents of the Horse. But if a Trojan had challenged the oracle's authenticity, Sinon had a ready explanation, one that he did not use because he did not need to: the language barrier.

Woman's Power, Man's Game: Essays on Classical Antiquity in Honor of Joy K. King, 1998

When Orestes is about to kill her, Clytemnestra reveals to him her naked breast, a potent symbol ... more When Orestes is about to kill her, Clytemnestra reveals to him her naked breast, a potent symbol of maternal devotion. In the Iliad, Hecuba revealed her breast to Hector, conjuring him to stay safe inside the walls. Instead of trying to protect her son, Clytemnestra, of course, wants to lure him into the palace, where she can have him killed.
The many allusions to the evil eye throughout the trilogy find their visual counterpart in this scene. After he has slain his mother, the Furies, with their bulging eyes dripping with blood toment him with the memory of the matricide.

A problem for scholars who assign an early date to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite is the goddess' ... more A problem for scholars who assign an early date to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite is the goddess' deceptive explanation for why she speaks Trojan. Pretending to be a Phrygian princess, she claims she was raised by a Trojan nurse. She did not need to explain: in Homer, no language barrier prevented Greeks from talking to Trojans or even a Cyclops.

Scholars believe the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5) is archaic, contemporaneous with the other lon... more Scholars believe the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5) is archaic, contemporaneous with the other long Homeric hymns, also thought to be very ancient. 1 Certainly, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo is old since Thucydides attributed it to Homer (3.104), but the other Hymns lack such corroboration. The Hymn to Aphrodite, praised as "carmen Homeri nomine dignissimum," certainly sounds Homeric, but that is because the poet took lines and formulas out of Homer and recombined them. This recombination, Freed and Bentman argued long ago, implies that the writer used written texts.

Underneath the Homeric surface there lurks a modern sensibility. The Hymn has less in common with the Hymn to Apollo than with the Hellenistic Argonautica, the Batrachomyomachia ("Battle of Frogs and Mice"), and even Roman poetry for the following reasons:

This is the appendix of my book, Jane Austen: Closet Classicist, and covers ancient literature fr... more This is the appendix of my book, Jane Austen: Closet Classicist, and covers ancient literature from Homer to the New Testament.

Homer interrupted Diomedes's victories in Book 5 to describe a victory on the Trojan side. Sarped... more Homer interrupted Diomedes's victories in Book 5 to describe a victory on the Trojan side. Sarpedon, son of Zeus, and Tlepolemus, son of Heracles, attack each other with deadly effect. Sarpedon's spear goes all the way through his foe's neck, while his own thigh was pierced by Tlepolemus's spear. Tlepolemus is left for dead, and Sarpedon dies too. "His soul left him," (Il.5.696). Parallels collected by Elton Barker leave no doubt.1 Homer had just killed off one of his best characters. Homer corrected himself in the next line. Sarpedon's lost breath was restored to him: "Immediately he breathed again, for the breath of Boreas caught him alive breathing on him" (Il.5.697-98). As Elton points out, Homer emphasized the restoration of Sarpedon's breath of life by three forms of-pn-"breath."2 Who better than the wind-god, the god of big breath, to give Sarpedon mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? Even if Sarpedon died, the breath of life, his psyche, was abundantly restored to him, from the immortal lips of Boreas. Sarpedon's resurrection is the third divine rescue of Book 5, but it differs from those of Diomedes and Aeneas. First, unlike them, he actually dies. Second, they were rescued by Olympian gods, Athena Aphrodite and Apollo. Unlike these gods, Sarpedon's preserver is not an Olympian. He is a nature god. Unlike these Olympians, Boreas does not take sides in the Trojan War. Does he just happen to be in the neighborhood and feel sorry for a dying warrior? The poet does not explain. In fact, Boreas's motive is personal, not partisan. Centuries after Homer, Apollonius of Rhodes provided a plausible motive: Heracles had murdered Boreas's two sons (Arg. 1.1298-1303).3 To confirm his revenge, Boreas resurrects Sarpedon, the slayer of Heracles' son. In the heroic world, nothing cements a friendship like a common enemy. His feud with Heracles motivated Boreas to join Hera's campaign of persecution. When the hero was returning to Argos after sacking Troy, Boreas blew him off course (Il. 15.26; 14.250-56). A common enemy induced the wind god both to ally with Hera and to save Sarpedon. Boreas has every reason to visit the battlefield. He naturally wants to gloat over the death of his enemy's son, who, had just boasted of his father's exploit of sacking Troy (Il. 4.640-42). A listener familiar with Boreas's Heracles's difficulty in returning home after tht war might anticipate some reference to Boreas at this point. But why did Homer kill Sarpedon in the first place? Elton Barker points out that major heroes, Greek and Trojan, almost die, but their psyche does not leave them. He suggests that the death and revival increase the prestige of Sarpedon and eventually that of Patroclus as Sarpedon's slayer. 1 Elton Barker, "The Iliad's big swoon: a case of innovation within the epic tradition?" Trends in Classics 3 (2011), 1-7. 2 Barker, 9. 3 See James J. Clauss, "A Mythological Thaumatrope in Apollonius Rhodius," Hermes 119 (1991), 484-88, for another nexus of Boreas, Heracles, and a man named Sarpedon. Boreas begat his sons, whom Heracles would one day murder, on the Sarpedonian Rock, named for the Thracian Sarpedon, murdered by Heracles.

