the CAMPVS

Formatting Poetry, v.2

I’ve worked out a new working standard for marking up verse through ordered lists in HTML using CSS. Special thanks go to Alun Salt for sharing my Google+ post on the subject and Markos Giannopoulos for responding to Alun’s share with a very helpful tip about using what’s called an nth-child selector to simplify the markup.

You can hop over to my page on Formatting Poetry to see the old standard, and if you do you may notice that there was quite a bit less in the style sheet before.

While that may seem more advantageous, this new method seems to me to make far better use of CSS and eliminates a lot of unnecessary markup within LI (‘list item’) tags. Using the current markup the only thing you’ll be modifying is the OL (‘ordered list’) tag, whereas with the previous version you’d modify that as well as every fifth line and every indented line, which could amount to a daunting number of LI tags and a very tedious chore. That’s an awful lot of extra markup, and kind of flies in the face of what CSS is meant to do.

THE NEW STANDARD

So here’s the new portion to be put into your style sheet:

/* New CSS for Formatting Poetry, Dennis McHenry, 3/29/2012. Thanks to
   Markos Giannopoulos for the hint about nth-child selectors, and to
   David Primmer for suggesting CSS comments to clarify usage. */

/* VERSE (.vrs)
   This marks the ordered list as a snippet (or more) of verse to be
   set with a given margin and with numbers suppressed, which will be
   called out as desired by another class (i.e., .s16, etc.). */

ol.vrs {
        margin-left:5em;
        list-style:none;
        position:relative;
}

/* INDENT FROM THE 2ND LINE (.in2)
   For elegiacs (vel sim.). Verses are indented alternately beginning with the
   SECOND line cited. */

ol.in2 li:nth-child(2n+2) {
        text-indent:1.5em;
}

/* INDENT FROM THE 1ST LINE (.in1)
   For elegiacs (vel sim.), when the lines printed begin with an indented line. */

ol.in1 li:nth-child(2n+1) {
        text-indent:1.5em;
}

/* STARTING LINE (.s16, etc.)
   Show every line number which is a multiple of five, based on the final digit
   of the first line of the passage. If the final digit of the first line cited
   is a 1 or a 6, choose .s16; for a 2 or a 7 choose .s27; for a 3 or an 8
   choose .s38; for a 4 or a 9 choose .s49; and for a 5 or a 0 choose .s50. */

.s16 li:nth-child(5n+5) {
        list-style:decimal;
}

.s27 li:nth-child(5n+4) {
        list-style:decimal;
}

.s38 li:nth-child(5n+3) {
        list-style:decimal;
}

.s49 li:nth-child(5n+2) {
        list-style:decimal;
}

.s50 li:nth-child(5n+1) {
        list-style:decimal;
}

The first indicates the fact that you’re dealing with verse, and the next two may be used indicate which lines should be indented.

The remainder are used to ensure that line numbers appear only on the fives and the zeros, no matter which starting number you use (but you absolutely must indicate the correct starting number). 16, for example, means that your starting verse number is or ends with a 1 or a 6, and it tells the browser to show the numbers only for the fifth line and every fifth line after it. If you use 38, then it tells your browser to show the numbers only for the third line and every fifth line after it. And so on.

EXAMPLES

Propertius 3.17, 14–16.

<ol start="14" class="vrs in1 s49">
        <li>accersitus erit somnus in ossa mea,</li>
        <li>ipse seram vites pangamque ex ordine colles,</li>
        <li>quos carpant nullae me vigilante ferae.</li>
</ol>

14. accersitus erit somnus in ossa mea,
15. ipse seram vites pangamque ex ordine colles,
16. quos carpant nullae me vigilante ferae.

Lucan 1.8—12.

<ol start="9" class="vrs s49">
        <li>gentibus invisis Latium praebere cruorem?</li>
        <li>cumque superba foret Babylon spolianda tropaeis</li>
        <li>Ausoniis umbraque erraret Crassus inulta</li>
        <li>bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos?</li>
</ol>

9. gentibus invisis Latium praebere cruorem?
10. cumque superba foret Babylon spolianda tropaeis
11. Ausoniis umbraque erraret Crassus inulta
12. bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos?

