Lesson video

- [Mr Furber] Salvete omnes! Salve magister! It's me, Mr. Furber.

And this is the first translation of three for the module number five, which is on the difference between the two past tenses, or two of the past tenses in that sense.

So the imperfect and the perfect tense.

The purpose of this lesson is to give you more opportunity to translate a story and practise how to translate those different tenses.

But it's not just that one, because the actual story we're doing is very interesting.

And it's supposedly the saddest of these stories in the Grieco-Roman mythical corpus.

It is a [Mimics Crying] It's a very, very sad tale.

I'm looking forward, I'm excited to teach you about it.

And I want to see if you think it's as sad as I think it is.

For many, many people I know, this is their favourite myth that we're about to be reading about.

So let's see what you think about it.

Practise translation, Orpheus and Eurydice.

Our learning objectives are: can I translate fluently a Latin passage containing the perfect and imperfect tenses? Have I consolidated previous core vocabulary? Press pause here to go and get a pen or pencil, and some paper or a book to write in.

If you've not got those things now.

And for everyone else, let's get started.

The first thing we're going to look at guys, that vocabulary.

Now, this is a list of the 14, most frequent or most difficult words that you need to know in order to access the passage we're about to do.

And what's going to happen now, is I'm going to talk you through a few of the hardest ones, and then we're going to practise them.

And there'll be a little test, but don't worry about that, Cause you'll get everything right.

Okay.

So, the first thing we're going to have to look at are these one, two, three, four, five, six.

There's quite a few, but we'll be fine.

These six words here, which you may not have seen before or you might easily confuse with other words, that's how it all looks.

Our first one is going to be Deus.

Now our derivation for this is words like deity or deify in English.

A deity is a God or a goddess.

We see that deus is masculine, so it's going to be a god.

Now note here, it's got a small g, because the Romans and the Greeks believed in more than one God, or more than one deity, therefore we don't need a capital G when we write god there, small g.

Okay.

Next step is terra.

And we get English words like terrain, or to terrestrial.

And terra, the terrain describes the earth or the ground.

So terra means the ground.

Now do not confuse this with terreo, which means I terrify, or I scare.

That t e r r, sort of, pun or coincidence is also there in English as well.

You wouldn't in English confuse terrify and terrain, would you? So, don't confuse terra, a noun here, meaning ground with terreo, this verb, meaning I terrify or I scare.

Next up, we got uxor which is probably the hardest word on here.

Uxor.

And while there is, there are english words like uxorious, an uxor is a wife, all right? So we're just going to see it loads of times, you'll remember it by the time we translate it.

Don't worry for now.

Uxor is a wife, Someone who is uxorious, a man who is uxorious is someone who's sort of indebted to or looks up to his wife all the time.

Lacrimo is easy, easy.

Lacrimo [Mimics Crying] Your mnemonic, a way of remembering this, is to focus on that cri.

It gives you the clue there, because that lacrimo means I cry.

Alright, crimo, I cry.

Alright.

And timeo is where we get English words like timid, or intimidate.

If you are timid, then you always feel fear.

So timeo is, I fear.

What Latin verb, like, was I just talking about that was to do with fear, that also started with a T, but didn't mean I fear, but meant something else? What was it? It was, tell me? Yeah, no, very nice, it was terreo.

So don't confuse timeo, timeo and terreo are opposites.

Timeo is I feel fear.

Terreo is, [Angry Sounds] is I inflict fair? Alright.

Timeo [Acting Frightened] Terreo [Acts Intimidating] Okay? Got the idea? They're opposites.

Don't confuse them.

Alright.

Timeo is I fear, I am afraid.

And then lastly is noli.

It's a negative word, noli, and it means, it doesn't mean not, it means don't All right? So Noli, don't.

Now, those are our 14 words there.

So I've brought you six, there's eight left.

What I'd like you to do is for just one minute, just read through those 14 for me now.

So pressing pause, just read them once.

Don't have to write anything or do anything, just read.

Off we go.

Okay.

Now it's, it's time.

Are we ready? Yes, of course we are.

So point which one of these, is that a canis or is that a canis? Which of these is a canis? After three, two, and This one's a very odd looking dog.

And we'll talk about that in a sec, Which of these two is a deus? Therefore, it's going to be, point at deus in two, and this guy, he is a God.

