A series of posts on “The Story of Arion”, first published in Bennett’s Easy Latin Stories (George Bennett, London, 1892)
The book is available at:
https://archive.org/details/easylatinstories00benn/page/n11/mode/2up?view=theater
The text is available at:
https://www.fabulaefaciles.com/library/books/bennett/easy-latin-stories-part-1#arion
The text plus commentary is also at:
https://novalatin.weebly.com/the-story-of-arion.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeF-L216df8&t=509s
The presenter puts a great deal of effort into his work on that last link. My only slight concerns are that his pronunciation is a bit “flat” and, occasionally, his translations of certain phrases are not so precise. There are also a couple of specific omissions in the macrons which, given that this text includes the ablative absolute, are quite important to mark. Nevertheless, it’s good to listen to the text and hear what he says about it.
One further link which may be of interest is a reading of the translation of the original text by Herodotus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHc19duYHhk
I’ve chosen this text – and no doubt there will be others from Bennett’s book – for several reasons:
[1] It is worth remembering that, in the 19th century, access to the study of Medicine at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh – two of the foremost medical schools in Europe at that time – was not awarded to pupils who excelled in Science, but in Classical Latin and Ancient Greek. As mentioned in previous posts, books from this period – although detailed and with a tremendous range of passages relating to history and mythology – were written at a time when Latin was high priority in the “best schools” and far more time was devoted to the study of the language. Consequently, the concepts of “easy” and “beginners” in Victorian textbooks bear no resemblance to how they would be interpreted now. Moreover, judging by Bennett’s introduction, a little glimpse of Victorian attitudes is revealed:
The Geographical and Historical Notes are very brief, as they are intended for boys who are not likely to be acquainted with Ancient History.
That possibly tells you a bit more about Bennett and his contemporaries than it does about Latin.
[2] In the light of [1] above, the level of language and the assumptions made in terms of grammatical knowledge are far higher than what would be expected now.
[3] The text contains concepts which are either new (i.e. I’ve considered them to be more to the intermediate-advanced stage) or are worth reviewing.
The story of Arion [1]
Arīōn citharista praeclārus erat. Is diū apud Periandrum Corinthiōrum rēgem versātus erat. Tum in Ītaliam Siciliamque nāvigāre cupīvit. Ingentibus opibus ibi comparātis, Corinthum redīre voluit. Itaque Tarentō, urbe Ītaliae, profectus est; ibi nāvigium hominum Corinthiōrum condūxerat.
vocabulary
apud (+ acc.); (here) at the court of
citharista, -ae [1/m]: lyre player
con¦dūcō, -dūcere, -dūxī, -dūctus [3]: (here) rent; hire
ops, opis [3/f]: [i] (sg.) strength; power; [ii] (plu.) opēs: wealth; resources
questions
- What instrument did Arion play? (1)
- Who did he live with? (2)
- What did he want to do? (1)
- When did he want to return to Corinth? (1)
- From where did he set out? (2)
- How did he return to Corinth? (2)
notes
[1] ablative absolute
[i] ingentibus opibus ¦ (ibi) [ii] comparātis │ literally: with huge riches having been acquired (there)
This is an ablative absolute construction which was first referred to here:
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/10/060225-level-2-reading-schoolmasters.html
The ablative absolute comprises two parts – usually [i] a noun (here it is a noun + adjective) and [ii] a perfect passive participle – both of which are in the ablative case.
It is a self-contained construction that, when used with the perfect passive participle, refers to an event that happened to something / someone before the action in the clause.
It literally translates as “with X having been Y-ed” i.e. [X] ingentibus opibus ¦ [Y] comparātis: [X] with huge riches ¦ [Y] having been acquired …
[1] Ingentibus opibus ibi comparātis [2] Corinthum redīre voluit │ [1] With huge wealth having been acquired there [i.e. that happened first, and then …] [2] he wanted to return to Corinth.
The literal translation sounds clumsy and is often reworked into more fluent English, for example: ‘after / when / once huge wealth had been acquired’. It most often conveys time sequence but could also convey reason i.e. ‘since huge wealth had been acquired’.
Could the phrase translate as: “After he had acquired huge wealth, …”? In this context, yes it possibly could since it is obviously referring to the wealth that Arion himself had acquired but that cannot be assumed. The ablative absolute does not have any grammatical connection with the subject of the sentence:
Urbe dēlētā ¦ cīvēs fūgērunt. │ With the city having been destroyed, ¦ the citizens fled.
= After / when / once / since the city had been destroyed, ¦ the citizens fled.
What the citizens did not do was destroy their own city! ≠ *After they had destroyed the city*, the citizens fled.
Therefore, when dealing with this type of ablative absolute, it is better to avoid any reference to the subject of the sentence.
[2] deponent verbs
proficiscor, proficisci, profectus sum [3/dep]: set out
- Itaque Tarentō, urbe Ītaliae, profectus est; │ And so, he set out from Tarentum, a city in Italy;
versor, versari, versatus sum [1/dep]: live; stay; be somewhere
- Is diū apud Periandrum Corinthiōrum rēgem versātus erat. │ For a long time he had lived at the court of Periander, the king of the Corinthians.
____________________
Arion was a famous lyre player. For a long time he had lived at the court of Periander, king of the Corinthians. Then he wished to sail to Italy and Sicily. After great wealth had been acquired there, he wanted to return to Corinth. And so he set out from Tarentum, a city in Italy; he had hired a boat of Corinthian men.
