Latin Without Latin: Pasiphae

This is my forty-sixth "Latin without Latin" essay. For background and a link to other essays, see this page: About the English Essays. After the happily married couple of yesterday's poem, I wanted to follow up with a very different mythological couple: Pasiphae and the bull, from a poem found in the Greek Anthology. Turning poems from the Greek Anthology into Latin verse is a challenge that has attracted many Latin scholars, including the great Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), who is the author of today's poem (you can see his edition of the Greek Anthology in Latin at Google Books).

The speaker is Pasiphae, asking Eros, the god of love, for assistance. Poor Pasiphae has fallen in love with a bull, and she needs help in winning the bull's affections. Legend tells us that Pasiphae asked the craftsman Daedalus to create a cow suit for her, but she needs additional advice from Eros, as you can see in today's poem:

Doctor, amatrícem qui me bovis esse docébas,
Et mugíre doce; tráhitur sic ille marítus.

Here is how the poem works:

Doctor. This is the Latin word for someone learned, a teacher, a professor. Pasiphae sees Eros, Love, as her teacher; she is addressing him as Doctor Love!

amatrícem qui. The Latin word qui introduces a relative clause, doctor qui, the teacher who… Meanwhile, we also have a form of amátrix, a female lover, a mistress (you can see the ama- root in the English words amatory, amateur, etc.); the form amatrícem is accusative, so it will be the object of our verb.

me. This is from the Latin first-person pronoun, ego. The form me is accusative, meaning me. It agrees with amatrícem, also in the accusative, but without a verb we cannot be sure yet how this all fits together.

bovis. This is from the Latin word bos, meaning bull, ox (compare the English word bovine). The form bovis is genitive singular: of a bull, of an ox. In Pasiphae's story, that would fit nicely with amatrícem, as she is amatrícem bovis, mistress of the bull. 

esse docébas. Here at last is the verb that puts this all together! We have a form here of docere, meaning to teach (as in the English words doctor, docent, etc.). The form is second-person singular, past tense: docébas, you taught. The verb esse means to be (as in the English word essential). So, Pasiphae is saying to Eros, Doctor, you are the one who taught me to be, qui me esse docébas, the ox's lover, amatrícem bovis.

So, in the first line, Pasiphae has addressed the god Eros and reminded him of the fact that he has made her fall in love with a bull. In the next line, she will tell Doctor Love what else she needs to learn:

Et. This Latin word means and, also, too. 

mugíre doce. Here we have the imperative form of docere: doce, teach me. The verb mugíre means to moo (it is onomatopoetic: mu-gire). So, Pasiphae demands, teach me also to moo, et mugíre doce.

tráhitur. This is from the Latin verb trahere, meaning to pull, to drag (from the participle, tractus, we get the English words tractor, traction, etc.). The form is third-person singular, passive: tráhitur, he is pulled, he is attracted.

sic. This Latin word means thus, in this way (you sometimes see the Latin word sic used in English to indicate something that has been quoted exactly thus as in the original, misspellings included). So we now know that in this way, sic, he can be pulled, he can be attracted, tráhitur - but we need a subject for the verb.

ille marítus. The Latin noun marítus means husband (compare the English word marital), and it can also be used to mean a potential husband, a lover, a suitor. The demonstrative adjective ille means that, that one. So, put it all together and we can see why Pasiphae wants to learn how to moo like a cow: in this way, sic, that bovine suitor can be attracted to her, tráhitur ille marítus.

So, Pasiphae's plea to Doctor Love is complete, Doctor, she says, you who taught me to be the bull's lover, amatrícem qui me bovis esse docébas, please teach me also how to moo, et mugíre doce, because in this way I can attract that bovine lover to me, tráhitur sic ille marítus.

Doctor, amatrícem qui me bovis esse docébas,
Et mugíre doce; tráhitur sic ille marítus.

Pasiphae's please to Doctor Love was successful: she and the bull became lovers and the offspring of their bizarre union was the Minotaur, half-man and half-bull, as you can see in the image below. You can read more about Pasiphae at Wikipedia, and here is the poem in Greek:

Εἰ ποθέειν μ' ἐδίδαξας ἐν οὔρεσι ταῦρον ἀλήτην,
μυκηθμόν με δίδαξον, ὅτῳ φίλον ἄνδρα καλέσσω.

