Culture
Laocoön and the Horse
Trojan Horse - Burial Pithos, c. 670 BC, Archaeological Museum of Mykonos, Greece
This narrative, adapted from Aeneid 2.13-52, may seem stuffed to bursting with participles—yet the frequency with which you see them here is about comparable to their occurrence in most prose and poetry. After you have read over the story, do this assessment.
Questions
Find examples in the story of the following forms:
a) two examples of a present active participle. Identify the gender, number, and case of the participle; explain whether it is functioning as a substantive, purely adjectivally, or as a verbal adjective. If the participle has an object or objects, write these out.
b) two examples of a present active participle that is not being used to make an indicative form (i.e. a participle without an associated form of sum). Identify the gender, number, and case of the participle; explain whether it is functioning as a substantive, or purely adjectivally.
c) two examples of a future active participle. Identify the gender, number, and case of the participle; explain whether it is functioning as a substantive, purely adjectivally, or as a verbal adjective. If the participle has an object or objects, write these out.
Watching the Orator at Work
from Brutus 200, 290
The Brutus is a treatise in the form of a philosophical dialogue and is set ca. 46 BCE. The Brutus came down from antiquity in a single manuscript that was known in the 1420s, copied, and subsequently lost. It is not a speech, but a treatise on oratory. It is of immeasurable historical importance for it discusses orators about whom we would otherwise know very little.
Indeed the speeches of Cicero himself, the greatest Roman orator, did not survive intact. It is estimated that about 95% of all ancient Greek and Roman literature has perished. While the extant works of Cicero are numerous, numerous as well are the lost and fragmentary works. We are aware of 58 extant speeches, 80 speeches that are completely lost, and up to twenty speeches which are known only from citations.
After you have listened to and read the selection from the Brutus in your Thirty-Eight Latin Stories, answer the questions below.
Questions
1. From the first paragraph, describe three things that happpen when a great orator rises to speak.
2. From the second paragraph, describe two things that happen when a mediocre orator is speaking.
3. Find from anywhere in the reading, and list by line number, one participle used purely substantively.