Week 11: Aesopus. Background | Background Quiz | Starting Assumptions | Resources | Extras Vocabulary | Etymology | Grammar | Perseus Dictionary | Perseus Tool Reading Overview | Reading Quiz: English | Reading Quiz: Latin Discussion Questions | Latin Composition | Weekly Checklist

Latin Composition

A draft of your composition work (A and B) is due by Friday midnight. It will be returned to your with comments, corrections, hints and suggestions on Saturday. The final draft is due by Monday midnight. Note: This first draft is required: if you do not turn in a draft of the composition by Friday midnight, you will receive no composition credit for the week.

** If you are not an OU student, I will try to mark your compositions as well; send it to laura-gibbs@ou.edu and make sure you put MEDIEVAL LATIN in the subject line **

A. Answer the questions - in Latin...! Please make sure that your email contains both the question and the answer. If you are having trouble with this exercise, check out these Hints for Answering Questions in Latin.

B. Write a small Latin composition on your own. You will choose either to describe a picture or to write a small monologue/dialogue. If you are having trouble with this exercise, check out these Hints for Free Composition in Latin.

• When describing a picture, do not say "in the picture" or "the picture shows"... instead, imagine you are looking at the actual scene itself, and describe the scene ("the sheep are sleeping", "the fox is dead", "the woman is very beautiful"). Examples.
• When writing a dialogue, do not use indirect speech ("Samson says... Delilah says..."), but just write out what the characters say - don't worry, I should be able to figure out who's talking! Examples.

1. Quid vendidit ovis?
2. Ubi leo homini ostendit hominem a leone suffocari?
3. Quare perdix clausit oculos?
4. Super cuius orbem coclea ascendit?
5. Quid corvus aperuit ut cantaret?
6. Cui columbae conquestae sunt de niso?
7. Quare ciconia oculum uxoris suae extraxit?
8. Quem musca stimulavit?
9. Cuius viscera rupta patebant?
10. Quare timor agnum impugnavit?

B. Latin composition

Choose either one description or one dialogue/monologue to write in Latin.

Description: Choose one of the following images and describe the scene in Latin. You should write 5 sentences that are each at least four words long each. Please please do not use an English-Latin dictionary. You should have plenty of vocabulary from this week's reading to write your description!

• Perdix et vulpis
• Corvus et vulpis
• Lupus et agnus

Dialogue/Monologue: Choose one of the following scenes and write the words you can imagine the characters saying. You should write 5 sentences that are each at least four words long each. Please please do not use an English-Latin dictionary. You should have plenty of vocabulary from this week's reading to write your description!

• Extractam lanam suam vendidit. Imagine that you are at the moment after the trial, and the winter is coming: the sheep knows that she will have to sell her wool. Imagine that you are the sheep: what kind of thoughts would you be thinking? (monologue). Or else you can imagine the sheep bleating her story in the marketplace, trying to find someone who will buy her wool. What kind of dialogue would the sheep have with the tonsor (shearer) who buys her wool?
• Quid fecit ciconia. At the end of the fable of the corvus and the ciconia, the corvus has given the ciconia some advice. What do you think the ciconia said in response to the corvus? What did the ciconia decide to do: continue running away? go back home to his wife? What would the ciconia say to his wife if he did go home?