Anna

I think this practice sheet still counts as Shitpost Calligraphy, but here's a little Lovecraft tribute to the horror fans in my feed. Nobody said practicing calligraphy slant had to be boring, right?

#ShitpostCalligraphy #Lovecraft #horror #eldritch

Dec 24, 2022 at 10:09pmWeb
Show threadCavyherdDec 25, 2022

@justanna

Omg I just had a flashback to a bit of poetry my Latin teacher read to us, something about "the murmering of the mountains." She read it, waited for a sec for us to Get It, & then had to point out that it was all alliteration & assonance Ms & Us & such.

Wish I could remember what the poem was. Only retained the phrase "cum mummerae" (sp?)

It would have been perfect for this practice....

Show threadAnnaDec 25, 2022
@cavyherd Oh! It totally would - and I do not know how to find it. Drat.
Show threadCavyherdDec 25, 2022

@justanna

Hm, I wonder if there's a Classics Scholar out there. @fade, maybe?

Show threadFadeDec 25, 2022
@cavyherd @justanna Probably something from Vergil, but I don't know off the top of my head, sorry!
Show threadCavyherdDec 25, 2022

@fade @justanna

Yes! That sounds extremely plausible!

Googling on Vergil & mountain immediately turns up this passage in The Aeneid BkI:50-80

"...They moan angrily at the doors, with a mountain's vast murmurs...."

Which definitely has the ring of familiarity about it, & is definitely something Mrs. Woodsome would have brought up in one of her "useless information" segments at the end of class.

Do you have access to the original Latin for that passage?

Show threadCavyherdDec 25, 2022

@fade @justanna

ISTR that we read the Illiad in Latin (in translation from the orginal Greek, I presume), so the Aneid would definitely have been on topic.

Show threadCavyherdDec 25, 2022

@fade @justanna

Hah! I think it might well have been this passage:
"Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis
circum claustra fremunt"

Thanks, @fade ! That memory has been tickling at the back of my mind for nigh on 45 years....

(Full text of the book in question here: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/vergil/aen1.shtml)

Vergil: Aeneid I

Show threadFadeDec 25, 2022

@cavyherd @justanna Ha, no wonder it sounded familiar. Though most any poetic line that sounds vaguely familiar that was dramatically quoted and from Latin is probably Vergil 60% of the time.

(If it sounds snarky, it's probably Catullus, with a chance of Horace or Ovid.)

Show threadCavyherdDec 25, 2022

@fade @justanna

Which in turn reminds me of the Catullus recording Ms. Woodsome played for us, read in deeply Serious, Erudite, & Scholarly tones by some deeply Serious, Erudite, & Scholarly Famous & Important Latin Scholar. The withering /scorn/ with which she introduced the performance was 😂🤣

Like, "Dude, have you ever actually, like, /read/ Catullus??"