Ducentesimum Tricesimum Quartum Latinum Verbum Diei: February 24, 2011

[David Warrington]

Hey all,

I know some of you high schoolers are probably getting pretty sick of
Vergil at this point, but just imagine having to do a book of the
Aeneid per week and you will see that my life sucks infinitely more
this semester! So here's a favorite grecism of Vergil's, oh-so-
prevalent in the Aeneid.

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pelagus, pelagi - neut.

Definition - the sea.

Sententia: Aeneid 5.8-11

Ut pelagus tenuere rates nec iam amplius ulla
Occurrit tellus, maria undique et undique caelum,
Olli caeruleus supra caput astitit imber
Noctem hiememque ferens et inhorruit unda tenebris.

Translation:

As the ships held the sea, no more land yet met them, the seas and the
sky were on all sides, sea-blue rain stood above the head to that one,
bringing night and a storm, and the wave bristled with shades.

Pelagus is borrowed from the neuter Greek word πέλαγος (pelagos) and
as such retains this parallel neuter form in Latin. Vergil uses this
word all the time in the Aeneid, but rarely in the accusative form
(only once I believe in the singular, never in the acc. pl.). Such
usage really plays up the Greek roots of the word, distinguishing it
from a 2nd dec. masc. Latin noun.

For all you AP Verg. kids keep on truckin' along! As the Sibyl says,
"nunc animis opus, [liberi], nunc pectore firmo" - Aen. 6.261

--
Dave Warrington
Classics
Georgetown University 2014