Parallels between Achilles and Polyphemus.

One can deduce the performance of the Odyssey by the instructions left in the poem.

Homer structures the story of how Odysseus got the scar behind his knee so that the shape of the ... more Homer structures the story of how Odysseus got the scar behind his knee so that the shape of the narrative mirrors the shape of the scar.

Choruses of women in Greek Tragedy are uniformly weird

Just as the Homeric gods disguised themselves as human beings to affect human events, so the nurs... more Just as the Homeric gods disguised themselves as human beings to affect human events, so the nurse in Euripides' Hippolytus and Orestes' tutor in Sophocles' Electra were actually gods in disguise.

In the Aeneid, two omens ordain the end of the long wandering. First, the Trojans land in Latium ... more In the Aeneid, two omens ordain the end of the long wandering. First, the Trojans land in Latium and, ravenous with hunger, eat not only their supper but also the bread underneath (7.107–134). This fulfills the curse of the Harpy Celaeno, who foretold that hunger would drive them to eat their tables. Her prophecy is harmlessly fulfilled when Ascanius says in jest, “Look, we are eating our tables!” In Book 8, with war flaring up in Italy, Aeneas finds the white sow destined to show him where to found a city (8.43–48, 81–85). The picnic and the nursing sow symbolize two phases of Roman history: the Republic and the rule of Augustus.

The sacrifice of Palinurus demanded by Neptune is part of a pattern whereby the gods who hated Tr... more The sacrifice of Palinurus demanded by Neptune is part of a pattern whereby the gods who hated Troy in the Iliad are placated by human sacrifice in the Aeneid.

Apollonius structured the Argonautica in the shape of an eye, specifically Medea's eye, which gla... more Apollonius structured the Argonautica in the shape of an eye, specifically Medea's eye, which glares out from the text entrapping the eye of the unwary reader.

The similes likening Cleopatra to a dove and rabbit chart her mental journey to her glorious ance... more The similes likening Cleopatra to a dove and rabbit chart her mental journey to her glorious ancestors whose memory strengthens her to face defeat and death.

Persuasions the Jane Austen Journal, 2000

Eighteenth-century Fiction, 1989

Apollonius' <i>Argonautica</i>, 1994

In Dionysus’ café, authors drink coffee made from Castalian Spring water and exchange ideas. In t... more In Dionysus’ café, authors drink coffee made from Castalian Spring water and exchange ideas. In this excerpt, Jane Austen gives Homer valuable insights on how to reach a reading public.

Mrs. Elton's source of money was from dealing in human flesh.

