Diāna et Actaeōn retells the story of Actaeon’s transformation into a deer for his crime of seeing Diana nude and bathing. Diana describes the people in her family and relates how she hates men (fufae!). Instead, animals, hunting, and the woods delight her. She also reveals a secret to the reader: her favorite place is a river in the woods where she likes to bathe. Alas, her secret place is discovered with disastrous and deadly results.
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Fabula Brevis: Bacchus et Acoetes
Bacchus et Acoetes retells how Bacchus gets revenge on pirates by turning them into dolphins. This tale may not exactly be to the level of the Princess Bride as, alas, no one gets murdered by pirates. Instead, nearly all the pirates are punished for their greed, except Acoetes. Bacchus rewards Acoetes by offering him the position of priest in his temple. This story is suitable for Latin I, and we glossed the words in bold for our students. We taught this story after we taught Venus et Vulcanus. We pretaught some of the vocabulary for this story and reviewed other words through a movie talk. Our students were rather invested…
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Fabula Brēvis: Venus et Mārs
The short story Venus et Mars retells the myth of Vulcan trapping Venus and Mars in his net. This story is the sequel to Sella Magica Vulcani in which Jupiter arranges the marriage of Venus and Vulcan in exchange for Juno’s freedom. Our students predicted a rather unhappy marriage, and they are not wrong! In Venus et Mars, students learn how Venus feels about her new marriage and meet a rather saucy and angry goddess.
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Fabula: Sella Magica Vulcani
Sella Magica Vulcani is a story about Vulcan getting a little bit of revenge on Juno. After Jupiter threw Vulcan off Mount Olympus, in Iuno et Vulcanus, Infans Turpis, Vulcanus is left to grow up alone. Vulcan discovers his skills as a metal worker and makes a lovely necklace for Thetis, who is essentially his adoptive mother. Juno gets jealous and demands a necklace, which is moderately entertaining as she’s had no hand in raising Vulcan. This story is the delightful result of that jealousy.
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Fabula: Achilles Gerens Stolam
Achilles Gerens Stolam is a story about Ulysses tricking Achilles. Achilles had been hiding on Skyros dressed as a woman to avoid an oracle stating he would die at Troy. Much as Ulysses had been tricked by Palamedes, Ulysses tricks Achilles into revealing the truth about his identity and committing to war with the Trojans.
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Iuno et Vulcanus, Infans Turpis
Iuno et Vulcanus, Insans Turpis is based on the myth of Jupiter throwing Vulcan off Mount Olympus. In this version of the myth, Juno is Vulcan’s only parent. I wrote this story for use in our Introduction to Latin course. In the story, we’re introducing relative pronouns, particularly the forms qui and quae. We are also circling the expression Debeo/debet + the infinitive. We had many preteaching activities for the story to aid in vocabulary and reading comprehension. Because the Quid debeo agere activity was so successful for the Saturnus et Rhea story, we repeated the activity for Iuno et Vulcanus, this time with student actors. To increase student engagement,…
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Saturnus et Rhea
Saturnus et Rhea is based on the myth of Saturnus eating all of his children. I wrote this story for use in our Introduction to Latin course. In the story, we’re introducing relative pronouns, particularly the forms qui and quae. We had many preteaching activities for the story to aid in vocabulary and reading comprehension. (My favorite was Quid debeo agere?! in which I met various Olympians in different places and students had to tell me what I should do on their white boards; I may have flushed Neptune down a toilet).
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Sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus
Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus is a Latin novella published by Bombax Press. This sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus contains the complete first chapter of the story, including its artwork. The novella is over 7,500 words long and contains 237 words. Of those 334 words, some are cognates, proper nouns, or glossed words. A student needs a working vocabulary knowledge of 160 unique words to read this story in its entirety. The complete dictionary, though not the index verborum, is available here.
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Sample for Ira Veneris: Capitulum I
Ira Veneris is a Latin novella published by Bombax Press. This sample for Ira Veneris contains the complete first chapter of the story, including its artwork. The novella summarizes what previously had happened in Cupido et Psyche and contains several pluperfect verbs. The novella is 11,000 words long and contains 334 words. Of those 334 words, some are cognates, proper nouns, or glossed words. A student needs a working vocabulary knowledge of 250 unique words to read this story in its entirety. The complete dictionary, though not the index verborum, is available here.
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Sample for Cupido et Psyche: Capitulum I
Cupido et Psyche is a Latin novella published by Bombax Press. This sample for Cupido et Psyche contains the complete first chapter of the story, including its artwork. The novella is 8,800 words long and contains 350 words. Of those 350 words, some are cognates, proper nouns, or glossed words. A student needs a working vocabulary knowledge of 253 unique words to read this story in its entirety. The complete dictionary, though not the index verborum, is available here.