We'll talk about which God he is in a sec.

What's uxor mean? Husband or wife? Three, two, and wife.

Good.

Let's do we've lacrimo and timeo.

I'll give you three seconds.

Good lacrimo, I cry, timeo, I fear What's the difference between tum and nunc? Tum and nunc.

What's the difference.

Good.

Tum is then, focus on these first letters here.

Tum is then, and nunc is now.

There's a reason why then begins with a T and now begins with an N.

Noli videre! Does it mean not look or don't look? What's noli? Noli videre.

In three, two, and noli is don't.

So don't look Okay, got it? Now, you've got three verbs of motion here, and I'd like you to match them to the four verbs you've got here.

So one of them's wrong.

Take five quite long seconds on this.

So take your time on it.

Three, two, and let's have a look.

So intro is I enter it.

Just change the I to an E.

Amblulo, if you amble then you walk.

And well remembered if you've got venio is I come as opposed to I go, if you've not done yet.

What's the difference now?.

Come on, you've got this.

Terra, terreo, and timeo.

What's the difference in those three words there? Okay.

Answers in three, two and now, which of these, that's a noun terra.

So it's going to be earth or ground, the terrain.

This is I inflict fear is [Intimidating Sounds] is I scare.

Whereas timeo, if you're timid, you feel fear.

I am scared.

[Scared Sounds] Timeo is I fear.

Okay? Ad terram, now, is where I get involved in the middle.

I like doing these ones.

We'd like you to do is to point ad terram.

Point ad terram.

All right? In two, and it's going to be down, you're going to be pointing at the ground.

All right? Point, add ianuam.

I presume there's one in the room that you're in.

Otherwise, you'd have to go in and out through the window.

There's a clue.

Point ad ianuam, in three, two.

and great.

Ad is to, and then I can tell you that over there, all right, is where the door is in this room.

So point at the door.

Now, mime to me, what per ianuam is.

If you were going per ianuam, mime that action.

What's per? Great, great.

Okay.

So it's going to be per ianuam would be [Mimics Door Opening Sounds] would be you're going through, per ianuam, through the door.

Now, give me a Latin verb that you're going to see going on the end over here with the sentence per ianuam.

There's a verbal motion to do with, I'm not, I can't tell you any more than that, than a motion that you probably see with going through a door.

Okay.

Off we go.

I'll give you a clue.

Now, it begins with an I, We just saw it.

Has to do with going in.

It was going to be: great.

It's going to be intro.

Yeah, so you might see per ianuam and in a form of intro over there to do with entering through a door, through a doorway.

And then mime to me, what lacrimo, show me what lacrimo means.

Let's have a look.

Yeah.

Great.

[Mimics Crying] Lacrimo.

I cry and then mime to me timeo.

It's not that one.

It's the other one.

Timeo is I what? Is it this one [Mimics Intimidating Sounds] or this one? [Mimics Being Frightened] Which one? Yeah, good.

Timeo is I fear, I feel fear.

[Mimics Being Frightened] As opposed to terreo [Grrr] That one's I scare.

And mime dormio.

Some of you won't have to mind dormio, will you? Cause it's so easy.

Mime dormio to me in two, one, and [Mimics Sleeping] is I sleep, isn't it? Excellent.

Right.

We should be ready now to get 14 out of 14, on those words.

Pencil or pen at the ready.

You're going to be writing down one to 14 down the margin, and here is your quiz.

Press pause now.

Okay.

Let's see how we did.

Switching to a different colour pen and correcting your answers there.

I'm certain you've got them all right.

I'm really pleased.

Okay.

Now hands completely free because we're going to be learning about the characters in our story for translation today.

Let's put me in the right place.

So our translation this week is about this guy called Orpheus.

I'm just going to go with that.

We've got Orpheus and we'll find out who Eurydice is in a second.

Let's just get these names first Orpheus, Orpheus.

Good.

Eurydice, Eurydice.

Very nice.

So Orpheus here is described as a Meritus, which is the opposite of an uxor.

Uxor is a wife, So Meritus is a husband.

And his uxor, his wife, is Eurydice.

Now Orpehus is in this mosaic here.

Can we see what's he doing? What's this going on? He's got this thing, all rightm which has some strings.

