Thursday, November 29, 2007

People have been missing out

So, I just remembered that there was a Latin blog today and that I had never checked it out...BOY HAVE I BEEN MISSING OUT! And so is anyone else who hasn't looked into it. I went back and looked at some of the posts from like September when we started doing subjunctives. *ugh* The subjunctive chart that Dr. Manolaraki posted would have helped me SO much! Well, I guess it's better to have stumbled upon this now than never at all. But, seriously, it's an awesome blog site with so much fun Latin information---New + Old. It's good to see that there is a community of people out there who have a mutual respect for, what is in my opinion, the most difficult but rewarding language out there. I think we can all agree that there is this indescribable sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you actually translate something difficult correctly!

-Anne L.

PS. Rachael, I had no idea how artistically talented you are. I was actually admiring the plaque in Dr. M's office today, totally unaware that you had created it. It caught my attention bc Minerva is my favorite of the ancient gods. Anyway, it's awesome. (I say awesome a lot.)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Latin Get-Together

While I'm thinking about it...

Been talking to some of last year's Latin 1 students and we want to try to get together for lunch or something sometime before the end of the semester... Maybe on the weekend before Finals Week? I dunno... Sometime before everyone starts going back to their own hometowns for the holidays certainly... But I want to get the ball rolling on discussing this, so... What does everyone think about this?


~Rachael
I've been following the WGA strike. And today, pictures were posted of a fake exorcism of the studios, staged by a groupd of horror tv writers... Pictures here.

They dressed up like nuns and priests and had incense, bullhorns, strike signs and copies of the Rituale Romanum exorcism...

LOL!

~Rachael

Addendum: There's video too...



No Latin in it (::sad face::), but they do read something that is mostly a translation from the Latin ritual (with a few strike-related additions) and they are total dorks in the most wonderfully geeky way...

Monday, November 26, 2007

Another Blog for G-Hos

Hey everyone. I was just wondering if anyone loves latin like I do. I honestly look forward to going to class EVERYDAY and seeing my friends.Holla back if ya feel me.lol im dumb i know

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Ancient find in Rome

I just saw on the internet that archeologists have found an underground grotto that the ancient Romans believed was the place where a mother wolf nursed the founder of Rome, Romulus and his twin Remus.

They have been checking it out for 2 years, they have had to use small cameras because it is partially caved in and they are afraid it will collapse the rest of the way if they try to dig it out.

Here's the link http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/11/20/birth.of.rome.ap/index.html

Hope everyone has a relaxing Thanksgiving. See you Monday.

Tracy

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Gregs Blog

Latin is a tough but essential class in my schedule. Mrs. Manolarki makes the material easy to learn. I am definitly happy that i took this class rather than another foriegn language

Saturday, November 10, 2007

More Supernatural Latin...

This time it's a ritual to raise a spirit from the dead...

But first a little background so the scene will make a bit more sense. The woman with Sam and Dean in this scene is named Bela. She's a thief who specializes in stealing artifacts that have occult applications. Sam and Dean really kind of hate her, and in a previous episode, she shot Sam in the shoulder... which did not make them like her any more than they already didn't... But the boys, having been raised right, can't just let her die when the ghost of a dead sailor targets her. The ghost is also why the brothers are in town because people have been dying after seeing a ghost ship in the harbor at night. He kills by making people drown... kind of from the inside out, as you'll see in the video. The reason he's after Bela is that she stole his hand, which had been cut off and turned into a hand-of-glory after he was hanged at sea by his own brother. Bela, it seems, has also killed someone in her family and that's the *real* reason she's being targetted by the ghost... that's why everyone the ghost has killed was targetted. They all spilled family blood... But Sam has an idea that might save Bela's life and end the killings for good... and he needs the magical power of Latin to do it... :D



And because this episode was a lot of fun, secondary non-Latin-type-stuff:



~Rachael

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Exorcism: Serious Business


As Socrates said a while back, "the more I know, the more I realize how little I know." I started thinking about that movie, next thing I know I find out that there are two kinds of exorcisms, deprecatory and imprecatory. What Dean does is an imprecatory (direct) exorcism, which the Catholic church specifically forbids for lay persons, according to this information. Clearly, not only did he not pay attention to Latin class, but he took upon himself the task of an ordained priest! Check it out, it also has a Latin formula (danger: do NOT try this at home--hear me, Rachael?). I am attaching here the most shocking scene of the movie---the exorcisms in which are in English. That was my only disappointment with Father Karras, he didn't seem to know any Latin!


Exorcism

There are two common kinds of exorcisms. Deprecatory and Imprecatory. Lay people should not do public imprecatory exorcisms.

Note: There is some disagreement about whether it is OK to give a devil a direct command in the name of Jesus (i.e., "Satan I command you in the name of Jesus to leave me") when it is dealing with our own person or our family. The Vatican web site contains no information about this, nor does the Catechism or Otto's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. If the Magisterium (Pope's office) issues any kind of statement or directive on this I will post it. I have heard compelling arguments on both sides. Personally, until I hear otherwise I will ask Jesus to deliver me rather than talk directly to the bad guy.

