Chapter 22 Reading Comprehension
(A Visit from the Young Interns) Centum me tetigere manus aquiline gelatae: non habui febrem, Symmache, nunc habeo!
A hundred hands chilled by the North wind have touched me I did not have a fever, Symmachus, now I do!
(Alexander the Great and the Power of Literature) Explain what Alexander felt had made Achilles so fortunate, despite his legendary early death.
Alexander says that Achilles name is perpetual through literature.
(Alexander the Great and the Power of Literature) Magnus ille Alexander multos scriptores factorum suorum secum habebat. Is enim ante tumulum Achilllis olim stetit et dixit haec verba: "Fuisti fortunatus, O adulscens, quod Homerum laudatorem virtutis tuae invenisti"
Alexander the Great always had many writers of his own deeds with him. Indeed he once stood before the tomb of Achilles and said these words: "You were fortunate, O youth/young man , because you found Homer the praiser of your virtue.
(Alexander the Great and the Power of Literature) Et vere! Nam, sine Illiade illa, idem tumulus et corpus eius et nomen obruere potuit. Nihil corpus humanum conservare potest; sed litterae magnae nomen viri magnia saepe conservare possunt
And truly! For, without the Illiad, the same tomb was able to bury both his body and name. Nothing is able to save the human body; but great literature is often able to preserve the name of a great man.
(Alexander the Great and the Power of Literature)What point does Cicero draw from this anecdote, how was it appropriate to his own political position, and would a US senator today likely agree?
Cicero's position is that Achias should keep his Roman citizenship because people could be made immortal through his writing.
(On Ambition and Literature, Both Latin and Greek) Explain the author's point in comparing the advantages of Greek and Latin literature- is his point surprising to you? Why or why not?
He says that they both make men have eternal fame except Greek literature is more wide-spread than Latin. This is surprising because he is a Latin writer and this was written in Latin, and it is still well known. (fun fact: lingua franca: Greek then Latin then French)
(Alexander the Great and the Power of Literature) Why did Cicero create this speech?
He was defending his friend Archias, a Greek poet, against challenges to his Roman citizenship. He argues that poets make people immortal in their writing, so this is why Archias should stay.
(On Ambition and Literature, Both Latin and Greek) Poetae per litteras hominibus magnam perpetuamque famam dare possunt; multi viri, igitur, litteras de suis rebus scribe cupiunt.
Poets can give great and everlasting fame through literature to men/humans; many men, therefore, desire literature to be written about their own affairs.
(On Ambition and Literature, Both Latin and Greek) Identify the device of word order seen in both "trahimur omnes...multi...ducentur" and "leguntur in omnibus fere gentibus.... in finibus suit continentur". What is the writer's purpose in employing this arrangement"
Word order is reverse word order, a device called chiasmus. The purpose is to make Greek appear good and the word order helps because the sentences are contained within the actions?? THE WORD LATIN IS LITERALLY CONTAINED WITHIN THE SURROUNDING WORDS
(On Ambition and Literature, Both Latin and Greek) What is Cicero's initial observation regarding the benefits that literature can provide an ambitious man?- how does this compare with the anecdote he relates about Alexander elsewhere in the speech?
Cicero initial observation is that men can gain everlasting fame trough literature. This compares with the anecdote he relates to Alexander because he said that Alexander had writers writing about his deeds and alexander praised Achillles for the writing about him. Alexander agreed with this idea that literature preserves the lives of men.
(A Visit from the Young Interns) Languebam: sed tu comitatus protinus ad me venisti centum, Symmache, dicipulis.
I was sick: but you accompanied by a hundred students came to me immediately, Symmachus
Explain the name Symmachus in "A Visit from the Young Interns"
It the name of this doctor, a med school "professor", is Greek, which adds an ethnic slur to the piece, not uncommon in Roma satire
(A Visit from the Young Interns) The disjointedness of the phrases "conmitatus...centum...discipulis" and "centum...manus...gelatae" is deliberate; which pairs of words are emphasized and what is the purpose?
The pairs of words that are emphasized are 100 hands and 100 students. it is staggered because the poking of the hands is interruptive just like the word order (interruptive words reflects the physical prodding)
( A Visit from the Young Interns) Comment on the arrangement of the adverb-verb phrases in the last verse and how the word order helps underscore the punch-line
The phrases "nunc habeo" and "non habui" are polyptoton (same word in a different form). This empathizes the word and that he DIDNT have a fever and now he DOES. It is a play on the tenses
(On Ambition and Literature, Both Latin and Greek) Trahimur omnes studio laudis et multi Gloria ducuntur, quae aut in litteris Graecis aut Latinis inveniri potest. Qui, autem, videt multum fructum gloriae in versibus Latinus sed non in Graecis, nimium errat, quod litterae Graecae leguntur in omnibus fere gentibus, sed Latinae in finibus suis continentur.
We are all drawn by the pursuit of praise and many are lead by glory, which is able to be found in either Greek or Latin Literature. However, the person who sees much enjoyment of glory in Latin Literature, but not Greek, errs too much, because Greek literature is read in almost all nations, but Latin is contained in its own territory
Meter of "A Visit from the Young Interns"
elegiac couplet
