The story of Argos and Odysseus is a heartbreaking one of loyalty and loss for any dog lover. Argos Canis Optimus et Fortis retells the famous scene from the Odyssey where Argos alone recognizes Odysseus. This story is told from Argos’ point of view. This story can be used in conjunction with Cerberus Canis Monstruosus because Cerberus idolizes Argos as the best dog due to his loyalty. Words in bold are glossed words.
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Cerberus Canis Monstruosus: A Latin Novella
In Cerberus Canis Monstruosus, Cerberus wants to be a dog. He wants to catch balls, and he wants people to pet and love him just like they love dogs. He has one big problem though… well, four big problems. Unlike a normal dog, he has three heads and the tail of a snake. People think he’s a monster! People don’t want to throw balls to a monster or pet a monster or love a monster. People fear monsters. People want to kill monsters. Still, Cerberus is determined to find a home where he can be accepted for who he is. Surely, he can find someone who wants to throw a…
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Scylla et Ulixes
Scylla et Ulixes is a short story that is suitable for use in Latin II. The story retells the myth of how Scylla was changed into a monster as a result of a magical potion. It includes lots of descriptions of body parts, the sea, and sailing. It also includes some general descriptions of the weather. The vocabulary is somewhat limited, but not as limited as it may be in a novella. Although this was not written with a particular set of vocabulary in mind, it is suitable for use for students depending on their familiarity with the 165 vocabulary words in the story.
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Fabula Brevis: Apollo et Python
Apollo et Python is a short story that we used in our Intro to Latin course in middle school. We taught it the week before spring break after reading Diana et Actaeon and finishing our speaking assessment. This story is perfectly suited for a TPRS story, and it’s how we introduced the story. (Here is the link to the skeleton story with guiding questions for students). We glossed the words or phrases in bold in the story.
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Fabula Brēvis: Diāna et Actaeōn
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,…
