Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Prometheus: Quae supra nos, nihil ad nos (Alciato)

SOURCE: The emblems of Alciato, with a convenient bilingual presentation online at Memorial University, and a marvelous collection of illustrated editions at Glasgow. This is emblem 103 in the collection. It is not traditionally part of the Aesopic corpus, but as "mythology moralized" it fits in nicely with the other fables.

READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons in verse form, or macrons in prose order, or accent marks in prose order, or focusing on the meter. You will find materials for all of these options below. :-)


VERSE MACRONS. Here is the verse text with macrons:

Caucasia aeternum pendēns in rūpe Promētheus
Dīripitur sacrī praepetis ungue iecur.
Et nollet fēcisse hominem: figulōsque perōsus
Accēnsam raptō damnat ab igne facem.
Rōduntur variīs prūdentum pectora cūrīs,
Quī caelī affectant scīre, deumque vicēs.


PROSE MACRONS. Here is the same text with macrons written out in prose word order:

Promētheus in Caucasia rūpe aeternum pendēns; iecur praepetis sacrī ungue dīripitur. Et nollet hominem fēcisse et, figulōs perōsus, facem ab igne raptō accēnsam damnat. Variīs cūrīs rōduntur pectora prūdentum, quī caelī et deum vicēs scīre affectant.


STRESS (ACCENT) MARKS. Here is the prose text with accents, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):

Prométheus in Caucásia rupe aetérnum pendens; iecur praépetis sacri ungue dirípitur. Et nollet hóminem fecísse et, fígulos perósus, facem ab igne rapto accénsam damnat. Váriis curis rodúntur péctora prudéntum, qui caeli et deum vices scire afféctant.


ELEGIAC COUPLET METER. Below I have used an interpunct dot · to indicate the metrical elements in each line, and a double line || to indicate the hemistichs of the pentameter line.

Caucasia aeternum pendēns in rūpe Promētheus
Dīripi·tur sac·rī || praepetis· ungue ie·cur.
Et nollet fēcisse hominem: figulōsque perōsus
Accēn·sam rap·tō || damnat a·b igne fa·cem.
Rōduntur variīs prūdentum pectora cūrīs,
Quī cae·l~ affec·tant || scīre, de·umque vi·cēs.


IMAGE. Here is an illustration for the story (image source).


What follows is an unmarked version of the prose rendering to faciliate word searches: Prometheus in Caucasia rupe aeternum pendens; iecur praepetis sacri ungue diripitur. Et nollet hominem fecisse et, figulos perosus, facem ab igne rapto accensam damnat. Variis curis roduntur pectora prudentum, qui caeli et deum vices scire affectant.