This is like a musical instrument.

It's called a lyre, and he's not playing the lyre to people, he's playing the lyre to, yes, a bunch of animals.

Why is he doing that, Mr. Ferber? We're going to find out, all right? That the key thing is that he's an excellent musician and he loves his uxor.

Who's called Eurydice, who's not pictured here, but there's more to the story because you also have here Pluto, who was a Deus.

He is a god.

He's not just any ordinary god though.

He's a god of the underworld, which is where the Greeks and Romans believed people went after they died.

And he has a dog, has a canis, called Cerberus [Mr Ferber Barks] and whom we see here that Cerberus hasn't even got one head.

Oh no.

Cerberus has one, two, three heads.

All right.

This one goes like this [Barking] This one goes [More Barking] when this one goes, [More Barking] There's always a third one, I'm talking nonsense.

Right.

So Pluto, god of the underworld and his dog Cerberus.

Let's do some names.

Pluto, Pluto, Cerberus, Cerberus.

Okay.

Let's have a look.

Let's see if that went in.

So what is the relationship between Orpheus and Eurydice? Tell me now.

They are what? Great, they are husband and wife.

What is the relationship between Pluto and Cerberus? They are what.

Yeah, so he's sort of, a dog and a master or something, owner of a dog.

Yeah, because the idea.

Which of these four can't die? That's one, which these ones are immortal of those four.

Tell me, tell me.

Good.

So, Pluto can't die because he's a God.

And also Cerberus is sort of a divine dog, can't die.

Whereas these two are mortal.

Which of these is female, which are these, the only female character in the story.

Points at it, point to that one.

Three, two one, Eurydice.

And I think Eurydice's husband is Cerberus.

Is that correct? Is that correct? Nodding head shaking heads is going to be shaking hands, shaking heads.

When you see, make the noise that Cerberus, makes what noises Cerberus makes? He goes, yeah, tell me? He goes, [Barks] cause he's a three headed dog and it's Pluto.

Is he a god up there is he a god down there, god up there, god down there.

It's going to be a god down there in the underworld.

Lovely.

Okay.

We're nearly there.

Now we just need to practise a few things.

This is good, the Latin that you're going to be translating on your own in a matter of minutes.

But before we do that, we're going to have a quick look at some of the trickiest sentences which come up.

And they are sentences like this, which has both an imperfect and the perfect tense verb in them.

Now we're going to do some practise sentences.

We're not going to do these exact sentences cause that'll be cheating.

I'm just telling you the answer.

Instead, we're going to do ones which aren't changed a tiny little bit, including this one here, which is, we'll rebound.

Now this is example number one, which means I do it completely by myself and I don't want any help.

And so let's have a look.

We've got deus Orpheum audiebat et lacrimavit.

So let's have a look at that, pen at the read.

Step number one.

You'll notice these steps are the same, as in our grammar lessons.

However, grammar lessons, you must follow all the steps all the time, translation lessons.

I'm okay with you doing some of the steps in your head.

But when I do them, I'm going to do all the steps on the page.

All right.

The first thing I do is I get my ingredients.

Okay.

And I don't worry about the endings of words.

I think about the beginnings of the first three clauses.

I've got Deus, and I know from my tests, that that means god.

And I don't spell it with a capital G because there's more than one god in Greek and Roman mythology.

Orpheum.

I think that means that means his name's Orpheum.

I'm going to write down Orpheum.

No, I'm not! Okay.

Let's get this now.

All right.

We've done loads of work on this.

When you see, when you see a what's called a.

Oh no sorry, when you see an accusative form of someone's name in a story, you must write down their name in the nominative, and he's not called Orpheum.

Tell me what his name is.

He's called Orpheus.

What's he really good at doing? I should have asked you before.

What's he really good at? Is he good at dancing? Is he good at sports? He's good at music.

Anyway.

So we don't write down Orpheum.

When we translate his name, we call him Orpheus, excuse my handwriting, honestly.

Orpheus.

That's legible.

Now, and then we've got audiebat et lacrimavit.

So we've got now, now of the first half hour, audio has to do with hear.

Let's go for listen.

Et is and deary me [Inaudiable] and lacrimavit.

Lacrimavit has to do with crying.