A battle in women's struggle for equal rights was fought over classical literature. Women who ope... more A battle in women's struggle for equal rights was fought over classical literature. Women who openly read Greek and Latin were

This chapter studies how Jane Austen used Latin, Greco-Latin, and scholarly words in her novels t... more This chapter studies how Jane Austen used Latin, Greco-Latin, and scholarly words in her novels to show the education of herself and her heroines, along with her less admirable characters.

The influence of the Roman love poets on Jane Austen

English has two main sources for words: German and Latin. Distinct from each other, they have pol... more English has two main sources for words: German and Latin. Distinct from each other, they have polarized our language into high diction and low ('diglossia'). Latinate words denote the intellectual world; Germanic words, the physical. Latinate words are indicators of status and education. Austen painted and delineated her characters by giving their speeches different densities of Latinate words. Higher densities of Latinate words sometimes indicate intelligence and moral seriousness, at other times, they expose a character's formality or hypocrisy. Lower densities indicate lesser intelligence or, in the case of sailors, humble birth. The characters whose densities are very close to the narrator are Austen's four great heroines,

Jane Austen exploited the difference in the English language between words derived from the Germa... more Jane Austen exploited the difference in the English language between words derived from the Germanic languages and words derived from Latin and Greek to show her characters' status, gender, intelligence, and mood.

Here are the endnotes of my book, Jane Austen: Closet Classicist. I have put them here to save pa... more Here are the endnotes of my book, Jane Austen: Closet Classicist. I have put them here to save paper and forests.

Jane Austen: Closet Classicist

In order to save paper, I have uploaded the Bibliography and Endnotes of my book, Jane Austen: Cl... more In order to save paper, I have uploaded the Bibliography and Endnotes of my book, Jane Austen: Closet Classicist here.

Austen's Juvenilia, written for family and friends, reveal the author's classical education,

Here is the bibliography of my book Jane Austen: Closet Classicist

Literary and Linguistic Computing, 2001

... Germanic words. First, he described three terrible events in Germanic language. Then he gave ... more ... Germanic words. First, he described three terrible events in Germanic language. Then he gave Latinate summaries of those events. Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire ...

P. L. Travers had a lifelong interest in the Great Mother whose attributes she gave to Mary Poppins.

In this paper DeForest unmasks the zany star as Ulysses in a toad suit.

I believe [Medea] has been much injured by the Poets, who represent her as a wretch. I imagine sh... more I believe [Medea] has been much injured by the Poets, who represent her as a wretch. I imagine she was only a learned lady when learned ladies were not so usual as now a days. Elizabeth Montagu

Thanks to modern technology, it is possible to hear Medea's story told by herself.

This chapter describes how a community-based spelling/language club and spelling competition for ... more This chapter describes how a community-based spelling/language club and spelling competition for adults can provide opportunities for cognitive exercise and strengthening social connections. We also present insights into the experience of competing at an adult national spelling competition, summarize age-related spelling and language errors, describe strategies that enhance spelling skills in adults, and suggest ideas for future research about the link between spelling skills, attention, and working memory.

1st Semester Latin Test: Ariadne, 2024

Crete was an unusal place even by modern standards. Not only were women allowed to walk abroad, b... more Crete was an unusal place even by modern standards. Not only were women allowed to walk abroad, but they did so with their breasts bared. Every year Athens sent seven maids and seven young men to Crete, to be killed and eaten by the Minotaur (a monster half-man, half-bull) in the maze called the Labyrinth. Theseus, son of the king of Athens, was among the seven youths, and he would have died, if it were not for Ariadna (better known by Ariadne, her Greek name). You may have heard a different story about Ariadna, but this is the true one.

This is a Latin final exam for students who have reached Wheelock, Chapter 14. I took it from Apo... more This is a Latin final exam for students who have reached Wheelock, Chapter 14. I took it from Apollonius' Argonautica.