When I worked it out the first time I used an elegy by Housman, and the lines were formatted in this way (notice the extra, tedious markup on every other line):

The old markup:

<ol class="poem">
        <li>Signa pruinosae variantia luce cavernas</li>
        <li class="indent">noctis et extincto lumina nata die</li>
        <li>solo rure vagi lateque tacentibus arvis</li>
        <li class="indent">surgere nos una vidimus oceano.</li>
        <li class="show">vidimus: illa prius, cum luce carebat uterque,</li>
        <li class="indent">viderat in latium prona poeta mare,</li>
        <li>seque memor terra mortalem matre creatum</li>
        <li class="indent">intulit aeternis carmina sideribus,</li>
        <li>clara nimis post se genitis exempla daturus</li>
        <li class="insh">ne quis forte deis fidere vellet homo.</li>
</ol>

The new markup:

<ol class="vrs in2 s16">
        <li>Signa pruinosae variantia luce cavernas</li>
        <li>noctis et extincto lumina nata die</li>
        <li>solo rure vagi lateque tacentibus arvis</li>
        <li>surgere nos una vidimus oceano.</li>
        <li>vidimus: illa prius, cum luce carebat uterque,</li>
        <li>viderat in latium prona poeta mare,</li>
        <li>seque memor terra mortalem matre creatum</li>
        <li>intulit aeternis carmina sideribus,</li>
        <li>clara nimis post se genitis exempla daturus</li>
        <li>ne quis forte deis fidere vellet homo.</li>
</ol>

Notice how much simpler the new markup will be for anyone who chooses to employ it.

Result of the old markup:

1. Signa pruinosae variantia luce cavernas
2. noctis et extincto lumina nata die
3. solo rure vagi lateque tacentibus arvis
4. surgere nos una vidimus oceano.
5. vidimus: illa prius, cum luce carebat uterque,
6. viderat in latium prona poeta mare,
7. seque memor terra mortalem matre creatum
8. intulit aeternis carmina sideribus,
9. clara nimis post se genitis exempla daturus
10. ne quis forte deis fidere vellet homo.

Result of the new markup:

1. Signa pruinosae variantia luce cavernas
2. noctis et extincto lumina nata die
3. solo rure vagi lateque tacentibus arvis
4. surgere nos una vidimus oceano.
5. vidimus: illa prius, cum luce carebat uterque,
6. viderat in latium prona poeta mare,
7. seque memor terra mortalem matre creatum
8. intulit aeternis carmina sideribus,
9. clara nimis post se genitis exempla daturus
10. ne quis forte deis fidere vellet homo.

It is virtually identical, but the really important thing is that it’s much easier to do. There are no superfluous class attributes clogging the LI tags, and once you understand them, the classes for the OL tag are pretty intuitive: vrs in2 16 = “a bit verse alternately indented beginning with the second line, and cited from a line number ending in a 1 or a 6.”

Just remember that if the starting line is something other than 1, you need to add the ‘start’ attribute and the starting number, e.g., start=”2″, to the OL tag as in many of the examples above.

ADDENDUM

It can still be a little tedious to add the LI tag to each line of poetry, but if you’re using WordPress this can done automatically by pasting the block of text in the Visual Editor then highlighting the whole block and clicking the ordered list from the editing panel. If you switch back to the HTML Editor you’ll see that you have a perfectly formatted and very clean bit of markup, and need only add the starting number (if not 1) and the required classes.

Just beware of the Visual Editor potentially altering anything you might have done previously in the HTML Editor (e.g., those markup examples printed above became unreadable and had to be re-pasted).

I’m sure that other WYSIWYG editors can also make that part of the process a little easier, but otherwise the HTML editor is the way to go to ensure clean markup.

BONUS
Maybe I’m getting carried away here, but I’ve added another optional bit that may be helpful for making a large block of verse a little easier to read: alternating background colors (white to light gray).

