Small things
One of the sadder things about getting older is realising that you've forgotten a lot of the detail of the things you learnt at school. I studied Latin for five years a long time ago now and am often extremely disappointed that I cannot immediately translate the Latin mottos of major institutions. This isn't entirely my fault because a lot of these tags are three or four words from extremely complicated and literary poetry taken out of context without a verb sometimes. Or so I console myself.
A decade ago, the first time I visited Melbourne, I saw "vires acquirit eundo", the city's motto, on lots of signs and bridges and wondered what it meant, thinking it was something about acquiring men or strength but I was utterly stumped by "eundo".
I visited Melbourne on the week-end and was similarly stumped but this time I wrote it down, went home and looked it up in my dictionary. And it wasn't there. This made me realise that it was one of THOSE words, the complicated irregular verb forms that I studied by rote as a 13 year old and knew extremely well for years and years. ( eg I remember meeting a then current latin student at a party when I was 23 and even after several beers I knew more of them than he did). I thought my memory was immortal. But it isn't.
However, thanks to this site (thank you internet) I know that the quote is from Virgil and means "it gathers strength as it goes". Great mottto for a baby city you'd think.
Unfortunately, I do remember my teachers telling me that the context of quotes is also pretty important. In this instance, Virgil was talking about the power of rumour, getting stronger as it travels through several people. Good motto for a gossip columnist but NOT a good motto for a city I would have thought. Especially when the rumour was about an extramarital relationship between Queen Dido and Aeneas that ended in tears (and literally in her funeral pyre after killing herself when he left Carthage for his destiny to found Rome).
So I'm quietly amused by these pompous Victorians putting these words all over the place.
extremely quietly.
A decade ago, the first time I visited Melbourne, I saw "vires acquirit eundo", the city's motto, on lots of signs and bridges and wondered what it meant, thinking it was something about acquiring men or strength but I was utterly stumped by "eundo".
I visited Melbourne on the week-end and was similarly stumped but this time I wrote it down, went home and looked it up in my dictionary. And it wasn't there. This made me realise that it was one of THOSE words, the complicated irregular verb forms that I studied by rote as a 13 year old and knew extremely well for years and years. ( eg I remember meeting a then current latin student at a party when I was 23 and even after several beers I knew more of them than he did). I thought my memory was immortal. But it isn't.
However, thanks to this site (thank you internet) I know that the quote is from Virgil and means "it gathers strength as it goes". Great mottto for a baby city you'd think.
Unfortunately, I do remember my teachers telling me that the context of quotes is also pretty important. In this instance, Virgil was talking about the power of rumour, getting stronger as it travels through several people. Good motto for a gossip columnist but NOT a good motto for a city I would have thought. Especially when the rumour was about an extramarital relationship between Queen Dido and Aeneas that ended in tears (and literally in her funeral pyre after killing herself when he left Carthage for his destiny to found Rome).
So I'm quietly amused by these pompous Victorians putting these words all over the place.
extremely quietly.
posted by Mary Bennet | 3:31 pm
1 Comments:
Hey I found you because I am reading Peter ackroyd's Frankenstein and quite enjoying it, so I looked up Honk if you are Jesus which I remember quite enjoying though it was also a bit silly (like this one) and I found your blog... i like the way you write so I read about Peter Carey and agreed with you (not much below a good surface style) and then I read your bit about Latin and wanted to share this with you (which I learned in year 10 a million years ago):
Popoculus nata sum, Popoculus nata sum
Pugnabo ad finem quod edero spinem
Popoculus nata sum!
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