Daedalus and Icarus

    I am going to start off this week with really GREAT news for a change! This week I have been inducted into the Latin branch of the World Language Honor Society!

    This week I am going to tell you all about Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus was a highly respected and talented Athenian artisan. One day, Daedalus committed a crime against his nephew, Talus, by throwing him off the Acropolis. For this, Daedalus was exiled to Crete. There, he had his son, Icarus. When Daedalus and Icarus were imprisoned, Daedalus, studying the wings of birds, invented wings so they could fly out of there to safety. Before they took off to fly, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too low lest his wings touch the waves and get wet and not too high lest the sun melt the wax. Unfortunately, Icarus was too thrilled to be flying and he flew too close to the sun, melting the wax and drowning in the sea. A girl, named Heracles, found him washed up on the shore and recognized him, so she gave him a proper burial.

     The moral of this story is to always follow and listen to instructions because you never know what will happen if you don't follow them.

Romulus and Remus

  Livy is one of the greatest historians of all time. One of his greatest works of literature is when he wrote about the founding of Rome.
   Romulus and Remus were born of the goddess Vesta and god Mars. As young babies, they were placed by the Tiber river. There, they were found by the She-wolf, who raised them as her own. When they grew older, they helped their grandfather, Numitor, regain his position as King of Alba Longa. Then, they tried to name the city by the Tiber river. They decided to go bird watching on two different hills, the Palatine and the Capitoline. Whoever saw the most birds got the city named after them. Remus saw 12 birds and went to tell his brother. At the same time, Romulus saw two flocks of six birds. They argued, and then Romulus was jealous and killed his brother. This is why Rome is called "Rome" after Romulus instead of being called "Reme," or something of that kind, after Remus.

Daphne and Apollo

           In a previous post, I mentioned an author of Latin literature by the name of Ovid and his most recognizable work, Metamorphoses. Within the Metamorphoses, there are more than 250 myths! One on the most artistic inspiring myths is called Daphne and Apollo.

Daphne and Apollo statue at the
 Borghese Museum

        Apollo was the god of light and poetry, and one day he ran into Eros (Cupid). Eros was messing around with his bow and was striking people into love. Apollo insulted him in a way, so Eros went up to a rock on Mt. Parnassus and shot him with a sharp, golden tipped arrow to make him fall in love with Daphne, a beautiful nymph. At the same time, Eros shot Daphne with a blunt, lead tipped arrow to make her stray away from love and not want it. No matter how much Apollo had pleaded for her to love him, she wouldn't. Daphne was the daughter of the river god, Peneus, and one day as she was escaping from Apollo, she cried out to her father to let the Earth take her. Her father then turned her into a tree. Her arms became branches. Her hair became leaves, and she ran until her legs were rooted into the ground. Heartbroken, Apollo vowed that he would tend to the tree that once was his love and passion, but no matter how much he cared for the tree, the tree detested him and the leaves were made sharp. Daphne was turned into a bay laurel tree, and that is to be believed why the bay leaf is sharp, cutting the back of their throat when they swallow it.

The Borghese Museum 

       When I was in Italy in April of 2011, I was able to visit the Borghese Museum. The Borghese is the museum in Italy that houses the famous life-size marble statue of Daphne and Apollo. The leaves carved out of the marble are so thin that a person can see the light from a flashlight shine through them! 

Vergil's Aeneid

     Last week, I received a comment asking why the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe was not as well known as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. My answer to that question is simply this...  In the world Latin scholars, studying Latin literature such as Ovid, Pyramus and Thisbe is a well known story/myth. For the common person in these days, they don't here about it because they study English literature instead of Latin literature (which in my opinion, is much more interesting than English literature).

     This week, I am going to write about Vergil. Vergil is the author of the Aeneid. The Aeneid is one of the most famous works in Latin. It is categorized as a literary epic. Inside the Aeneid, there are many myths, but one, in particular, stands out above the rest. It is the story between Aeneas and Dido.

     Aeneas in the hero of the Trojan war, and when the city of Troy fell, he left with seven ships. Nearing Africa, he became shipwrecked on the coast of Carthage. There he met Dido, the Queen of Carthage. At that moment, the most tragic love story began. Dido and Aeneas fell deeply in love, but that did not last long because the gods pulled Aeneas away to finish his quest in Italy, to establish something that had not existed before. Dido was heartbroken and depressed. Before she committed suicide, she had declared to Aeneas that their countries, Rome and Carthage, will never be at peace. Thus the reason for the three Punic Wars.

Latin and the Roman Theater

        Livy, an ancient Roman historian, claimed in his book that Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BC. It was originally new forms of dances with musical accompaniment. Classic dramas were usually written in a poetic meter, and they were performed by all-male actors wearing masks.

       Many English playwrights, such as William Shakespeare, had their writing influenced by Roman writers and poets. One of Shakespeare's most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet, was actually based on a Greek myth that was written down by a Roman poet, Ovid, in his book, Metamorphoses. That myth is Pyramus and Thisbe. 

       Pyramus and Thisbe is a story of two lovers in a city named Babylon. Their houses were connected, and as the years went on, the two kids started to fall in love. A wall was built between the houses, because of the parents' rivalry, to prevent them from seeing each other, but that did not fully work because there was a crack in it and that allowed them to still talk to each other. One night, they decided to run off and meet up together at a tomb under a mulberry tree. 

Thisbe was the first to arrive, but as she was waiting, she saw a lion with a bloody mouth. She was scared, so she ran away, leaving behind her veil. The veil was then tarnished with blood by the lion, and as Pyramus arrived, he saw the veil and immediately thought that the lion killed his love. Disheartened by that thought, he killed himself. Thisbe returned to find her love on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. She was mortified and returned the favor by taking his blood-stained sword and plunging it into her own heart. After that event happened, it was believed that the gods heard Thisbe's cry and permanently changed the color of the mulberry to red instead of its original white color in remembrance of the two lovers' sacrifice for each other.

       If this story was not written down, in Latin, by Ovid, Shakespeare would not of known about this story to create one of  his most popular works. 

Coming up next week... more mythology!