/* Slightly distinguish alternating lines with a light tone.
   Aesthetic option for easier web viewing of blocks of verse. */

ol.alt li:nth-child(2n+2) {
        background-color: #f9f9f9;
}

Homer, Odyssey 20.492–501.

<ol start="492" class="vrs s27 alt">
        <li>ὣς ἔφατ᾽, οὐδ᾽ ἀπίθησε φίλη τροφὸς Εὐρύκλεια,</li>
        <li>ἤνεικεν δ᾽ ἄρα πῦρ καὶ θήϊον· αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς</li>
        <li>εὖ διεθείωσεν μέγαρον καὶ δῶμα καὶ αὐλήν.</li>
        <li>γρηῢς δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἀπέβη διὰ δώματα κάλ᾽ Ὀδυσῆος</li>
        <li>ἀγγελέουσα γυναιξὶ καὶ ὀτρυνέουσα νέεσθαι·</li>
        <li>αἱ δ᾽ ἴσαν ἐκ μεγάροιο δάος μετὰ χερσὶν ἔχουσαι.</li>
        <li>αἱ μὲν ἄρ᾽ ἀμφεχέοντο καὶ � σπάζοντ᾽ Ὀδυσῆα,</li>
        <li>καὶ κύνεον ἀγαπαξόμεναι κεφαλήν τε καὶ ὤμους</li>
        <li>χεῖράς τ᾽ αἰνύμεναι· τὸν δὲ γλυκὺς ἵμερος ἥιρει</li>
        <li>κλαυθμοῦ καὶ στοναχῆς, γίγνωσκε δ᾽ ἄρα φρεσὶ πάσας.</li>
</ol>

492. ὣς ἔφατ᾽, οὐδ᾽ ἀπίθησε φίλη τροφὸς Εὐρύκλεια,
493. ἤνεικεν δ᾽ ἄρα πῦρ καὶ θήϊον· αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς
494. εὖ διεθείωσεν μέγαρον καὶ δῶμα καὶ αὐλήν.
495. γρηῢς δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἀπέβη διὰ δώματα κάλ᾽ Ὀδυσῆος
496. ἀγγελέουσα γυναιξὶ καὶ ὀτρυνέουσα νέεσθαι·
497. αἱ δ᾽ ἴσαν ἐκ μεγάροιο δάος μετὰ χερσὶν ἔχουσαι.
498. αἱ μὲν ἄρ᾽ ἀμφεχέοντο καὶ ἠσπάζοντ᾽ Ὀδυσῆα,
499. καὶ κύνεον ἀγαπαξόμεναι κεφαλήν τε καὶ ὤμους
500. χεῖράς τ᾽ αἰνύμεναι· τὸν δὲ γλυκὺς ἵμερος ἥιρει
501. κλαυθμοῦ καὶ στοναχῆς, γίγνωσκε δ᾽ ἄρα φρεσὶ πάσας.

Linux Latīnē

I’ve just jettisoned Windows XP from my ten year old PC and installed Linux Mint.

I was pretty excited to learn how easy it was to designate a Compose key, which — together with a hyphen before the vowels a, e, i, o, and u — produces a vowel with a macron (so long as you use the U.S. international keyboard).

It’s just as simple as it is on a Mac, where the sequence is alt-a followed by the desired vowel.

Unfortunately the effort to translate the Gnome UI into Latin has never seemed to catch on.

Any other classicists out there using some form of Linux? It’s an interesting platform that I should’ve jumped into years ago.

I’m itching to learn a bit of programming along the way, and hope to do something useful in classics in the process. I’ve already got a few ideas, but there’s a long road ahead.

Hypermetric verses

I thought others might find it useful to have collected in one place all instances of hypermetric verses in classical Latin poetry (i.e., lines that have an ‘extra’ syllable at the end that elides with the opening vowel of the following line).

Lucretius, De rerum natura 5. 849–50:

849. multa videmus enim rebus concurrere debere,
850. ut propagando possint procudere saecla

Catullus, carmen 115. 5:

5. prata arva ingentes silvas saltusque paludesque
6. usque ad Hyperboreos et mare ad Oceanum?

