HERCULES





Hercules was greatly beloved of the ancients, for several reasons. His famous twelve labors have been celebrated in art for centuries. Let's read his story and find out why he's so famous in art and literature:


CHAPTER 1. THE INFANT PRODIGY.

Hercules, Alcmenae filius, olim in Graecia habitabat. Hic dicitur omnium hominum validissimus fuisse. At Iuno, regina deorum, Alcmenam oderat, et Herculem adhuc infantem necare voluit. Misit igitur duas serpentes saevissimas; hae mediā nocte in cubiculum Alcmenae venerunt, ubi Hercules cum fratre suo dormiebat. Nec tamen in cunis, sed in scuto magno cubabant. Serpentes iam appropinquaverant et scutum movebant; itaque pueri e somno excitati sunt.


Notes:

________________________________________
  • 1. Hic dicitur fuisse, this man is said to have been; we'd probably say it's said that Hercules was. Latin preferred to use a personal construction.
  • 2. validissimus : Nominative because it agrees with Hic, the subject of the verb dicitur. It's another example of the dreaded predicate nominative.
  • 3. oderat : In this verb, the tenses have all been shifted back in time one degree. The perfect tense is used where we'd expect a present tense, the pluperfect is used where we'd expect a perfect. So if follows that this pluperfect tense will be translated with a simple past: she hated.
  • 4. . mediā nocte : Ablative of time. The adjective medius, -a, -um causes beginning Latin students some problems because in English we use middle as a noun and then complete its meaning with a possessive case. So we say in the middle of the night. (Medius may be thought of as our mid- : midday, midnight, midstream, and so on.)


    Vocabulary:

    ________________________________________
  • olim, adv., once upon a time, formerly.
  • odi, -isse, osurus, defective, tr., hate.
  • medius, -a, -um, adj., mid, middle, intervening.
  • cubiculum, -i, n., bedroom.
  • cunae, -arum, f. pl., a cradle.
  • scutum, -i, n., shield.
  • appropinquo (1), intr., approach, draw near.
  • cubo, -are, cubui, cubitus, intr., lie down, recline.