This painting depicts Jason and Medea; it was painted by Gustave Moreau in 1865 and can be seen at the Louvre Museum in Paris. From: timeless myths.com
a)
Dum autem ea geruntur, Argonautae, quí ad mare relictí erant, ánxió animó reditum Iásonis exspectábant; id enim negótium summí esse perículí intellegébant. Postquam igitur ad occásum sólis frústrá exspectávérunt, dé éius salúte déspéráre coepérunt, nec dubitábant quín aliquí cásus accidisset. Quae cum ita essent, mátúrandum sibi cénsuérunt, ut ducí auxilium ferrent; sed dum proficíscí parant, lúmen quoddam subitó cónspiciunt mírum in modum intrá silvás refulgéns, et mágnopere mírátí quae causa esset éius reí ad locum concurrunt. Quó cum vénissent, Iásoní et Médéae advenientibus occurrérunt, et vellus aureum lúminis éius causam esse cógnóvérunt. Omní timóre sublátó mágnó cum gaudió ducem suum excépérunt, et dís grátiás máximás égérunt quod rés tam félíciter événisset.
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.
ea – this is the neuter plural of the demonstrative pronoun is, ea, id and so in this context means ‘these things’.
geruntur – third person present passive plural of gerere, ‘are being carried out’; notice the present tense is used whereas in English we would use the past tense.
Aronautae – plural nominative of the Masculine noun argonauta which like nauta and a few other masculine nouns (agricola ‘farmer’ and auriga ‘charioteer’ come to mind) look feminine and are declined exactly as feminine nouns of the first declension but must take adjectives in the masculine form.
ad mare – ‘by the sea’ notice that the preposition ad doesn’t always mean ‘towards’ but can, as here, mean ‘by’ or ‘near’.
anxio animo – ablative, literally ‘with an axious mind’ but we would say ‘anxiously’.
exspectabant – they were waiting, third person plural imperfect tense to describe the state of the argonauts.
id .. negotium – id, neuter accusative demonstrative adjective ‘that’, agrees with the neuter noun negotium, ‘that business’.
summi periculi – literally ‘of the greatest danger’ but we would probably say ‘very dangerous’ or ‘extremely dangerous’.
esse – notice that here we have the accusative infinitive construct after intellegebant ‘they knew’ + that business to be – id negotium esse.
ad occasum solis – ‘at sunset’.
quin .. accidisset – quin ‘but that’ is followed here by the subjunctive subjunctive accisset ‘had happened’.
aliqui casus – aliqui the masculine form of the indefinite adjective ‘some’ (aliqui, aliqua, aliquod), agrees with casus, -us the fourth declension masculine noun meaning, fall, chance, or accident, so together they mean ‘some accident’.
Quae cum ita essent – this phrase is quite commonly used to mean ‘things being so’ or ‘as this was the case’ (literally it means ‘which things since so they were’).
maturandum sibi – maturandum is called the impersonal passive meaning ‘it ought to be hurried’ and together with sibi, the dative of the agent meaning ‘by them’ means quite literally means 'haste ought to be made by them' but we would probably translate as ‘they should hurry’ or 'they ought to hasten'.
censuerunt – third person plural perfect indicative of censeo, censere, censui, census, ‘think, believe, consider’.
ut .. ferrent – ut here introduces a purpose clause, in order that, so is followed by the third person plural imperfect subjunctive ‘ so that they might bring’ etc.
duci – dative of the third declension masculine noun dux, ducis meaning ‘to the leader’, we have translated ‘to their leader’ as in Latin the possessive (my, your, his, their etc) is often not expressed when it is obvious.
dum parant – dum ‘while’ followed by a present tense in Latin ‘they are getting ready’ is translated by the past in English.
profisci – infinitive of the deponent verb ‘to set out’.
magnopere mirati – the adverb magnopere ‘greatly’ from the adjective magnus with the plural of the perfect participle miratus, 'wondering at.' The perfect participle of deponent verbs is often best rendered into English by a present participle.
quae causa esset – ‘what the cause was’.
lumen quoddam – nominative case of the neuter noun lumen, inis, ‘light’ with the neuter nominative of the adjective quidam, quaedam, quoddam, ‘a certain’.
eius rei – genitive of the demonstrative adjective is together with the genitive of the fifth decelnsion noun re, meaning together ‘of this matter’ or ‘of this thing’.
quo cum venissent – quo ‘to that place’, cum ‘when, venissent, third person pluperfect subjunctive after cum, ‘they had come’, altogether meaning ‘when they arrived at the place’.