Horace, Satires 1. 6. 102:

102. et comes alter, uti ne solus rusve peregreve
103. exirem, plures calones atque caballi

Vergil, Georgics 2. 69:

69. inseritur vero et fetu nucis arbutus horrida,
70. et steriles platani malos gessere valentis,

Vergil, Georgics 2. 443:

443. navigiis pinus, domibus cedrumque cupressosque;
444. hinc radios trivere rotis, hinc tympana plaustris

Vergil, Georgics 3. 377:

377. otia agunt terra, congestaque robora totasque
378. advolvere focis ulmos ignique dedere.

Vergil, Aeneid 1. 332:

332. iactemur, doceas. Ignari hominumque locorumque
333. erramus, vento huc vastis et fluctibus acti

Vergil, Aeneid 2. 745:

745. quem non incusavi amens hominumque deorumque,
746. aut quid in eversa vidi crudelius urbe?

Vergil, Aeneid 4. 629:

629. imprecor, arma armis: pugnent ipsique nepotesque.
630. Haec ait, et partis animum versabat in omnis

Vergil, Aeneid 5. 753:

753. robora navigiis, aptant remosque rudentisque,
754. exigui numero, sed bello vivida virtus.

Vergil, Aeneid 7. 160:

160. iamque iter emensi turris ac tecta Latinorum
161. ardua cernebant iuvenes muroque subibant.

Vergil, Aeneid 8. 228:

228. ecce furens animis aderat Tirynthius omnemque
229. accessum lustrans huc ora ferebat et illuc

Vergil, Aeneid 10. 781:

781. sternitur infelix alieno vulnere, caelumque
782. aspicit et dulcis moriens reminiscitur Argos.

Vergil, Aeneid 11. 609:

609. substiterat: subito erumpunt clamore furentisque
610. exhortantur equos, fundunt simul undique tela

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 780:

780. perque vias vidisse hominum simulacra ferarumque
781. in silicem ex ipsis visa conversa Medusa

Do with that what you will. (Including, of course, correcting me if I’m wrong or missed anything.)

GapVis: Visual Interface for Reading Ancient Texts

You may know that I teach Latin in a public high school, and that my school is in the midst of a major technology push involving $2.4 million invested in MacBooks for teachers and iPads for all. Of course there’s the usual resistance — or at least disconnect — from faculty who are uncomfortable with technology. But I’ve made it a priority to find things that students can do to enrich their experience, and in my searches for iPad compatible site I was very pleasantly surprised to find GapVis.

GapVis is a product of GAP, the Google Ancient Places project, and has its roots in the HESTIA project, which focused on plotting places in Herodotus. GapVis expands on that idea by pulling texts on ancient history from Google Books and offering the reader a visualization of the places mentioned via Google Maps.

I was so happy to find a site like this because, as any one who has read ancient history knows, without careful attention to geography, it can quickly become very difficult to follow texts with any real precision or deep understanding. Visualization is key, and is one of the reasons the Robert B. Strassler’s ‘Landmark’ series has been both so popular and so helpful.

GapVis can not yet approach what the ‘Landmark’ editions of ancient historians offer, such as carefully edited maps, scholarly appendices, and contemporary translations, but that’s not really the point. I think that what makes GapVis such a treasure is its interactive nature and its potential, even in a beta offering.

The texts are often problematic, considering the state of OCR text from scanned books that haven’t been carefully reviewed. And often places are misidentified by similarities in personal names, etc. But this can lead to productive activities for students and ensure a close reading of texts. Students may be assigned particular passages and asked to perform certain tasks, including checking the place identification and reporting problems to the GapVis team.

I think this is a tool to watch and one that has pedagogical potential even today. I’m looking forward to see where it goes.

A scholar’s riposte

Richard Porson, who — along with Bentley and Housman, makes one third of the trinity of British textual critics — was apparently as much a wit as he was a critic. And as often happens with scholar’s of famous wit, stories are told (whether true or not). I really like this one:

“Dr. Porson,” said a gentleman to the great “Grecian,” with whom he had been disputing — “Dr. Porson, my opinion of you is most contemptible.” ” Sir,” returned the doctor, ” I never knew an opinion of yours that was not contemptible.”

