Monday, September 7, 2015

Squib post

Dear classmates who took the Latin sequence with me two years ago (that's only Chrissie and Katie, isn't it!), can you help me jog my memory? This line is familiar: Just as a torch turned upside down gains greater strength / so you ascend more brightly from mishap (DRS 130-1). Where did we read about an upside-down torch catching fire faster than a right-side-up one? Was in in Lucetius? I remember it being a snarly bit of natural philosophy, but my preliminary googling efforts are failing me.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Katherine RoacheSeptember 7, 2015 at 5:38 PM

    I'm not sure. It does sound familiar. Could it have been Greek rather than Latin? A torch is πυρί-δαπτος (devoured by fire) in the song at the end of Aeschylus' _Eumenides_.

    ReplyDelete
  2. modernroman2015September 8, 2015 at 4:43 AM

    It rings familiar to me as well.....I know Lucretius talks about how atoms always fall downward but has to amend what he says a bit when talking about fire specifically because flame moves upward (and possible also lightening?). I can't remember specifically if he has a similar line, I think we read this part in translation, but I do remember Professor Dugan speaking about fire moving upward.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ThetisSeptember 8, 2015 at 5:54 AM

    Could it be Ovid Amores 1.2.11? vidi ego iactatas mota face crescere flammas

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)