Iasoni et Medeae – I expect you are wondering why these nouns are in the Dative case; it is quite simply because the verb occurere (to run into, come across, to meet, to meet on the way) takes the Dative and so Iasoni et Medeae occurerent means ‘they came across Jason and Medea’.
advenientibus – the ablative plural of the present active participle ‘as they were arriving’ from the verb advenire ‘to arrive, reach’.
timore sublato – ablative absolute, ablative of the noun timor ‘fear’, with the ablative of the perfect participle sublatus ‘wiped out, erased, removed’ together meaning something like ‘with their fear having been removed’.
cognoverunt – third person plural perfect of cognosco, -gnoscere, -gnoví, -gnitus, come to know, find out, learn, meaning therefore ‘they found out, they realised’ follwed by Accusative Infinitive; vellus aureum - the golden fleece, esse - to be, causam - the cause ,luminis eius - of this light etc.
magno cum gaudio – notice that the preposition is sandwiched between the adjective and noun ‘with great joy’.
evenisset – ‘it had turned out’, third person singular pluperfect subjunctive from the fourth conjugation verb evenio, -venire, -veni, -ventus, come out; turn out, happen, befall etc. following ‘tam’ which we know is a signal word indicating a result clause requiring the subjunctive.
dis – dis is the usual form of the dative and ablative plural of deus ‘god’, here it is dative ‘to the gods’ required with gratias egere meaning ‘to give thanks’.
c)
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.
Dum autem ea geruntur,
Now while these things were going on,
Argonautae, qui ad mare relicti erant,
the Argonauts, who had been left by the sea,
anxio animo reditum Iasonis exspectabant;
were anxiously awaiting the return of Jason;
id enim negotium summi esse periculi intellegebant.
for they understood this business to be very dangerous.
Postquam igitur ad occasum solis frustra exspectaverunt,
And so after they waited in vain towards sunset,
de eius salute desperare coeperunt,
of his safety they began to despair,
nec dubitabant quin
and they did not doubt that
aliqui casus accidisset.
some accident had happened.
Quae cum ita essent,
Since things were so,
maturandum sibi censuerunt,
they decided they should hasten,
ut duci auxilium ferrent;
to bring help to their leader;
sed dum proficisci parant,
but while they prepared to set out,
lumen quoddam subito conspiciunt
they saw a certain light suddenly
mirum in modum intra silvas refulgens,
in a wonderful way within the woods shining,
et magnopere mirati
and greatly astonished
quae causa esset eius rei
what the cause was of this
ad locum concurrunt.
they ran together to the place.
Quo cum venissent,
And when they had reached it,
Iasoni et Medeae advenientibus occurrerunt,
they met Jason and Medea arriving.
et vellus aureum
and the golden fleece
luminis eius causam esse cognoverunt.
they realised to be the cause of this light.
Omni timore sublato
All fear being removed
magno cum gaudio
with great joy
ducem suum exceperunt,
they welcomed thier leader,
et dis gratias maximas egerunt
and gave great thanks to the gods
quod res tam feliciter evenisset.
that things had turned out so happily.
d) The following section is for you to copy and compose your own translation.
Dum autem ea geruntur,
Argonautae, qui ad mare relicti erant,
anxio animo reditum Iasonis exspectabant;
id enim negotium summi esse periculi intellegebant.
Postquam igitur ad occasum solis frustra exspectaverunt,
de eius salute desperare coeperunt,
nec dubitabant quin
aliqui casus accidisset.
Quae cum ita essent,
maturandum sibi censuerunt,
ut duci auxilium ferrent;
sed dum proficisci parant,
lumen quoddam subito conspiciunt
mirum in modum intra silvas refulgens,
et magnopere mirati
quae causa esset eius rei
ad locum concurrunt.
Quo cum venissent,
Iasoni et Medeae advenientibus occurrerunt,
et vellus aureum
luminis eius causam esse cognoverunt.
Omni timore sublato
magno cum gaudio
ducem suum exceperunt,
et dis gratias maximas egerunt
quod res tam feliciter evenisset.
