This is perfect for setting up the next principle. The student thus ends up with “fully scanned” lines that just don’t have any foot divisions yet. They’ll make lots of mistakes here but you can go around to each of them and coach them through each mistake, until they get more accurate at marking long and short syllables.
I then get students to write long and short marks on all the syllables on lines of poetry, paying close attention to macrons, consonants in the following word, and whether something counts as a diphthong. I can see the merits of starting with just practicing syllable division, I just haven’t done it that way myself. *Maybe in the future I’ll try explaining the last thing using the terminology of closed versus open syllables, but I tend to skip the step of dividing syllables with the students, because I don’t want to overcomplicate something that is already quite complicated. the vowel in it is followed by 2 or more consonant sounds:*.ui is only a diphthong in 4 words: huic, huius, cui, cuius.it contains a long vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.Then I write out the three reasons a syllable can be long, with examples:Ī syllable is LONG if any of these are true… (I also avoid using the term ‘a vowel long by position’, as that implies that somehow the short vowel sound is lengthened if a cluster of consonants follows it – I would simply call that a ‘long syllable’ which may contain a short vowel.) I explain that long syllables take twice as much time to say as short syllables, and I draw some musical notation (a crochet and a quaver) to reinforce that this is a timed rhythm. The words ‘long’ and ‘short’ are more clearly about the quantity of time. I use the words ‘long’ and ‘short’ rather than ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ because ‘heavy’ sounds like a stressed syllable and ‘light’ sounds like an unstressed syllable, and I don’t want them to think that way. It is far more intuitive to get the feel for scansion in a Greek environment, so why not set up a similar type of situation initially for our Latinists?įirstly, I explain that Latin syllables can be long or short. In my own experience, I have found that scansion is far easier to pick up in Ancient Greek than in Latin, because even if not all long vowels are given macrons, at least the eta and omega characters mark the long ē and ō, and all elisions are printed for you. By starting with a text of printed macrons, it is easier for students to see (without the teacher explaining it) that the rhythm emerges from the word choice, and macrons are not just invisibly appearing whenever the puzzle demands it. In other words, it is not the meter which determines the vowel length, but the vowel length which produces the meter. But the poet worked the other way, carefully choosing words according their innate sounds so that they would produce the desired rhythms. When you learn to scan on blank letters, you end up thinking backwards about vowel length – ‘it can be worked out when you know the rules’. By printing macrons, we show them that Latin vowels are innately long or short – not just whether they ‘need to be for the meter’. I start with a text that has the macrons printed in it (and I pre-mark out the elisions, if I haven’t already taught elision). My goal is to bring them to understand scansion from first principles. My goal in this session is not to give students a step-by-step formula for answering exam questions – not yet.
In addition to prepared passages, each exam will include a short unseen passage for translation.Ģ0% will be based on quizzes and assignments addressing translation of the Aeneid and review of grammar.ġ0% will be based on 3 exercises and a quiz on scansion of dactylic hexameter.Icarus and Daedalus – our set passage from Ovid, and perhaps a metaphor for how students feel when they first see hexameter scansion. The bulk of the course grade will be based on translation of passages from the Aeneid in three midterm exams. In Latin,1000-1100 lines from among Aeneid Books 1, 4 or 6, 7, and 8.
#Scansion of aeneid how to#
To discuss how to interpret Virgil's Aeneid and some problems of interpretation that have long exercised readers.To learn to scan dactylic hexameter verse, the meter of the Aeneid as well as of much other Latin poetry, and appreciating how meter affects our response to what we read.To cultivate an ability to translate the Latin of Virgil's Aeneid at sight as well as after preparation.By concentrating on morphology, syntax, and vocabulary, to improve the reading knowledge of Latin acquired in previous classes.To learn to read Latin poetry with understanding and enjoyment.
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