Classical Literacy Exam - Level II Edited by Zachary Ward CLASSICAL LITERACY EXAM: LEVEL 2 2 Actaeon Aeolus Aeolus was the king of the winds in Greek mythology. He was the ruler of the Island of Aeolia. In the Odyssey, he helps Odysseus to almost get home by giving him a bag containing the winds. Affidavit Actaeon was a famous hunter from Thebes. One day A sworn statement in writing made especially under oath while out hunting he came upon Artemis while she was before an authorized magistrate or officer. bathing. As a punishment, Artemis transformed him into a stag and Actaeon was torn apart by his own hunting Agamemnon dogs. Son of Atreus, brother of Ad astra per aspera Menelaus, husband of Clytemnestra, and king of A Latin phrase that means “To the Stars Through Mycenae. Elected commander Difficulties”. It is the motto of Kansas. in chief of the Greeks in the Trojan War. When the war was Ad lib/ad libitum over, he sailed home where he was murdered by Aegisthus A Latin phrase that means “at one’s pleasure”. In music and Clytemnestra. Odysseus and drama it refers to improvisation. speaks to his spirit in Hades. Adonis Alba Longa Adonis was a youth of remarkable beauty, a favorite of An ancient city in central Italy, southeast of Rome. It was Aphrodite. As a child he was put in the destroyed by Rome around the middle of the 7th century care of Persephone, who refused to BC. Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, had come allow him to return from the from Alba Longa. underworld. Zeus ruled that he should spend a third of the year with Amphitrite Persephone, a third with Aphrodite, and a third on his own. He became a hunter Poseidon's wife; goddess of the sea. Her counterpart in and was killed by Ares, Artemis, or Roman mythology is Salacia, the goddess of saltwater. Apollo in the shape of a boar. In answer to Aphrodite's pleas, Zeus Andromache allowed him to spend half the year with her and half in the underworld. An The wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax. After the “Adonis” can also be a term for an attractive young man. Trojan War, she was made the concubine of Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. ! ! Actaeon Page 1 Andromache CLASSICAL LITERACY EXAM: LEVEL 2 Andromeda Augury The daughter of King Cepheus of Ethiopia. As a A sign of what will happen in the future; an omen.! punishment for a boast her mother made, Andromeda ! was given as a sacrifice to be eaten by the sea monster Ave, Maria Cetus. Fortunately, Perseus was returning from slaying Medusa. He saved Andromeda and then married her. A traditional Catholic prayer asking for the intercession Andromeda is also the name of a galaxy. of the Virgin Mary--“Hail Mary”.! ! ! Ars gratia artis Basilica In Roman architecture a courtroom, rectangular in plan A Latin phrase that with an entrance usually on a long side. In Christian means “Art for the sake architecture, a church somewhat resembling the Roman of Art”. It is the motto of Basilica usually entered from one end and with an apse at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. the other.! ! ! Beware of Greeks bearing gifts Ars longa, vita brevis Do not trust enemies who bring you gifts - they could A Latin phrase that says “Art is long, Life is short”, very well be playing a trick. The saying is from the meaning “There is so much art to learn and so little time words of Laocoon from the story of the Trojan Horse in to learn it”. This phrase is a Latin translation of a Greek the Aeneid; “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”! aphorism by Hippocrates; “Life is short, art long, ! opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment Caduceus difficult.”! The staff carried by Hermes in ! Greek mythology. The same staff Attica was also borne by heralds in general. It is a short staff entwined by two A 1,000 square mile promontory in serpents, sometimes surmounted by southeast central Greece, the wings. The caduceus is often location of Athens. It is a rugged mistakenly used as a symbol of terrain that yielded high-quality medicine and medical practice, due marble and potter's clay as well as to historical confusion with the traditional medical silver and lead.! symbol, the rod of Asclepius. The Rod of Asclepius has only a single snake and no wings, so is similar in form to ! the caduceus with its two snakes and often with wings.! Augean Stables ! The fifth Labour of Heracles was to clean the Augean Calliope stables . These stables had not been cleaned in over 30 The muse of epic poetry. She is the daughter of Zeus and years, and over 1,000 cattle lived there. However, Mnemosyne, and the mother of Orpheus. She was the Heracles succeeded by