Activity

Wedding vows

Characters:

Erinna of Telos

Theme: Vocabulary

Competencies

Competence in Linguistic Communication

Multilingual Competence

Personal, social and learning to learn competence

Competence in cultural awareness and expressions

Subjects and year by Educational System

Spain > Classical culture > 4th ESO > The survival of classical languages. Language and lexicon

Enunciation

Erina was a Greek poet of the 4th century BC, whose most famous work contains 26 legible verses, out of a total of 54, corresponding to different parts of the poem. Originally, this poem, called The Distaff, was 300 lines long. It is a lament for the death of her friend Baucis and an evocation of a childhood lost and spent with her. She was born on the island of Telos, now Tilos, in Greece, near Kos, where she seems to have studied. She was much admired in her time and praised by later poets for the maturity of her writing despite her young age, as it seems she wrote this poem at the age of 15.
The activity, based on a fragment of The Distaff, tells us about the step from childhood to adulthood and will help us tell the rite of marriage in Greece. Therefore, we will divide it into two parts: &nbsp;
1- Make a glossary with the following words. You can look them up in a dictionary or on the Internet: Anakalupteria, andron, Callirroe, epaulia, gamos, Gamelion, gynoecium, hymenaeus, proaulia.&nbsp;
2- Find words in your language that contain the etymon gamos, Aphrodite or Eros, and write their meaning.
Fragment of The Distaff &nbsp;
&hellip;and those game, Baucis, remember?&nbsp; Two white horses, four frenzied feet &ndash; and one Tortoise&nbsp; to your hare: &lsquo;Caught you,&rsquo; I cried, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re Mrs Tortoise now.&rsquo;&nbsp; But when your turn came at last to catch the catcher&nbsp; you raced on far beyond us, out from the great shell&nbsp; of our smoke-filled yard&hellip;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &hellip; Baucis, these tears are your embers&nbsp; and my memorial, traces glowing in my heart,&nbsp; now all that we once shared has turned to ash &hellip;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &hellip; as girls&nbsp; we played weddings with our dolls, brides in our soft beds,&nbsp; or sometimes I was &lsquo;mother&rsquo; allotting dawn wool&nbsp; to the women, calling for you to help spin out&nbsp; the thread &hellip;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&hellip;and our terror (remember?) of Mormo&nbsp; the monster &ndash; big ears, long tongue, forever flapping,&nbsp; her frenzy on all fours, those changing shapes &ndash; a trap&nbsp; for girls who had lost their way &hellip;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&hellip; But when you set sail&nbsp; for a man&rsquo;s bed, Baucis, you let it slip away,&nbsp; forgot the lessons you had learnt from your &lsquo;mother&rsquo;&nbsp; in those far-off days &ndash; no, never forgot; that thief&nbsp; Desire stole all memory away&hellip;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &hellip; My lost friend,&nbsp; here is my lament: I can&rsquo;t bear that dark death-bed,&nbsp; can&rsquo;t bring myself to step outside my door, won&rsquo;t look&nbsp; on your stone face, won&rsquo;t cry or cut my hair for shame &hellip;&nbsp; &nbsp; But Baucis this crimson grief&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; is tearing me in two &hellip;&nbsp; &nbsp; Balmer, J., Translating Fragments II: Erinna&rsquo;s Distaff. The Paths of Survival &lt;<a href="https://thepathsofsurvival.co.uk/2012/10/05/translating-fragments-ii-erinnas-distaff/">https://thepathsofsurvival.co.uk/2012/10/05/translating-fragments-ii-erinnas-distaff/</a>&gt;&nbsp;
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Observations and context

Erinna's work is an elegy, a poetic composition that is not subject to a specific type of verse, but Erinna uses the dactylic hexameter, typical of homeric poetry.

She writes in the Dorian dialect, loaded with Aeolicisms, a nod to her predecessor Sappho and to lyric poetry in general, given that Aeolian is the language with which this genre was born. From later times, ranging from the 4th century AD until the Hellenistic and Roman times, other poets can be found, such as Anyte of Tegea, Moero of Byzantium, Nossis, Aristodama of Smyrna or Melinno.

The elegy is a type of composition that has continued to be cultivated throughout history, and of which Erinna is, undoubtedly, a referent.

An activity to be done individually is proposed, and it is made up of two parts: formation of a glossary of words related to the marriage rite and, secondly, the etymologies linked to the etymons gamos, Aphrodite and Eros.

Description

Through the work of Erinna The Distaff, we will make known the words linked to marriage and love, creating a glossary and looking for derivatives of some etyms.

Answer

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