For more poems from the Greek anthology in Latin, you can visit the Greek stream in my Latin distichs blog, and as I add new English essays, you will be able to find those in the English stream at the blog likewise. The next poem is about mothers and daughters, fathers and sons: Herus, Servus; Filia, Mater; Pater, Filius.

(Pasiphae and the baby Minotaur)

Latin Without Latin: Ob Amorem

This is my thirty-ninth "Latin without Latin" essay. For background and a link to other essays, see this page: About the English Essays. As a follow-up to yesterday's poem about Jupiter as a perfidious lover, here is a poem that manages to squeeze four of his more notorious erotic exploits into just two lines of poetry. The author is Thomas More (yes, that's Sir Thomas More / Saint Thomas More, whom you can read about at Wikipedia). Here is the poem:

Taurus, olor, satyrúsque ob amórem, et Iúpiter aurum est,
Európes, Ledes, Antíopes, Dánaes.

Here is how it works:

Taurus. This is the Latin word for bull (and the Latin name is still used in the zodiac). Jupiter became a bull in order to seduce Europa, as you saw in the illustration to yesterday's essay.

olor. This is the Latin word for swan. Jupiter became a swan in order to seduce Leda - which is how Helen of Troy was born! For more, see Wikipedia.

satyrúsque. The -que at the end of this word means and, and sátyrus means satyr (the letter y gives you a clue that the word is Greek in origin, borrowed by the Romans). Jupiter became a satyr in order to seduce Antiope, a princess of Boeotia; the product of their union was Amphion, the famous musician who used his lyre to raise up the walls of Thebes. For more, see Wikipedia. 

ob amórem. The Latin preposition ob means around, about, because of; the word amórem is from Latin amor, meaning love (compare the English word amorous). Put them together and you have a prepositional phrase: ob amórem, on account of love, because of love. So, now we know love is the force that drives these transformations of Zeus.

et. This little word means and. This means there is one more transformation to add to the list. 

Iúpiter aurum est. With Iúpiter we have the subject of the sentence made explicit: Iúpiter, the god Jupiter, ruler of Mount Olympus (called Zeus by the Greeks). The verb est is from Latin esse, meaning to be (compare the English word essential); est is the third-person singular form, Iúpiter est, Jupiter is. The word aurum means gold (in Spanish, this becomes oro - as in the name of a high school I attended, Canyon del Oro = Gold Canyon). Jupiter turned himself into a shower of gold in order to gain access to princess Danae, who was imprisoned in a tower; their son was the Greek hero Perseus. You can find out more at Wikipedia.

So, the first line provides an inventory of some of the things Jupiter is willing to be to seduce the objects of his desire: a bull, a swan, a satyr and a shower of gold. The second line of the poem will give us the names of the lovers who moved him to these transformations. The women all have Greek names and More uses the Greek word endings to give us the genitive forms:

Európes. This is the Greek genitive singular form of the name Europa: Európes, of Europa. So, for love of Europa, ob amórem Európes, Jupiter is a bull, Iúpiter taurus est.

Ledes. This is the Greek genitive singular form of the name Leda. So, for love of Leda, ob amórem Ledes, Jupiter is a swan, Iúpiter olor est.

Antíopes. This is the Greek genitive singular form of the name Antiope. So, for love of Antiope, ob amórem Antíopes, Jupiter is a satyr, Iúpiter sátyrus est.

Dánaes. This is the Greek genitive singular form of the name Danae. So, for love of Danae, ob amórem Dánaes, Jupiter is gold, Iúpiter aurum est.

Notice that the names of the women in the second line follow in order the transformations of Jupiter in the first line: very elegant!

Taurus, olor, satyrúsque ob amórem, et Iúpiter aurum est,
Európes, Ledes, Antíopes, Dánaes.

Thomas More's poem is a Latin imitation of an anonymous item in the Greek Anthology; here is the Greek:

Ζεὺς κύκνος, ταῦρος, σάτυρος, χρυσὸς δί ἔρωτα
Λήδης, Εὐρώπης, Ἀντιόπής, Δανάης.

All four of these stories have inspired a tremendous number of paintings and sculptures; as an illustration, I decided to choose the famous painting by Klimt of Danae and the Shower of Gold.
For more of Thomas More, check out the Thomas More stream at the Disticha blog. In addition, you can find all the English essays in the English stream at the blog.

(image source)