rerouting the rivers Alpheus and lead muse. She is always seen with a writing tablet, and Peneus to wash out the filth.! sometimes with a scroll, book, or gold crown. A calliope ! is also the name of a steam powered musical instrument.! Andromeda Page 2 Calliope CLASSICAL LITERACY EXAM: LEVEL 2 Calypso from an egg, along with their twin Censor sisters Helen of Troy and The beautiful nymph who falls in love Clytemnestra. In Latin the twins are A person who supervises conduct and with Odysseus when he lands on her also known as the Gemini. When morals or who examines materials for island-home of Ogygia. She holds Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus objectionable matter. In ancient Rome, Odysseus prisoner there for seven to let him share his own immortality one of two magistrates, assessors, and years until Hermes persuades her to with his twin to keep them together, inspectors of morals and conduct. and they were transformed into the let him go. They conducted the census.! constellation Gemini. The pair was ! Cardinal regarded as the patrons of sailors and were also associated with cf./confer Being or denoting a numerical horsemanship.! "Compare". Confer is from Latin quantity, but not order. It can also ! conferre, meaning "bring together". mean most important. Causa belli Cf./confer is used to refer to other material or ideas which may provide Cassandra The reason of war. It can also be used similar or different information or A prophetess in Troy during the to refer to justification for fighting.! arguments. It is mainly used in Trojan War whose predictions were ! scholarly contexts such as in academic true but were never believed. The articles or legal texts. ! daughter of King Priam and Queen Caveat emptor ! Hecuba of Troy, her beauty caused "Let the buyer beware" - A Chimerical Apollo to grant her the gift of commercial principle that without a prophecy. When she refused Apollo, warranty the buyer takes upon himself Produced by a wildly fanciful he placed a curse on her so that she the risk of quality. imagination, absurd. Comes from the would never be believed.! mythological Latin Chimaera.! Castor and Pollux ! Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were Cincinnatus twin brothers, together known as the A Roman dictator who was chosen by Dioscuri. Their mother was Leda, but the Romans to defend their lands from Castor was the mortal son of attack. Later, he willingly gave up Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux power and was thus considered an the divine son of Zeus. Though ideal leader by the Romans.! accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born Calypso Page 3 Cincinnatus CLASSICAL LITERACY EXAM: LEVEL 2 circa Concatenation involving the poison were thus to be taken "with a grain of salt," and Circa (from Latin, meaning "around A series of things depending on each therefore less seriously. The Latin or about"), usually abbreviated c. or other as if linked together. From Latin word salis means both "salt" and ca., means "approximately," usually concatenare “to link together” "wit," so that the Latin phrase "cum referring to a date when not precisely grano salis" could be translated as known. Constantine both "with a grain of salt" and "with a grain of wit." The phrase "cum grano Emperor of Rome who adopted the Circe salis" is not what Pliny wrote. It is Christian faith and stopped the constructed according to the grammar A sorceress who detained Odysseus persecution of Christians (280-337). of modern European languages rather on her island of Aeaea and turned his He also moved the capital of Rome to than Classical Latin. Pliny's actual men into swine. B y z a n t i u m , r e n a m i n g i t words were "addito salis grano" (the Constantinople. Cleopatra addition of a grain of salt). Corpus delicti Queen of Egypt (51--30 BC), Cupid and Psyche renowned for her beauty: the mistress The body of evidence that constitute A myth of Julius Caesar and later of Mark the offense, facts proving that a crime found in Antony. She killed herself with an asp has been committed (e.g. the dead Lucius to avoid capture by Octavian. body in a murder). There must be Apuleius' corpus delicti in order for someone to “The Cogito ergo sum be convicted of crime. Golden Cogito ergo sum (English: "I think, Corrigenda Ass”. therefore I am") is a philosophical Latin statement proposed by René A list of printing errors in a book Descartes, a French philosopher. The along with their corrections, things to Aphrodite sends Eros to curse Psyche simple meaning of the phrase is that be corrected. because of her jealousy. Eros falls in something, an "I", exists to do the love with her instead.