In Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae: A Latin Novella of Short Stories, the Roman gods and goddesses are up to their usual ridiculous and horrible selves. Did you know that Jupiter was a whiny baby who drank goat’s milk from a goat named Amalthea? (Yum!) Or that Jupiter’s siblings were all vomited up by their dad Saturn after he ate them? (Yuck!) Or that Apollo and Diana once killed fourteen children because Niobe said she was a better mother than their mom?! (Talk about anger issues!) Or that Mars once tried to marry Proserpina? (Shh, he also got hit in the head by Ceres, and he doesn’t want anyone to know!) Or have you ever wondered how the Sirens ended up on rocks luring sailors to their deaths? (How would you feel if you got turned into a monster?)
Get your myth on in these short stories about the ridiculous and horrible antics of the Roman gods and goddesses.
This novella contains six short stories about the Roman gods and goddesses. The stories can be read independently, but some of the stories do make references to what happened in other stories in the novella. This novella can be used instructionally at the Latin I level or for Free Voluntary Reading at higher levels of Latin.
Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae is suitable for use in Latin I or Latin II. This novella may further be appropriate at other levels depending on the intended use.
This novella is available on Amazon and is available in bulk discounts on Bombax Press’s store.
About the Plot of Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae
Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae contains six short stories about the ridiculous and horrible antics of the Roman gods and goddesses. You may preview the first few paragraphs of each story here.
The stories can be read independently, but some of the stories do make references to what happened in other stories in the novella. Some of these stories would also pair nicely for instructional use with stories already available for free on Bombax Press.
The stories in this novella are:
- Iuppiter et Amalthea (585 total words)
- Saturn has eaten all of his children, but Rhea is desperate to save her son Jupiter. After tricking Saturn by giving him a rock, Rhea needs to hide the infant Jupiter. To save Jupiter, she takes him to Amalthea… a goat who lives on Crete and leaves him there to grow up. This story pairs nicely with Saturnus et Rhea.
- Saturnus Evomitans (895 total words)
- Jupiter is all grown up and determined to conquer his father. With Rhea’s help, he confronts his father in order to free his brothers and sisters from Saturn’s stomach. This story is also a good complement to Saturnus et Rhea.
- Regna Caeli, Maris, et Tartari (576 total words)
- Saturn is in Tartarus (where he belongs), and now the gods are trying to determine who is king of which kingdoms. They decide to draw lots and let the fates decide.
- Superba Niobe (960 total words)
- Niobe is a proud queen who thinks that she’s better than Apollo and Diana’s mother. Leto, after all, only has two children, but Niobe has fourteen! Niobe’s pride incites the anger of the gods as she finds out exactly how much she has to lose. This story would pair nicely with Diana and Actaeon and Apollo et Python.
- Mars Amans (807 total words)
- Mars is lonely and wants a wife, but there’s no one suitable on Mount Olympus. Then, he stumbles upon a beautiful woman in a field of flowers and falls instantly in love with her. Will his proposal be successful? What will Ceres think of this?
- Ceres et Sirenes (1,129 total words)
- Ceres’ daughter Proserpina is missing, and Ceres cannot find her. She looks everywhere and questions her friends, who are nymphs, about her whereabouts. Will her friends tell her the truth?
About the Vocabulary and Grammar
The vocabulary is intentionally sheltered to allow for more extensive and independent reading. Due to the nature of the short-story genre and the need for specific and relevant vocabulary to make the stories compelling, this novella does contain more words than traditionally found in a Latin I or Latin II novella. At the same time, the use of high-frequency vocabulary, supplemental images, glosses, and clear cognates does make this novella more comprehensible for this level of reader.
The novella is 4,900 words long and contains 237 total words. Of those words, 24 are proper nouns like Jupiter, Juno, Niobe, and Mount Olympus. A further 38 words are glosses that might be unfamiliar to students or used infrequently. Another 21 are cognates like stomachus and mortālis. In addition, these short stories use several cardinal and ordinal numbers (Niobe has 14 children after all). Some other words appear infrequently, like aqua, but otherwise are common in introductory Latin sequences. With proper names, glossed words, and clear cognates removed, students need a working vocabulary of 154 words to read this novella.
Unlike the vocabulary, the grammar in this novella is not sheltered. The novella is primarily uses the present tense to describe events in the third-person, though some verbs are in the past. The novella, though, is rich with dialogue, so readers will also encounter a significant amount of first- and second-person verbs. Irregular verbs like volō, nōlō, and eō appear abundantly, and there are some examples of ferō. In addition, students will encounter many uses of the genitive singular to describe what the different characters are gods, goddesses, or kings of.
About the Artwork in Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae
The cover art contains a public domain image by Rene Rauschenberger on Pixabay. The clip art is from AnimadDesign’s Ancient Greek Gods clipart, which is available on Etsy. My neighbor and friend Linda Renaud, of www.lindarenaud.net, photoshopped and adjusted this cover art
Inside the book, the artwork is in the public domain in the United States and the country of origin. Many of the pictures inside the novella are in museums. Each image is accompanied with a small caption in Latin, and a bibliography with URLs is available to those who would like to incorporate the images into their lessons.
About the Text Features
Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae has a full index of word forms. In the index, the reader can look up all unknown words. The index lists verbs separately. As such, a reader could independently look up both Iuppiter and Iove without knowing the dictionary entry of the word. The index provides a general translation of the word. Verbs include a translation that is grammatically appropriate and would fit the context of the sentence. This text also contains a dictionary. This dictionary offers all the principal parts. The dictionary notes how frequently the words appear in Latin Literature according to the Core Latin Vocabulary or Essential Latin vocabulary.
If you would like to review the vocabulary used in Ridiculi et Horribles Dei et Deae, the dictionary is available here.
