By Bonnie A. Catto

Description

An intermediate Latin reader with high-interest stories from Greek and Roman mythology, complete with grammatical/vocabulary help that boosts reading speed and reader confidence. The level of difficulty is graduated, with earlier stories being easier than those that come later. All stories are patterned after ancient authors: a perfect way to ease into advanced and author reading courses.

Special Features

• 20 stories from classical myth—from the rise of the gods to the prelude to the Trojan war, each with an introduction and citation for sources for the myths
  
• grammar and vocabulary notes on facing pages
  
• grammar and comprehension questions
  
• discussion questions
  
• cultural influences of the myth in art, music, ballet, and literature
  
• black and white illustrations
  
• map of place names mentioned
  
• genealogical charts
  
• list of ancient sources cited
  
• bibliography
  
• end vocabulary

Author Bio

Bonnie A. Catto is Professor of Classics at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she teaches Latin, Greek, Classics in Translation, and Roman History. She has also taught at Clark University; Middlebury College; Mount Holyoke College; The University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and The University of Pennsylvania. Her primary academic interests are Lucretius, Vergil, and Greek tragedy. She particularly likes to relate classical material to later writers, artists, philosophers, and composers. In her courses on Greek tragedy and comedy students enjoy viewing and discussing various film interpretations of the plays. Professor Catto also appreciates her role as the Faculty Advisor to the Classics Club, which takes trips to plays and to the classical collections of area museums, holds authentic Roman dinners, makes togas, and in general makes the Classics come alive. Her other interests include many performances on the cello as well as piano-playing for her own amusement. She is also a believer in Juvenal’s phrase mens sana in corpore sano and enjoys swimming and extensive participation in golf tournaments.

Comments and Reviews

Latina Mythica is a graduated Latin reader designed for pedagogical use. It contains twenty stories, in prose, of varying length (17-91 lines) based on Greek and Roman mythology, from the birth of the gods to the prelude to the Trojan war. The grammar assumed is based on the first twenty-two chapters of Wheelock's Latin.[[1]] Students of any standard Latin text, however, will find this work accessible. All vocabulary is provided on the facing page or in the vocabulary at the end of the book. Some vocabulary is repeated from one chapter to the next for those who wish to read selected stories rather than reading the entire book sequentially. C.'s preface (p. ix) details precisely which grammatical constructions are assumed and which are not (e.g., ablative absolutes, indirect speech, and subjunctives). The text includes macrons throughout.

Each chapter includes a number of features: (a) an introductory paragraph outlining the context for the myth, a feature which is very helpful for all those students who do not have a strong background in Classics; (b) a list of the ancient sources for the myth, mainly poetic, from which C. has drawn material for her version of the story; (c) grammar and comprehension questions; (d) discussion questions; (e) a brief section on the cultural influence of the myths. The grammar and comprehension questions are the sort that an instructor would ask in class; the presence of the questions already in the book will encourage students to learn to ask these questions of the text on their own. The discussion questions aim to engage students in an appreciation of the wider issues brought up in the stories, from ancient culture tidbits (e.g., What animal was normally sacrificed to Jupiter? ch. 4) to broad and provocative issues that could easily derail the class (e.g., Compare the Ovidian version of the flood with those in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible. ch. 7). The final section in each chapter is a selective list of post-classical cultural influences of the myth on art, literature, and music, which reminds students that classical subject matter has influenced western culture for centuries and is still relevant in our modern world.

C. has succeeded in providing a series of stories that are dynamic and intrinsically interesting as well as culturally and linguistically enlightening. The stories are paced well and have sufficient information for clarity and enough detail for interest. The stories are almost entirely narrative in form, so the lack of more complex syntax does not harm the presentation of the myth.

My main criticism of C.'s reader is that the progression of increasing grammatical complexity is quite slow. This could be seen as either a strength, since students can read with speed and confidence through the early sections of the book and focus on enriching their vocabulary skills, or a weakness, since, in a course where new grammatical skills are presented continuously, a reader that does not progress at a matching pace is difficult to use in the classroom. A helpful feature might be to include a note with each chapter that specifies what new grammar is included, thereby allowing an instructor to see at a glance which chapters would be suitable to use at a given point in their class(analogous to that given in 38 Latin Stories).[[2]] Because the more complicated grammar is generally glossed, this reader would be an ideal tool for a student studying independently.

A few quibbles. In a few instances, a vocabulary listing has migrated from its designated place to the opposite column on the page (twice in chapter 3). There are also a few instances in which glosses were wanting, as for example, an idiomatic use of the verb duco in chapter 7. Most proper names are glossed; all should be glossed. In my experience, students have difficulty predicting the nominative form and the declension pattern of proper names, particularly Greek names (which abound in C.'s stories).

A note about methodology. C. states explicitly that constructions which do not occur in the first twenty-two chapters of Wheelock's Latin will be glossed throughout the text. For example, since knowledge of indirect statement is not assumed, the indirect statement in line one of chapter 1 is glossed, but by line 23 of chapter 3 an indirect statement is present without a gloss, and subsequently simple indirect statements are used with some frequency. On the other hand, there is not a single ablative absolute in the entire text (a construction introduced in Wheelock's Latin before indirect statement). Having said that, it is very clear that C.'s reader is meant to be a resource alongside a textbook and does not intend to teach new grammar.

On the whole, this reader is a success, and the content of the stories themselves balances out any minor shortcomings in syntactical content. I look forward to using Latina Mythica in my own teaching. The book is pleasing in size and appearance, and the price is within reach of student budgets.

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Notes:
1. Wheelock's Latin, sixth edition, revised by Richard A. LaFleur. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.
2. Groton and May, 38 Latin Stories. Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2001.

— Tracy Deline,
University of British Columbia

Catto’s text arose from her experiences teaching elementary and intermediate Latin courses at Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts. The text features a collection of simplified versions of major Greco- Roman myths, written in Latin and of gradually increasing difficulty. As the chapters proceed—and the students’ vocabulary and syntax skills increase—the Latin becomes closer to the original sources. Each chapter includes an introduction in English, vocabulary list, grammar and comprehension questions, followup discussion questions, and a list of the cultural influences of each myth in art, music, ballet, and literature. The text is suitable for use as in-class sight reading, assigned work, or reading passages for tests. No subject index.

— Art Book News Annual 2007