Recited in Latin, this is how the poem (Ovid, Remedia Amoris, lines 175-184, 187-190) would have sounded to the Romans.
This recital is part of a Powerpoint presentation which also includes appropriate images.
Created by Godfrey Evans of Chelmsford County High School for Girls.
You may be asked to log-on as a guest first. Once opened (or saved) to your PC, you will then need to play the "slideshow" for full effect.

A very good, close translation by A.S.Kline (2001).

Super MP3 audio-file of an English literal translation/dramatisation of the Anthology extract prepared by the Camden School for Girls.
Includes a mooing cow!
Depending on your default media player, you may have to save this MP3 file onto your computer first.

Scroll to p.188 to find the start of the Anthology extract: "See how the branches bend..." At times the translation is close to the Latin, at others not so close. So, as with most published translations, use as a reference and not as a word-for-word copy!

If you want to read Remedia Amoris in print, it can be found along with Ovid's love poems (Amores) and other rather racy poems in Penguin's Ovid: The Erotic Poems, translated by Peter Green.

Virgil was the master at Latin pastoral poetry. His famous book of pastoral poems was called the Eclogues ("Selections"). This link takes you to Eclogue II, which oozes with rustic, idyllic imagery.

The Hellenistic Greek poet Theocritus is considered the "inventor" of pastoral or bucolic poetry. His poems were collected in a volume called the Idylls, a term in fact meaning "highly crafted" which referred to his poems' structure; now the term refers to the subject matter of the poems - "a picturesque and rustic scene".
This link takes you to Idyll 1.

Useful webpage from Wikipedia.

The Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spenser's first major poetic work, published in 1579. This series of pastoral poems, one for each month of the year, was in imitation of Virgil's first work, the Eclogues. The title, like the entire work, is written using deliberately archaic spellings to suggest a connection to older, more rustic times.
This link takes you to April which sings the praises of Queen Elizabeth I.

A forest setting, poems, shepherds and love:
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.
(Act II, Scene I, Lines 15-18).
Shakespeare had to have his own go at pastoral, and in his 1599 play, As You Like It, he not only used many of the traditional elements found in Virgil and Theocritus, but like Ovid and Horace also had a laugh at them.
It's still one of Shakey's most popular comedies - as the latest film version proves.

The great 17th-century French artist Claude Lorraine was much influenced by Virgil, and this scene, with its group of shepherds (two playing the flute) and its grazing cattle and goats, perfectly catches the mood of the Eclogues.
In the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK.

"Dream of Arcadia" painted by the American artist Thomas Cole.
In this romanticized 19th-century version of the Greek landscape, the inhabitants spend their time in leisurely pursuits such as riding, fishing and - importantly - playing music (on pipes and tambourines) and dancing. The presence of the temple in the distance accurately reflects the religious significance with which both the Greeks and the Romans invested the countryside.
In the Denver Art Museum, USA.

A useful link to learn more about this place, a region of Greece, which - through the Greek and Latin poets - became a byword for idyllic, pastoral bliss.

Nicolas Poussin's mysterious painting, The Shepherds of Arcadia (1638) is famous because of the ambiguous Latin phrase Et in Arcadia ego inscribed upon the tomb and which the shepherds are apparently trying to figure out.
It can mean "I too once lived in Arcadia", referring to the occupant of the tomb, but is more often darkly thought to imply that Death is present even in an idyllic world - and in that sense has been used by authors, poets and artists up to the present day.
On display in the Louvre, Paris.

Photo of this still-unspoiled Greek countryside. Photo 2 and photo 3 (with goats!).

Winter (top) has a wreath of reeds, Spring and Summer (middle) have blossoms and ripened wheat respectively, and Autumn (bottom) has a wreath of grapes (?)
In the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli, Libya.

This mosaic adopts the usual pattern when the Seasons are depicted: a main subject in the centre of the mosaic (here a personification of Africa), with a Season in each of the four corners.
Spring is at the bottom left with flowers in her hair; summer is bottom right with stalks of wheat in her hair; Autumn at top right has bunches of fruit (grapes?) in her hair; and Winter has her hair covered with sprigs of an evergreen plant in it.
Currently at El Djem's Municipality Building, Tunisia.

Autumn (with wreath of grapes)and Winter (with hood) are at the bottom; Spring (with wreath of flowers) and Summer (with sickle) are upside down at the top.
From the House of Bacchus in the Roman city of Complutum, near Madrid, Spain.

The version as shown on p.74 of the Anthology, depicts the musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas in the centre, with the heads of the 4 Seasons at the corners. It's big and dusty, and in the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia.

Detail of Autumn from late 2nd-century AD from Cirencester in England. Autumn is characterised by the grapes in her hair and a pruning knife above her shoulder.

Famous painting from the Villa Ariadne at Stabiae (modern Castellamare di Stabia) of Flora, the goddess of flowers.
Now in Naples Archaeological Museum.

