This picture is of a painting by John William Waterhouse of Jason and medea.
b)
Some words have been chosen for special consideration and are listed below. For the words not included in this list please refer to the WORDLIST in PAGES TOP RIGHT SIDE BAR. If you need help with points of grammar raised in today's excerpt, consult ESSENTIAL GRAMMAR NOTES also top right side bar.
c)
adamavit – third person singular perfect tense of ad-amo, -amare, -amavi, -amatus, ‘feel love for, fall in love with’ meaning therefore ‘she fell in love with’.
subiturum esse – After the verb audire, a verb of sense perception, we require the Accusative Infinitive construction in Latin. Here we find a composite future infinitive of the verb subeo ‘to endure, to undergo etc.’ which is made up of the future active participle of subeo and the infinitive esse. We would express this probably as ‘when she learned that he was going to be put in such danger’ but in Latin if we think of it in accusative infinitive terms literally we have ‘when she learned him going to be enduring such danger’ which is ‘eum subiturum esse’.
rem aegre ferebat – literally ‘the matter badly she took/carried’ but we would probably say something like 'she was greatly distressed' or more colloquially, ‘she took it very badly’.
patrem suum – ‘her father’, don’t forget that the possessive adjective agrees with the thing possessed not the possessor so patrem suum can mean his father or her father, unlike English where we have ‘her father’ and ‘his father’ which changes depending on whether the possesor is feminine or madculine.
proposuisse – perfect infinitive of the verb propono, proponere, proposui, propositus, ‘put or set before, offer, propose; set forth, say’. Intellegebat ‘she knew’ is a verb of mental percecption which requires the accusative infinitive in Latin. In English we would probably express the following idea as ‘she knew that he had proposed etc’ but when we think this in terms of the accusative and infinitive we get ‘she knew him to have proposed this etc.’ which is closer to the construction we have in Latin.
Consilium iniit - consilium, -i , neuter noun of the second declension meaning advice; plan, design, purpose; prudence, with the third person perfect of ineo, inire in-eo, -ire, -ii, -itus, go into, enter; adopt. together meaning ‘she adopted the plan’ or ‘she hatched the plan’.
quae cum ita essent - 'and this being the case,' 'and so,' literally 'since which things were so.'
scientiam medicinae – knowledge of the art of healing. Medicinae is the objective genitive.of the first declension feminine noun medicína, -ae , art of healing, medicine.
Media nocte – ablative of time when ‘in the middle of the night’.
insciente patre - ablative absolute, 'without the knowledge of her father,' insciente is ablative of the present participle insciens ‘not knowing’ and patre ablative of the noun pater ‘father’.
venit.- Postquam is regularly followed by the perfect or present indicative, but the English translation usually requires the pluperfect, ‘she had come’.
carpsit – third person singular perfect tense of the verb carpo, -ere, -si, -tus, pluck.
suco expresso – ablative absolute ‘when she had squeezed out the juice’; suco is ablative of the second declension noun sucus, -i , juice and expresso the ablative of the past participle expressus from the verb exprimo, exprimere, expressi, expressus, ‘press out’.
aleret – third person singular imperfect subjunctive, he/she/it might nourish, from alo, -ere, -ui, -tus, nourish.
nervos – masculine plural accusative of the second declension noun nervus, -i, sinew, muscle.
quod ... confirmaret - a relative clause of purpose, quod vi sua corpus aleret nervosque confirmaret’ literally means ‘which with its force to nourish the body and strengthen the sinews’.
hoc facto – ablative absolute, ‘when this had been done.’
eo die quo – ablative of time when, ‘on that day when’.
oblineret – third person singular imperfect subjunctive of the verb oblino, -linere, -levi, -litus, ‘daub over, smear’. This is an example of a verb in a clause of indirect command ‘she ordered .. that .. he smear’.
magnitudine et viribus - ablative of specification.
antecellebat – third person singular imperfect tense of antecello, -cellere, ‘surpass, excel’.
omnibus hominibus ... antecellebat- omnibus hominibus is dative case as they are governed by the verb antecellebat, a compound verb from ante + cellare.
Note: This section is not translated into idiomatic English but is intended, together with the notes, to give you the gist of the meaning; you can then come up with your own improved translation.
Medea, regis filia, Iasonem adamavit,
Media the king’s daughter, was in love with Jason,
et ubi audivit
and when she heard
eum tantum periculum subiturum esse,
that he was going to face such great danger,
rem aegre ferebat.
she took it badly.
Intellegebat enim patrem suum
for she knew that her father
hunc laborem proposuisse eo ipso consilio,
proposed this task with the very intention,
ut Iason moreretur.
that Jason should die.
Quae cum ita essent, Medea,
As this was so, Medea,
quae summam scientiam medicinae habebat,
who had very great knowledge of the healing arts,
hoc consilium iniit.
adopted this plan.
Media nocte insciente patre
In the middle of the night, without her father knowing
ex urbe evasit,
she got away from the town,
et postquam in montis finitimos venit,
and after she had come into the border mountains
herbas quasdam carpsit;
she picked certain herbs;
tum suco expresso unguentum paravit
then having squeezed the juice she made an ointment
quod vi sua corpus aleret
which with its strength might nourish the body
nervosque confirmaret.
and strengthen the sinews.
Hoc facto Iasoni unguentum dedit;
Having done this she gave the ointment to Jason;
praecepit autem ut eo die
and she ordered that on that day
quo isti labores conficiendi essent
when those tasks were to be accomplished
corpus suum et arma mane oblineret.
in the morning, he should smear his body and weapons.
Iason etsi paene omnibus hominibus
Jason though almost all men
magnitudine et viribus corporis
in size and strength of body
antecellebat (vita enim omnis in venationibus
he excelled (for all his life in hunting
atque in studio rei militaris consumebatur),
and in the pursuit of military affairs he had spent),
tamen hoc consilium non neglegendum esse censebat.
still he considered this advice should not be ignored.
d) The following section is for you to copy and translate.
Medea, regis filia, Iasonem adamavit,
et ubi audivit
eum tantum periculum subiturum esse,
rem aegre ferebat.
Intellegebat enim patrem suum
hunc laborem proposuisse eo ipso consilio,
ut Iason moreretur.
Quae cum ita essent, Medea,
quae summam scientiam medicinae habebat,
hoc consilium iniit.
Media nocte insciente patre
ex urbe evasit,
et postquam in montis finitimos venit,
herbas quasdam carpsit;
tum suco expresso unguentum paravit
quod vi sua corpus aleret
nervosque confirmaret.
Hoc facto Iasoni unguentum dedit;
praecepit autem ut eo die
quo isti labores conficiendi essent
corpus suum et arma mane oblineret.
Iason etsi paene omnibus hominibus
magnitudine et viribus corporis
antecellebat (vita enim omnis in venationibus
atque in studio rei militaris consumebatur),
tamen hoc consilium non neglegendum esse censebat.
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