Write that over here.

Okay.

So now I find my verb.

Now this is where we should change because actually I'm going to, I'm going to change this.

Now.

Let me say, when I find my verbs up, cause this is going to be more than one in these sentences that we're looking at.

And I checked my first ending and my tense.

Most of the stories in this, or in fact, all the stories that we're doing in this module are going to be in either the third person, singular or plural.

So we have more checking tenses here.

Alright.

So we've got audiebat, my verb lacrimavit, the other one.

When I say ba you say was or where, so I need to make this was listening.

I'm going to just go like that.

He was listening.

And when I say vit you say, ed, so this is going to be not cry, but now this is where I use the rubber Look at that.

Yeah.

Cause we know we all know how to spell cry, but cried, duh like that.

And there's your was then? Nominative has an accusative, a M on the end there.

That's my accusative.

And then that one is the us ending.

That's my nominative ending.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now, let's put this all together.

We've got two verbs here.

So we've got things that are tricky.

I'm going to give you two options.

I'm going to ask you to make things or to pick which one you think is right.

So my first thing is, I might say the God was listening while you've got god Orpheus was listening and cried.

The god, and I know this has got to be receiving a verb here.

We could do, the god was listening and cried Orpheus.

Well, we could, the god we could have the god was listening to Orpheus and cried.

Which one do you think it is again? So option number one, the god was listening and cried Orpheus, or should number two, the God was listening to Orpheus and cried.

Off we go.

Which one do we think? One or two? Show me in three, two.

And the answer is the second one.

So the God was listening to Orpheus.

And then we've got this ad here, which actually means our clause sort of divides, inviting another clause here and cried.

Okay.

I am not going to write it down because I want you to just get on with it.

I'm going to tell you the right answer.

One more time.

The god was listening to Orpheus and cried.

That's get rid of that mess on the screen there.

And, hopefully, we won't ever see anything as ugly as my handwriting on this next one.

Cause you're going to have a go and do this on your own.

Orpheus non timebat sed exspectavit.

Press pause for me and have a go at that sentence in three, two and pause.

Okay.

Now picking up a different colour pen, we're going to see how we did.

Let's have a little look.

So we've got actually, hold on.

I'll just back off.

Just mark what you've got, and then we'll talk through it.

Okay, great.

Let's have a look.

The main thing we need to get here is when I say bat, you say was or were, and when I say vit, you say, ed so you must make sure you have Orpheus was not fearing.

Now perfectly, perfectly acceptable is Orpheus was not afraid, or Orpheus was not scared is also okay.

I'll, sensible synonyms of fine.

So Orpeus was not fearing, or was not afraid, but weighted if you put, but he waited, That's excellent as well.

But expected is tolerable.

I prefer waited for expecto.

Okay.

Right.

There's a couple more questions, which is this.

Do we still know our preposition phrases.

Orpheus per ianuam abulabat.

Which of these two there? In two, point to the answer, two and And when I say bat, you say was or were.

Now I've got four options here.

So its going to be bit longer.

Orpheus ad ianuam abulavit.

I'm ad, vit.

Put them together.

Okay.

In three point around the answer, two, and it's going to be this one.

Orpheus vit, ed, so walked an ad means to the door.

Next up.

We've got Orpheus per ianuam intravit.

Which of these four Good.

Point the answer into three, two, and lovely.

Make sure you translate everything.

It's a standard mistakes miss out per here, and we need to know if vit intravit the ad.

Orpheus entered through the door.

And I think this is the last one.

So have a look.

Orpheus ad deum veniebat.

What was Veneo? And then we've got to think this bat, we've learned deus but what's deum.

Huh? Okay, have a look.

Okay.

Pointing out the right answer in three, two, and lovely Orpheus bat was coming to or towards the god.

There, great.

Okay.

Translation time.

That's enough of me.

It's time for you to, or it's time for us to read together.

And then actually it's time for you to get on with it.

What's going to happen with this story, right? I know.

I just said there's nothing to be talking, but actually I'm going to do some more talking.

Listening to me reading this Latin now, as we go through, let's have a little look, [Reading Latin] Orpheus was.

Now was he a bad singer? Canto, anything underlined is going to be down here.

He was optimus.

He was an excellent singer.