LATN 2010 Final Translate the following story into idiomatic English: How Sisyphus Eluded Death W... more LATN 2010 Final Translate the following story into idiomatic English: How Sisyphus Eluded Death When the hero Ulysses visited the underworld, one of the characters he saw doomed to perpetual punishment was Sisyphus, king of Corinth, condemned to push a rock up hill for eternity. Just before he reached the top, the rock would slip from his hands and bound down the hill again. Here was his crime: Ita callidus 1 erat Sisyphus ut morte tenērī non posset. Cum mortem venīre sentīret, uxore vocātā, haec dīxit: "Sum philosophus. Aut mors est similis somnō 2 , aut est locus in quō anima, excussō 3 corpore, esse fēlix potest. Timeō nē populus crēdat mē esse pseudophilosopum 4. Inveniāmus cōnsilium. Sī meum corpus in quisquilliās 5 iaciēs 6 1 callidus,-a,-um, clever 2 somnus, ī, m. sleep 3 excutio,-ere,-cussi,-cussum, shake off 4 pseudophilosophus,-ī, fake philosopher 5 quisquilliae,-arum, garbage 6 iacio,-ere, ieci, iactum, throw

This test retells the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite with Latin from the first 27 chapters of Wheelock.

Latin test (3rd semester)

LATN 2010 Final Translate the following story into idiomatic English: How Sisyphus Eluded Death W... more LATN 2010 Final Translate the following story into idiomatic English: How Sisyphus Eluded Death When the hero Ulysses visited the underworld, one of the characters he saw doomed to perpetual punishment was Sisyphus, king of Corinth, condemned to push a rock up hill for eternity. Just before he reached the top, the rock would slip from his hands and bound down the hill again. Here was his crime: Ita callidus 1 erat Sisyphus ut morte tenērī non posset. Cum mortem venīre sentīret, uxore vocātā, haec dīxit: "Sum philosophus. Aut mors est similis somnō 2 , aut est locus in quō anima, excussō 3 corpore, esse fēlix potest. Timeō nē populus crēdat mē esse pseudophilosopum 4. Inveniāmus cōnsilium. Sī meum corpus in quisquilliās 5 iaciēs 6 1 callidus,-a,-um, clever 2 somnus, ī, m. sleep 3 excutio,-ere,-cussi,-cussum, shake off 4 pseudophilosophus,-ī, fake philosopher 5 quisquilliae,-arum, garbage 6 iacio,-ere, ieci, iactum, throw

Story to accompany Wheelock, Chapter 7

Translate the story into English. Herculem 1 , fīlium Iovis 2 , sine amōre Iūnō 3 , Iovis uxor, d... more Translate the story into English. Herculem 1 , fīlium Iovis 2 , sine amōre Iūnō 3 , Iovis uxor, dē caelō 4 vidēt. "Magna īra mē movet: multī pulchra dōna Herculī dant. Stultī poētae indignōs 5 semper laudant. Propter vitia Herculis meam amīcam, Hydram 6 , in terrā nōn videō. Sine morā poenās dare dēbet!" Vocat Dolorem 7 , magnum deum. "Mī amīce, dā tē Herculī! Propter malōs mōrēs miser esse dēbet." Respondet 8 Dolor, "Habē bonum animum dē homine! Herculī satis malī dabō. In perpetuā pāce esse līber salvusque nōn poterit." Give the case and reason for the case of the underlined words: Case Reason for the Case caelō Hydram amīce Herculī līber 1 Herculēs, -is, m. Hercules 2 Iuppiter, Iōvis, m. Jupiter (king of the gods) 3 Iūnō, -ōnis, f. Juno (queen of the gods) 4 caelum -i, n., sky 5 indignus, -a, um, unworthy 6 Hydra, -ae, f. Hydra (swamp monster) 7 Dolor, doloris, m. Sorrow (in mythology, emotions are gods) 8 respondeo, -ere, answer

In their first adventure, Jason and the Argonauts stop off at the island of Lemnos, where, the pr... more In their first adventure, Jason and the Argonauts stop off at the island of Lemnos, where, the previous year, the women had murdered all the men. As the story opens, Jason introduces himself to the women he finds on the beach. "Sum Iāson 1 , dux 2 Argonautarum 3 . Rēgī ipsī pauca verba dicere cupiō 4 . Sed 5 cur 6 ridētis 7 ?" "Sine rēge vītam beātam agimus," eī feminae dīxerunt. "Heus! 8 ," ūnī fēminae dīxit Iāson 1 , "Duc mē ad tuum tyrannum!"