Perhaps the most famous image of any of the Seasons is that of Spring, painted in 1477 by the Italian artist Alessandro Botticelli.
The painting depicts the moment that the West Wind, Zephyrus, grabs the nymph Chloris, marries her, and transforms her into Flora - the goddess of flowers and crops, and by association, Springtime.
Here's a close-up and here's a detail of her face.
Venus, the Graces and Mercury attend the scene.
Flora's annual festival was a joyous one in the Roman year; it ran from 28 April - 3 May and was known as the Floralia
The painting, commonly known as Primavera ("Spring") is in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

Painted in 1879 by famed French impressionist artist Renoir. In a private collection.

Yes - you can have the four beauties on your very own lawn! Can you work out which is which?

One of the best known poems of the seasons; written in 1819 by John Keats.

Listen to this recital of Ovid's poem (Ex Ponto I.VIII.29-38) written from exile on the shores of the Black Sea.

Scroll to p.83 to see a new English translation by Jan Felix Gaertner, 2005, that remains faithful to the Latin text.
The Anthology extract, "Thoughts of Home", is taken from Ovid's Ex Ponto I.VIII and starts at line 29 ("And do not think...") and runs to line 38 ("...of the aqueduct Virgo").

Close (but not exact) translation by Tony Kline, 2003.
The Anthology extract, "Thoughts of Home", is taken from Ovid's Ex Ponto I.VIII and starts at line 29 ("Don't think...") and runs to line 38 ("...Aqua Virgo").

For loads of great links to photos and maps of Rome, ancient and modern click here.

Labelling the Roman Forum, the Forum of Julius Caesar and the Forum of Augustus.

The original forum and always the centre of Roman political, legal and administrative life. Click here and scroll down for loads of links.

Started by Julius Caesar in 54 BC and finished by Augustus in 29 BC, the forum adjoined the north-west corner of the Roman Forum - no.25 on this map of today's ruins.
The Forum's focal point was the Temple of Venus Genetrix.
Here's a plan of the complex which has not yet been completely excavated.

Built to rival that of Julius, the Forum of Augustus and its Temple of Mars Ultor (the Avenger) were vowed by Octavian (later called Augustus) on the eve of the battle of Philippi (42 BC), where he avenged the assassination of Caesar, his adoptive father.
It's located at no.29 on this map of today's ruins. Here's a detailed plan - the other fora to the left and right weren't built till later - and it now looks like this.

Built originally in the 6th century BC, the huge Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was one of the wonders of Rome and the focal point of Roman religion for almost 1000 years until the empire became Christian. Hardly anything remains today - only part of the foundations - visible as solid brown parts in the trendy perspex model in the Capitoline Museum. Here's the temple's groundplan.
You can find a short but great fly-by of the reconstructed temple in this cgi-movie at the 1.50 minute mark.

Good reconstruction of this temple, built by Augustus. For more information, see the above link to the "Forum of Augustus" where this temple stood.

Completed by Augustus and named after his nephew, it was by far the most important of Rome's three theatres, it became the model for all later imperial theatres. This photo shows the partial remains of the outer facade. Originally, it would have looked something like this reconstruction.
While the walls are not made of marble - but of sparkling white travertine - the statues that stood in the second-row arhes would have been, as undoubtedly would have the stage-building that arose behind the stage.

This drawing shows how the Campus Martius really was a "field" - a low-lying, marshy one - before the foundation of Rome in 753 BC The hills to the south of it became the Capitoline and the Palatine.
While the rest of the city gradually developed during the Republic (509-31 BC), the Campus remained mostly undeveloped - as shown in this model of the city in the 400's BC - used only for assembling people, either for war preparation or voting. From the 200's BC more and more buildings were added, so that by the height of Empire in 300's AD it had been transformed into a built-up area full of civic amenities, with temples, theatres, circuses, baths and porticoes - as evident on this famous model of imperial Rome.

Ovid is probably referring to the Baths of Agrippa, which Marcus Agrippa built on the Campus Martius after 31 BC and left to the Roman people - so becoming Rome's first public baths. The complex included extensive gardens, an artificial lake (Stagnum Agrippae) serving as a swimming pool, and athletic facilities.

This famous aqueduct originally finished near the Pantheon in the Campus Martius where it supplied water to Agrippa's baths, but today it finishes slightly short of there emerging out of the 18th-century Trevi Fountain.
Some of its arches are still preserved; and here's a rare picture of its water-filled interior.
You can try and locate the aqueduct on this model of Rome. Clue: the Pantheon is at the bottom right, and the aqueduct runs horizontally across the image.

Recited in Latin, this is how the poem (Horace, Odes III.13) was heard 2000 years ago.

Another version of this famous poem (Horace, Odes III.13).
Which do you prefer?

And a third version. Which do you prefer?

English literal translation/dramatisation of the Anthology extract prepared by the Camden School for Girls.
Depending on your default media player, you may have to save this MP3 file onto your computer first.

Good, close translation. The accompanying notes are excellent.

Scroll down to this excellent, and very close, translation of Odes III.13 in this interesting PDF article about Horace and animal sacrifice by James Arieti.