Deprecatory Exorcism
The first kind of exorcism is called a deprecatory exorcism (for example the Lord's Prayer) where we ask God, his angels and Saints to cast out the evil one. This does not involve a direct command to the devil. This is the only kind of exorcism which lay people should perform. The Church encourages us to do this. One of the best is the prayer of St. Michael the Archangel:

ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

(Latin Version) Sancte Míchael Archángele, defénde nos in proélio contra nequítiam et insídias diáboli esto præsídium. Imperet illi Deus, súpplices deprecámur: tuque, princeps milítiæ cæléstis, Sátanam aliósque spíritus malígnos, qui ad perditiónem animárum pervagántur in mundo, divína virtúte, In inférnum detrude. Amen

(English Version) Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen


Imprecatory Exorcism
The 2nd kind is what we might have seen in the movie the exorcist. It is to be performed only by a Priest who has been given permission by a Bishop. It is below. It is called an imprecatory exorcism. And it involves a direct command to the devil (to leave the person or article - for example).
What has Latin done for me lately? Not much, but I sure do miss it.
Stacey B.
Yeah... I found clips from Linda Blair's Supernatural episode: "The Usual Suspects." She plays a cop. And since this video has scenes from throughout the episode, you can almost follow the story... Enjoy!




~Rachael

Saturday, November 3, 2007

A friend of mine asked me this on my own blog today, and I thought I'd check with you, professor, about it...

She said:
"Illegitimi non carborundum" is supposedly something like "Don't let the bastards grind you down", but since I don't speak Latinish, I wouldn't know. :P

So is that what that means? Told her I'd double-check with you.


~Rachael

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Roman Ghosts

The Romans knew all about Halloween, or, at least the thrill of being scared and what ghosts are. Get this letter from the senator and historian Pliny, who lived in the beginning of the second century CE. This is the same guy who saw Mt. Vesuvius explode but he decided to stick at home and do his Latin homework on LIvy instead.

What an example to inspire you! Here is the letter:

BOOK SEVEN
LETTER 27

TO SURA



THE present recess from business affords you leisure to give, and me to receive, instruction. I am extremely desirous therefore to know your sentiments concerning spectres, whether you believe they actually exist and have their own proper shapes and a measure of divinity, or are only the false impressions of a terrified imagination?


There was at Athens a large and spacious, but ill reputed and pestilential house. In the dead of the night a noise, resembling the clashing of iron, was frequently heard, which, if you listened more attentively, sounded like the rattling of fetters; at first it seemed at a distance, but approached nearer by degrees; immediately afterward a phantom appeared in the form of an old man, extremely meagre and squalid, with a long beard and bristling hair; rattling the gyves on his feet and hands. The poor inhabitants consequently passed sleepless nights under the most dismal terrors imaginable. This, as it broke their rest, threw them into distempers, which, as their horrors of mind increased, proved in the end fatal to their lives. For even in the day time, though the spectre did not appear, yet the remembrance of it made such a strong impression on their imaginations that it still seemed before their eyes, and their terror remained when the cause of it was gone. By this means the house was at last deserted, as being judged by everybody to be absolutely uninhabitable; so that it was now entirely abandoned to the ghost. However, in hopes that some tenant might be found who was ignorant of this great calamity which attended it, a bill was put up, giving notice that it was either to be let or sold.


It happened that Athenodorus the philosopher came to Athens at this time, and reading the bill ascertained the price. The extraordinary cheapness raised his suspicion; nevertheless, when he heard tbe whole story, he was so far from being discouraged, that he was more strongly inclined to hire it, and, in short, actually did so. When it grew towards evening, he ordered a couch to be prepared for him in the fore part of the house, and after calling for a light, together with his pen and tablets, he directed all his people to retire within. But that his mind might not, for want of employment, be open to the vain terrors of imaginary noises and apparitions, he applied himself to writing with all his faculties. The first part of the night passed with usual silence, then began the clanking of iron fetters; however, he neither lifted up his eyes, nor laid down his pen, but closed his ears by concentrating his attention. The noise increased and advanced nearer, till it seemed at the door, and at last in the chamber. He looked round and saw the apparition exactly as it had been described to him: it stood before him, beckoning with the finger. Athenodorus made a sign with his hand that it should wait a little, and bent again to his writing, but the ghost rattling its chains over his head as he wrote, he looked round and saw it beckoning as before. Upon this he immediately took up his lamp and followed it. The ghost slowly stalked along, as if encumbered with its chains; and having turned into the courtyard of the house, suddenly vanished. Athenodorus being thus deserted, marked the spot with a handful of grass and leaves. The next day he went to the magistrates, and advised them to order that spot to be dug up. There they found bones commingled and intertwined with chains; for the body had mouldered away by long Iying in the ground, leaving them bare, and corroded by the fetters. Thc bones were collected, and buried at the public expense; and after the ghost was thus duly laid the house was haunted no more.

This story I believe upon the affirmation of others; I can myself affirm to others what I now relate. I have a freed man named Marcus, who has some tincture of letters. One night, his younger brother, who was sleeping in the same bed with him, saw, as he thought, somebody sitting on the couch, who put a pair of shears to his head, and actually cut off the hair from the very crown of it. When morning came, they found the boy's crown was shorn, and the hair lay scattered about on the floor. After a short interval, a similar occurrence gave credit to the former. A slave boy of mine was sleeping amidst several others in their quarters, when two persons clad in white came in (as he tells the story) through the windows, cut off his hair as he lay, and withdrew the same way they entered. Daylight revealed that this boy too had been shorn, and that his hair was likewise spread about the room. Nothing remarkable followed, unless it were that I escaped prosecution; prosecuted I should have been, if Domitian (in whose reign these things happened) had lived longer. For an information lodged by Carus against me was found in his scrutore. Hence it may be conjectured, since it is customary for accused persons to let their hair grow, that this cutting of my servants' hair was a sign I should defeat the peril that hung over me.


I beg, then, you will apply learning to this question. It merits your prolonged and profound consideration; and I am not myself an unworthy recipient of your abounding knowledge. And though you should, after your manner, argue on both sides; yet I hope you will throw your weightiest reasons into one scale, lest you should dismiss me in suspense and uncertainty, whereas I consult you on purpose to determine my doubts. Farewell.