Latin test for students who have reached Chapter 14 of Wheelock.

This Latin story is based on the introduction to Sophocles' Philoctetes and Himmler's speech to y... more This Latin story is based on the introduction to Sophocles' Philoctetes and Himmler's speech to young Nazis.

Translate this passage into English: Iō 1 , quae ab Iove 2 in vaccam 3 mūtāta erat, in eōdem agrō... more Translate this passage into English: Iō 1 , quae ab Iove 2 in vaccam 3 mūtāta erat, in eōdem agrō diu 4 remanēbat. "Quam misera sum," sibi dīxit. "Vīta fēminae mihi satis mala esse vidēbatur. Nunc 5 mōrēs bovum 6 discere dēbeō. Quid vaccae 3 edunt 7 ? In quibus casīs habitant 8 ? Quis mē docēbit? Vocem 9 hūmānam nōn habeō, quā dē hīs hominem rogāre 10 poterō. Scrībere possum quod pater meus ipse mē litterās docuit. Ō Iō stulta, tē audī! Es vacca! Nemō verba leget quae ā vaccā scripta sunt.

Part 2 (20 pts). Decline rite out bonus rēx, haec puella, omne dōnum in the singular and plural, ... more Part 2 (20 pts). Decline rite out bonus rēx, haec puella, omne dōnum in the singular and plural, including vocative (80 points) In this story Hercules gets another labor.

Translate this story Fīlium Hectoris 1 , parvum puerum, Graecī dē urbis murīs 2 dēiēcērunt 3 . Ho... more Translate this story Fīlium Hectoris 1 , parvum puerum, Graecī dē urbis murīs 2 dēiēcērunt 3 . Hoc erat cōnsilium Ulixī 4 , quī suōs amīcōs monēbat hīs verbīs, "Dēbetne is puer vīvere, ā cuius patre milia nostrōrum necābantur? Dicētis, 'Quod malum facere potest hic puer cuius formā dulcī delectāmur? Nōn

A Latin midterm, based on Euripides' Alcestis

Orpheus, magnus poēta, sibi esse fēlix videbatur. Musae 1 eum docuerant carmina, propter quae Eur... more Orpheus, magnus poēta, sibi esse fēlix videbatur. Musae 1 eum docuerant carmina, propter quae Eurydica eī sē dedit. Sed 2 virgō, quae ā poēta amāta est, ab serpente 3 necāta est. Eurydicā sublātā 4 , omnī gaudiō vītae Orpheī caruit.

A Latin test based on Book 4 of Apollonius' Argonautica

The book argues that Austen secretly got a classical education and based her novels on classical ... more The book argues that Austen secretly got a classical education and based her novels on classical works.

Scholars believe the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5) is archaic, contemporaneous with the other lon... more Scholars believe the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5) is archaic, contemporaneous with the other long Homeric hymns, also thought to be very ancient. Certainly, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo is old since Thucydides attributed it to Homer (3.104), but the other Hymns lack such corroboration. The Hymn to Aphrodite, praised as "carmen Homeri nomine dignissimum," certainly sounds Homeric, but that is because the poet took lines and formulas out of Homer and recombined them. This recombination, Freed and Bentman argued long ago, implies that the writer used written texts.

Underneath the Homeric surface there lurks a modern sensibility. The Hymn has less in common with the Hymn to Apollo than with the Hellenistic Argonautica, the Batrachomyomachia ("Battle of Frogs and Mice"), and even Roman poetry:

... Diss., Berlin, 19611). 10 Gilbert Lawall, &amp;amp;quot;Apollonius&amp;amp;#x27; Argo... more ... Diss., Berlin, 19611). 10 Gilbert Lawall, &amp;amp;quot;Apollonius&amp;amp;#x27; Argonautica: Jason as Anti-Hero,&amp;amp;quot; YCS, 19 (1966), 119-69. 11 Charles R. Beye, &amp;amp;quot;Jason as Love-hero in Apollonios&amp;amp;#x27;Argonautika,&amp;amp;quot; GRBS, 10 (1969), 31-55. 12 Wayne Booth ...

