Week 14: Hrotsvitha. 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. Secundum Diocletianum, cuius cultura adducit honorem?
2. Pro cuius amore suppliciis lacerari volunt sorores?
3. Cuius specie Dulcitius capitur?
4. Quis ollas fovet et caccabos amplectitur?
5. Cuius vox diaboli imago habet?
6. Quare ostiarii Dulcitium pugnis tundunt?
7. Quis Dulcitium velut horribile monstrum fastidit?
8. Quis ad turpitudinis locum trahi debet?
9. Ubi Sisinnius damnabitur?
10. Cuius palmam Hirena recipiet?

B. Latin composition

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!

• Sisinnius cum Diabolo in inferno. Imagine that Hirena's prediction comes true, and Sisinnius ends up in hell. Write a dialogue in which the Devil welcomes Sisinnius into hell and interrogates him about his life. How would Sisinnius explain the story of the three sisters to the Devil? How would the Devil react to Sisinnius's story?
• Epitaphium sororum. Imagine that the remains of the martyred sisters were recovered and buried secretly by the Christians. What would they write on the tombstone? What would they say about the sisters? (You might want to take a look at these Roman epitaphs if you are curious about the style of epitaphs in Latin.)
• Imperatrix Christiana est! Imagine that the wife of the emperor Diocletianus converts to Christianity. How would Diocletianus react? What would he say to his wife? What would he do? What would the wife of Diocletianus say to her husband after she becomes a Christian? Would she be able to exert any influence on the emperor?
• Supervenere duo ignoti iuvenes. When the soldiers come back and report to Sisinnius they explain that two unknown young men came and took Hirena away. Write out this scene in Latin: What did the angels say to the soldiers? How did the soldiers react? What did they say? What did the angels say to Hirena? How did Hirena react? What did she say? How did she discover that they were angels?