Latin as a required study

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   Nickny79posted 17 years ago

   I wonder how many of you out there suffered through Latin in school.  If so, do you believe you Latin has benefited (bene, well; factus, make) you in anyway?

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   Nickny79posted 17 years ago

   and no!  I'm not promoting any hub here. 

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   Sufidreamerposted 17 years ago

   Sadly, I forgot most of mine.
   
   The grammar is helping me as I learn Greek, though, so it is useful!

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      Nickny79posted 17 years agoin reply to this

      Ancient Greek is a charming language; however, unlike Latin it doesn't have the benefit of the all-purpose Ablative case which I so adore.  The Greeks shuttled what would be Ablatives into the Dative and Genitive cases which is not nearly so neat.  That being said, there is nothing like reading the Greek epics in the original.

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         Sufidreamerposted 17 years agoin reply to this

         The joys of the ablative! I used to really enjoy Latin, but is is nearly twenty years ago, so I have forgotten most of it.
         
         I have not got as far as Ancient Greek yet - still learning the modern language, although there is some overlap. I hope to both refresh my Latin and study Ancient Greek in the future, but a few other things to sort out first.

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   kerrygposted 17 years ago

   I studied Latin in high school, but have forgotten most of the grammar. The vocab, of course, continues to be incredibly helpful.
   
   I liked Greek better, though. It did bad things to my GPA in college (only time in my life I was proud of a B *g*), but I think it's a much prettier and more expressive language. I'm biased, though, because I never met a Greek poet or playwright I didn't like, while Ovid is just about the only Roman I seem to get along with.

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      Sufidreamerposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      The Romans were great at comedy - Petronius and Martial always raised a chuckle amongst a roomful of schoolboys, especially the risque epigrams! On the other hand, ave atque vale, a poem written by Catullus at his brother's grave, was very touching.

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         kerrygposted 17 years agoin reply to this

         I should probably give them another shot now that I'm older. I have much stronger memories of my eyes nearly popping out of my head while reading Lysistrata as a rather naive 14 year old.

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            Sufidreamerposted 17 years agoin reply to this

            There is some good work there - we were lucky to have a great teacher, who tried to pick out the really interesting writers. I never studied Ancient Greek, although I love the plays.
            
            I remember saving up for a year to join the class vacation to Rome and Pompeii - a very sad place

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