Persuasions; The Jane Austen Journal, 2000

Mary DeForest has a doctorate in classics and teaches Latin at the University of Colorado at Denv... more Mary DeForest has a doctorate in classics and teaches Latin at the University of Colorado at Denver. Besides her work on classical authors, she has published on the classical tradition in modern literature, particularly in the novels of Jane Austen. ********** IN WRITINGS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, words of Greek and Latin proclaimed the message NO GIRLS ALLOWED as emphatically as the sign on a boys' tree house (DeForest 1992). Books written for men confronted the reader with passages in Latin or Greek; books written for women did not. While learned women were treated with hostility, unlearned women were mocked for not knowing what they had been forbidden to study. Consequently, women's feelings about the classics must have been complex. The admiration they were instructed to feel for ancient literature was charged with feelings of exclusion, of inferiority, of injustice. Women novelists who possessed a classical education faced a unique challenge. To ignore classical literature meant losing half the literary tradition; to emphasize classical literature meant losing female readers. If Jane Austen did learn Latin and Greek, neither she nor her family would have publicized this fact. If she wanted to learn either language, she was born into the right family (DeForest 1988). In the eighteenth century, a woman's access to classical learning depended almost entirely on the presence of a sympathetic brother or father. Jane Austen's father and brothers were scholarly, literary, and--most important--her first readers. They assisted her in a far more adventurous enterprise than learning dead languages. Her father tried to find a publisher for her novel in 1797; fourteen years later, her brother Henry succeeded. If her father and brothers encouraged her to write and even to publish, they probably encouraged her intellectual development as well. This meant learning the classical languages. Certainly, they would have taught her as much as she wanted to learn. Her father, who had trained his sons for Oxford, supplemented his income by training other boys. Would he not have taught a gifted child what he taught the sons of other people? It is known that he prized Latin so highly that he almost prevented his son's adoption by a wealthy family: he feared the boy's Latin would suffer. Nevertheless, it would have hurt his career as a clergyman in a conservative community if he flouted convention and let it be known that he had given his daughter a classical education. Out of a similar discretion, he hid his daughter's identity when h e approached the publisher with her book. Classical education would be their secret. That they did share a secret is implied that in a short play Austen dedicated to her father, "The Mystery" (Minor Works 55-57). This one-page play is composed of whispers and allusions, which the characters, inside the story, hear and understand, but which the reader, outside the story, misses. The classical names of two characters, Corydon and Daphne, may allude to the nature of the mystery. The gulf between the worlds inside and outside the text precisely mirrors the gulf separating men and women. Baffled and excluded, the reader of "The Mystery" learns how women feel when men thrust Greek and Latin into the conversation. If George Austen included his daughter among the classically educated, and if his prudence kept her from joining the men on center stage, she reassures him in allegorical language. In the preface, she offers him the "Comedy, which tho' an unfinished one, is I flatter myself, as complete a Mystery as any of its kind." Though her education may never be complete, it will be hidden from the world. In the second volume of her juvenile pieces, she acknowledges his help more openly. She inscribed the first page with ex dono mei patris, "a gift of my father." These words mean more than the paper they are written on. Only one part of the gift was the physical notebook; the other was the ability to compose a Latin inscription. …

Classical Philology, Oct 1, 1991

Eighteenth-century fiction, 1989

Springer eBooks, 2011

This chapter describes how a community-based spelling/language club and spelling competition for ... more This chapter describes how a community-based spelling/language club and spelling competition for adults can provide opportunities for cognitive exercise and strengthening social connections. We also present insights into the experience of competing at an adult national spelling competition, summarize age-related spelling and language errors, describe strategies that enhance spelling skills in adults, and suggest ideas for future research about the

Literary and Linguistic Computing, Nov 1, 2001

... Germanic words. First, he described three terrible events in Germanic language. Then he gave ... more ... Germanic words. First, he described three terrible events in Germanic language. Then he gave Latinate summaries of those events. Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire ...