This photo shows the so-called "Nymphaeum of the Orsini", next to Horace's villa in Licenza and, despite some Renaissance alterations, it seems to many to be the poet's much-loved Bandusian Spring.
Before alterations the spring would have had a more natural appearance; perhaps it is this spring pictured here by the German painter Jakob Philippe Hackert who sketched and painted scenes in and around Horace's Villa in the Licenza Valley, Italy, c.1770.

In classical times drinking the waters of sacred spings was thought to inspire poets and artists.
The Hippocrene ("horse spring") bubbled up on Mt. Helicon in Greece, home of the Muses, the nine goddesses of creative inspiration. Pegasus, the winged horse, can be seen in the distance stamping his hoof and so creating the Hippocrene spring.

In classical times drinking the waters of sacred spings was thought to inspire poets and artists.
This painting, Paranssus, (1497), is by Andrea Mantegna in the Louvre and shows the Castalian cascading as a waterfall in the distance. The 9 Muses dance while Pegasus, the winged horse who created many springs with the stamp of his hoof, stands by.
From the slopes of Mt. Parnassus at Delphi in Greece, the Castalian Spring still emerges from a rock cleft, the actual source having been cut into a regular slot in Classical times.
Another famous painting featuring the Castalian Spring is Parnassus by Raphael (1509-10) in the Papal Appartments of the Vatican in Rome. Click on the thumbnail to view it in full screen.

having a little head-butt...ahhhh!

The horn-buds of this kid are appearing...just like Horace's goat.

The star Canicula ("little dog") is better known today as Sirius (from the Greek meaning burning) - the brightest star in the sky apart from our own Sun. It's visible in the summer-time, and so is associated with the hottest time of the year.
Photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Sirius is part of the constellation Canis Major ("the Great Dog").

Everything you wanted to know about this tree that Horace says stood above the spring.

A PowerPoint presentation combining a Latin recitation of the poem (Horace, Satires II.6, 79-117) with illustrations.
Created by Godfrey Evans of Chelmsford County High School for Girls.
You may be asked to log-on as a guest first.

Fantastic literal translation/dramatisation of the Anthology extract prepared by the Camden School for Girls.
Includes a posh mouse, a yokel mouse and some noisy dogs!
Depending on your default media player, you may have to save this MP3 file onto your computer first.

Horace's original word order has been shuffled to mimic a normal English word order. A useful tool.

A rather nice, loose poetic translation in rhyme by 19th-century Classical scholar, John Connington.

Fairly loose translation with added literary embellishments; illustrated. Fun.

Detail of a famous mosaic known as the "Unswept Room", originally made by Sosus in the 100's BC. This version is a Roman copy from a villa on the Aventine Hill in Rome; now in the Vatican Museum, Rome.

Rich in protein, chick-peas were an important food in Roman times: they were cooked into a broth and also roasted as a snack. Today they are the basis of falafel and humus. The chick-peas are about 1cm in diameter.
Here's a photo of the bushy plant; and a close-up of the seed-pods which contain two or three of the actual chick-peas.
Cicero claimed his family's name derived from the cicer!

A cultivated cereal that is able to grow on poor soil; recognisible by its numerous branches that bear the grains.
In Roman times, oats seem to have been a "poor person's" cereal, wheat having become the chief grain due to its preferred use in bread.

Roman foods, but what''s the difference? Short answer is "there isn''t any - they''re all dried grapes!"
But here''s a more detailed answer, including the interesting fact that currants were originally from Corinth - hence their name!

Chaff is the inedible parts (such as seed casings and stalks) that is harvested along with the valuable cereal grains. The chaff is separated from the grain by beating (threshing) and then, since it is lighter then the grain, it can be separated and blown away with wind (winnowing). The word "Chaff" is also used to refer to something worthless.

Ador more precisely refers to a coarse type of wheat-grain, such as emmer wheat or spelt.
By Roman times, the prefered grain for making bread was what is today known as "common" or "bread-wheat" due to its greater ability to rise during baking. The Latin for "bread-wheat" is triticum, -i, (n), while the Latin word for "grain" in general is frumentum.

Grass: Horace isn't talking about neatly mown lawns, but wild grass that annoyingly grows amongst the cereal crops (which are also types of grass in fact!) and is thus a weed. Also known in English as "darnel".

We're not talking poodles here!These dogs, ancestors of mastiffs, were used by the Molossians in Greece and the Romans for hunting and protecting homes and livestock.
"Never, with them on guard," says Virgil, "need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves, or Iberian brigands at your back."

Hunting dogs pictured in a Roman mosaic from El Djem, and now in the Bardo Museum, Tunis, Tunisia.

Terrific series of literary and cultural questions with follow-up answers and pointers that help illuminate the Anthology text. Especially valuable for those preparing for GCSE exams.
Created by Godfrey Evans of Chelmsford County High School for Girls.
You may be asked to log-on as a guest first.
Once you have opened or saved the file to your PC, you'll need to play in "slideshow mode" for full effect.

A collection of four similar tales: the Greek one is by Aesop (mid 500's BC); the French one by famous French poet Jean de La Fontaine (1600's AD); the others are traditional and anonymous.