In theatris, the turba the crowd semper always.

And when I say bat, you say: Good.

Was praising or now another way of translating the imperfect tense is repeated action in the past.

So you might say used to praise Orpheum.

So I'm going to translate that.

No, what's his name? Tell me his name.

Good.

So in the theatres, the crowd used to always or used to always or was always praising Orpheus in sylvis in the woods, Now bestia is one animal, so bestiae is Good.

The animals or animals when they when I say vit you say ed, so when they heard Orpheum, is that his name? And they heard Orpheus.

They also bat.

What was it? What used to veneo? Used to come.

They used to come and listen.

Right, as well.

He was so good he could charm the animals.

Orpheus uxorem, amavit Ammo is I love so Orpheus was loving.

his wife.

What's that Orpheus, Good.

Loved his wife.

Who's called Eurydice.

One more time Eurydice.

Sed, but now I'll read you this bit [Speaking Latin] Let's have a look.

But a serpent, [Mimics Snake] a snake vit, vit, attacked his uxor attacked his wife.

And what happens to Eurydice? Did she live? [Gasps] She mortua est, she died, she was dead Orpheus.

Now is it cried? Noting the shaking heads, Orpheus was crying and was despairing.

Sed tum, but then he thought, he had an idea, and he thought I want to walk to the underworld, to go to the underworld and to, do this bit next, no objects.

And to lead, Eurydice my wife back to terram, back to earth, back to sort of, you might say from the underworld back to a sort of ground level, something like that.

Okay? Right.

So let's have a little thing what's happened Eurydice.

Is she alive? No, she's dead.

What's Orpheus going to do? He's going to go to the underworld to try and get his wife back.

Does he have any weapons? No.

All he's got is his musical talents and his pure love is deep, deep love for his wife.

Okay.

In order to try and go on this rescue mission, what on earth is going to happen? You tell me? Get translating.

And if you want to do the next bit as well, you can have a look at the final translation that final paragraph as a challenge to supposing how to do that.

What happened? Let's find out, okay.

Let's put me down here.

So different colour pen or pencil at the ready.

Let's go through this translation.

Orpheus walked to the door or did you know what to say? the doorway, at the entrance even, but he walked to the door of the underworld.

Cerberos, the dog, expectabat was waiting.

Orpheus was not afraid, but sang.

Really well done if you've got those tenses correct.

When I say bat good.

The happy dog was listening.

Then he dormibit, he slept and Orpheus entered through the door.

Then Orpheus greeted the god of the underworld.

Who's called Pluto.

Pluto listened to Orpheus and was crying.

We might say, if you wrote, he started crying.

That's great.

And was crying.

The god shouted.

And he said, he said, take your wife to the ground or to ground level to the surface, right? sed est lex.

But there is one condition: don't look back, or your wife comes back to me to get the side.

So noli videre don't look back or your wife or the wife comes back to me ad mei.

What's going to happen? So we've got this idea.

He's gone down there due to his, he's played a song, he sang about his pain is missing for his wife to Pluto.

And Pluto has said, that's fine.

You can have your wife back.

But when you leave her up to the surface, you can't look back.

What's going to happen.

Okay? Let's have a look reading together.

Let me down here.

[Speaking Latin] Oh this is stressing.

Now, sergo So now they were rising to the surface and Orpheus, he known he was not looking back, but pro tempore for an instant, for a second, he timebat.

He was afraid.

The husband looked at or watched his wife.

The wife was watching her husband, but then she shouted goodbye and she disappeared.

She vanished.

Orpheus walked to the surface alone.

Now the crowd and the animals were only listening to sad songs.

From then on, he only ever played sad songs to his audience.

He had no happiness in his life whatsoever.

The man who loved his wife too much.

Why did he look back? No one actually knows it's a complete mystery in sense of how the myth works.

Maybe you could let me know somehow, what'd you think? Okay.

Right.

Once you have marked and corrected your answers, complete that exit quiz, and other than that's what left If I was to say valete, I look forward to you having a look at some of the other lessons on this module and seeing some more stories to do with, you know, to do the perfect tense in them, but we'll be still with all sorts of things.

Okay.

All right.

So other than that very well done vale when I see vit you ed when I say bat you say we'll do a valete.

Take goodbye.

I'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.