The Classical World, 1989

... the pathos of Cleopatra&amp;#x27;s situation, but also carry us back through her ancestor... more ... the pathos of Cleopatra&amp;#x27;s situation, but also carry us back through her ancestors to northern Greece, from whose icy fields the Macedonians had poured out to conquer the world. ... 3 See Nisbet and Hubbard, A Commentary on Horace: Odes Book I (Oxford 1970) 415-16. ...

Ariadne's afterlife in Dionysus' café, serving coffee to generations of writers talking to each o... more Ariadne's afterlife in Dionysus' café, serving coffee to generations of writers talking to each other.

Ariadne spends her afterlife in Dionysus' café serving coffee to generations of writers who talk ... more Ariadne spends her afterlife in Dionysus' café serving coffee to generations of writers who talk to each other and exchange ideas.

This is the beginning of a novel about Ariadne. I got the idea years ago when I wrote her story a... more This is the beginning of a novel about Ariadne. I got the idea years ago when I wrote her story as the final exam for first-semester Latin (https://www.academia.edu/121300241/_final_Ariadne)

The papyri carrying Ariadne’s autobiography, with their early Greek translation has been painstak... more The papyri carrying Ariadne’s autobiography, with their early Greek translation has been painstakingly restored, and, over many years, slowly translated from ancient Cretan, to the Greek of Linear B, to classical Greek, to English.

Ariadne was the daughter of the Priestess-Queen of Crete, who, according to Greek mythology, had sex with a bull and produced a baby half bull half man. In reality, Minotaur was human all the way through: half man and half fanatic. His mother sent him on a mission to Egypt, and he came back radicalized. He and his fellow fanatics staged a palace coup against “the royal cat lady.” This failed and the Queen confined him in the palace basement.
Ariadne, the designated Priestess-Queen, was eminently unsuitable for the position of directing the material and spiritual policies of Crete. Nothing displays her frivolous lack of judgment more than her falling in love with Theseus and saving his life.

Ariadne betrays her friends and saves Theseus' life.

Ariadne sails off with the man of her dreams.

The quantum cafe My appointment with Dionysus did not go as I had feared. After sitting me down, ... more The quantum cafe My appointment with Dionysus did not go as I had feared. After sitting me down, he said, "I've noticed several additions to the sacred texts. They are surprisingly good. I showed them to the Queen, who graciously allows you to go on making them." I wondered fleetingly if she knew that I was their author. He gave me a piercing glance. "It must be your experiences on Atlantis. You bring a new dimension to Mar's praises, an appreciation of the world she created as seen through the eyes of people who work with nature, specifically with herbs, cats, and bulls. Have you thought of branching out on your own? Create a whole new narrative, another way to praise the goddess." After I heard Theseus's version of our breakup, I did want to tell my side of the story. I wanted to warn people in the future not to repeat my mistakes. "I guess everyone wants their story to be known. But who would hear it?" "I created a café where wordsmiths hang out. They come from all times, past, present, future. They meet, they talk, then they go back to their own time zones. You'd like them. They look different, they dress different, they speak different languages, but many remind me of you." "I haven't finished anything, though." "That's O.K. They hadn't either, when they started coming there. Come, see it." I digested this. "You mean that there is a café where writers from all over the world and from the past, present, and future, gather and talk to each other. And you know this because you are…?"

Ariadne engineers Phaedra's escape from Athens and helps Theseus come up with a story condemning ... more Ariadne engineers Phaedra's escape from Athens and helps Theseus come up with a story condemning crooked Phaedra.

I have found the metaphor of the body as a woven cloth (the literal meaning of tissue) in Greek, ... more I have found the metaphor of the body as a woven cloth (the literal meaning of tissue) in Greek, Latin, and English. Does this metaphor exist in other languages?

