Ducentesimum Octavum Latinum Verbum Diei: May 16, 2010
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Christina Wallin
May 16, 2010, 11:59:08 PM5/16/10
to Latinum Verbum Diei
Theme for this month: Miscellany
ingens, ingentis
Definition: huge, vast; very great in number; very great in degree or
intensity; (of persons, families, etc.) very great, powerful,
influential; (of character) lofty, proud, heroic, haughty, overweening
Sententia: Ovid Metamorphoses 7.425-27
(passage before, l. 419-424, in brackets)
[ ea coniugis astu
ipse parens Aegeus nato porrexit ut hosti.
Sumpserat ignara Theseus data pocula dextra,
cum pater in capulo gladii cognovit eburno
signa sui generis facinusque excussit ab ore.
Effugit illa necem nebulis per carmina motis.]
At genitor, quamquam laetatur sospite nato,
attonitus tamen est ingens discrimine parvo
committi potuisse nefas.
But the father, although he rejoices because his son is safe,
nevertheless is shocked that huge wickedness could have been committed
with a slight shift in fortune.
Publius Ovidius Maro was a poet in the time of Augustus, about a
generation after Vergil. Although he was known for his elegiac
couplets, he wrote the Metamorphoses, whence this selection was taken,
entirely in dactylic hexameter. This part of book 7 is the story
Medea, at the point when she has almost been able to trick Aegeus into
giving Theseus a cup of poison, not knowing that Theseus is indeed his
son.
This passage, as well as the lines preceding it, emphasizes the
familial relation between the father and son, with words such as
“genitor” and “nato.” In addition to these words, A. M. Keith* posits
that the contrast between “ingens” and “parvo in “ingens discrimine
parvo...nefas” also is an etymological emphasis of the same sort of
familial relation: with “ingens” posited to be “in,” from the
preposition, meaning both “within” and “against” + “gens,” in this
case family. Another ancient etymology for “ingens” is “in,” in its
intensive form, + “gens,” posited by Paul the Deacon citing Festus, an
ancient grammarian of the second century CE. However, the OLD does
not contain any such etymology, citing it as of “dubious” origin.
Additionally, I apologize for the unannounced hiatus in the LVD—these
past two weeks in May I was quite intently studying for finals.
Ignosce mihi!
*A. M. Keith. ”Etymological Play on Ingens in Ovid, Vergil, and
Octavia.” The American Journal of Philology 112.1 (1991): 73-76.
Online available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/295013?seq=1
ingens, ingentis
Definition: huge, vast; very great in number; very great in degree or
intensity; (of persons, families, etc.) very great, powerful,
influential; (of character) lofty, proud, heroic, haughty, overweening
Sententia: Ovid Metamorphoses 7.425-27
(passage before, l. 419-424, in brackets)
[ ea coniugis astu
ipse parens Aegeus nato porrexit ut hosti.
Sumpserat ignara Theseus data pocula dextra,
cum pater in capulo gladii cognovit eburno
signa sui generis facinusque excussit ab ore.
Effugit illa necem nebulis per carmina motis.]
At genitor, quamquam laetatur sospite nato,
attonitus tamen est ingens discrimine parvo
committi potuisse nefas.
But the father, although he rejoices because his son is safe,
nevertheless is shocked that huge wickedness could have been committed
with a slight shift in fortune.
Publius Ovidius Maro was a poet in the time of Augustus, about a
generation after Vergil. Although he was known for his elegiac
couplets, he wrote the Metamorphoses, whence this selection was taken,
entirely in dactylic hexameter. This part of book 7 is the story
Medea, at the point when she has almost been able to trick Aegeus into
giving Theseus a cup of poison, not knowing that Theseus is indeed his
son.
This passage, as well as the lines preceding it, emphasizes the
familial relation between the father and son, with words such as
“genitor” and “nato.” In addition to these words, A. M. Keith* posits
that the contrast between “ingens” and “parvo in “ingens discrimine
parvo...nefas” also is an etymological emphasis of the same sort of
familial relation: with “ingens” posited to be “in,” from the
preposition, meaning both “within” and “against” + “gens,” in this
case family. Another ancient etymology for “ingens” is “in,” in its
intensive form, + “gens,” posited by Paul the Deacon citing Festus, an
ancient grammarian of the second century CE. However, the OLD does
not contain any such etymology, citing it as of “dubious” origin.
Additionally, I apologize for the unannounced hiatus in the LVD—these
past two weeks in May I was quite intently studying for finals.
Ignosce mihi!
*A. M. Keith. ”Etymological Play on Ingens in Ovid, Vergil, and
Octavia.” The American Journal of Philology 112.1 (1991): 73-76.
Online available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/295013?seq=1
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