This paper finds parallels between Thanksgiving and sacred feasts of antiquity.

This paper explores the mythology underlying the game of baseball.

The Latinometer (TM) is a web application that measures the Latinity of a piece of English prose ... more The Latinometer (TM) is a web application that measures the Latinity of a piece of English prose at www.latinometer.com.

Introductory Remarks This is the first of a five-part series of letters written by my mother, Har... more Introductory Remarks
This is the first of a five-part series of letters written by my mother, Harriet Frances Zetterberg Margolies, a prosecuting attorney at the Nuremburg Trials.

Part 1: College, Graduate School, and Teaching High School in Rice Lake, Wisconsin (1929-1937)
Part 2: Law School at U. of Wisconsin and a year as Sterling Fellow at Yale (1938-1942)
Part 3: Washington,D.C. London and Nuremburg (1942-1946)
Part 4: Motherhood and Work as a Lawyer ($2.50/hour) (1946-1950)
Part 5: Appendix: essays she wrote at Carleton; copies of pages from her high-school yearbook; rules for a diplomat’s wife

Please consider this not as a finished work, but as a source. The transcription from letter to scan to Microsoft Word generated many errors that eluded my eye and the proofreading applications. For example, some paragraphs were chipped off and I found one howler: “I had cooties for breakfast” instead of cookies (since corrected).

I will put the pdfs of the original documents onto my University site and gladly share them with anyone interested. (My email: mary.deforest@ucdenver.edu)

Mother adopted British spelling—e.g., rumour calibre—(on. p. 256 of Part 1, she identified herself as British). I left in the typographical errors when I saw them unless they were repeated regularly (for example, marvellous, desert for dessert, or her various versions of broccoli.)

Until August, 1944 I refer to Mother as HFZ in the index; after her marriage, she becomes HZM.

I’ve adopted 3 type faces: Courier New for transcriptions of typed letters; Chalkboard for written letters; Times New Roman for my additions; “q” added to the date indicates uncertainty

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the librarians and archivists who helped me identify many of the people mentioned in the letters:

Sarah Lerud, Librarian, Valley City Jr. Sr. High School
Loree Morehouse, Valley City State University
Amy Gragg, Carleton College
Sarah M. Walker, Head of Reference Services, North Dakota State Archives
Jennifer Barth, Reference Archivist, Wisconsin Historical Society

Harold and Margaret Pfohl, The Book of Ancestors: In Memory of Sam Hill and Jean Zetterberg for Their Descendants, a very informative book filled with pictures illustrating HFZ’s childhood and the history of North Dakota.

People mentioned from Valley City, ND, HFZ's home town, Carleton College, HFZ's BA, University ... more People mentioned from Valley City, ND, HFZ's home town, Carleton College, HFZ's BA,
University of Wisconsin, HFZ's MA:
Mary G. Deem
Fanny Amidon
Beulah Amidon Ratliff
Elizabeth Cowling
Isobel Milton Cerny
Emily Exner Chi
Beatrice Exner Liu
Abigail Hoffsommer
Ian Holbourn
Thomas Job
William Watson, Carleton '33, killed over China, 1945

Please see introduction to Harriet Zetterberg Margolies, Part 1. The letters here describe her li... more Please see introduction to Harriet Zetterberg Margolies, Part 1. The letters here describe her life as a Law Student at University of Wisconsin, Madison and her year at Yale as the first woman awarded a Sterling Fellowship.

People mentioned by Harriet Francis Zetterberg (later Margolies) in letters to her mother 1938-19... more People mentioned by Harriet Francis Zetterberg (later Margolies) in letters to her mother 1938-1942, notably:
Kate Wallach
Elizabeth Cowling
Ernst and Erma Schopflocher
John Frank
McCarroll, William, “Bill” of “Bill and George” from Canada
Kleiner, George, “Bill and George”
Effland, Richard, “Dick”
Abigail Hoffsommer
Isobel Milton Cerny
Edwin Cerny