Oh snap!

Hector to the defenders of Troy

494. ἀλλὰ μάχεσθ’ ἐπὶ νηυσὶν ἀολλέες· ὃς δέ κεν ὑμέων
495. βλήμενος ἠὲ τυπεὶς θάνατον καὶ πότμον ἐπίσπῃ
496. τεθνάτω· οὔ οἱ ἀεικὲς ἀμυνομένῳ περὶ πάτρης
497. τεθνάμεν· ἀλλ’ ἄλοχός τε σόη καὶ παῖδες ὀπίσσω,
498. καὶ οἶκος καὶ κλῆρος ἀκήρατος, εἴ κεν Ἀχαιοὶ
499. οἴχωνται σὺν νηυσὶ φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν.
500. ὣς εἰπὼν ὄτρυνε μένος καὶ θυμὸν ἑκάστου.

Therefore swarm round the ships and fight. If any of you is struck by spear or sword and loses his life, let him die; he dies with honor who dies fighting for his country; and he will leave his wife and children safe behind him, with his house and allotment unplundered if only the Achaeans can be driven back to their own land, they and their ships.”

With these words he put heart and soul into them all.

(Trans. A.T. Murray)

How to pronounce Latin vowels

We’ve all seen suggestions (in textbooks, vel sim.) for how to pronounce Latin vowels. We’re often given pairs of words, and depending on the text the sounds are either un-classical or unlike the sounds of our own dialect of English.

What has worked for many of my students is using disyllabic words or phrases in English, showing the qualities of both the short and long vowel sounds of Latin in that order.

A	aha!	[ăhā]
E	bed frame	[bĕdfrēm]
I	Phillies	[fĭlīz]
O	autos	[ŏdōz]
U	footloose	[fŭtlūs]

It works as long as you understand that it’s meant to illustrate not the quantity of syllables but the quality of vowels.

As I alluded to in the beginning, you may find that these vowels don’t work in your dialect, but the principle holds: find short, easy, memorable words and phrases that work within the dialect used by your students, and you should see — or rather hear — better results.

On This Day (October 31)

October 31, 451, is the date of Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon:

Following in all things the decisions of the holy Fathers, and acknowledging the canon, which has been just read, of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops beloved-of-God (who assembled in the imperial city of Constantinople, which is New Rome, in the time of the Emperor Theodosius of happy memory), we also do enact and decree the same things concerning the privileges of the most holy Church of Constantinople, which is New Rome. For the Fathers rightly granted privileges to the throne of old Rome, because it was the royal city. And the One Hundred and Fifty most religious Bishops, actuated by the same consideration, gave equal privileges (ἴσα πρεσβεῖα) to the most holy throne of New Rome, justly judging that the city which is honoured with the Sovereignty and the Senate, and enjoys equal privileges with the old imperial Rome, should in ecclesiastical matters also be magnified as she is, and rank next after her; so that, in the Pontic, the Asian, and the Thracian dioceses, the metropolitans only and such bishops also of the Dioceses aforesaid as are among the barbarians, should be ordained by the aforesaid most holy throne of the most holy Church of Constantinople; every metropolitan of the aforesaid dioceses, together with the bishops of his province, ordaining his own provincial bishops, as has been declared by the divine canons; but that, as has been above said, the metropolitans of the aforesaid Dioceses should be ordained by the archbishop of Constantinople, after the proper elections have been held according to custom and have been reported to him.

On This Day (October 20)

On this day in 460, Aelia Eudocia, wife of the emperor Theodosius II, died in Jerusalem (see here and here).

In addition to being Augusta, Eudocia, the daughter of the Athenian sophist Leontius, was a poet who wrote about Roman military victories over Persia, a poem about the martyrdom of Cyprian, a paraphrase of part of the Old Testament, and centones composed of Homeric verses (which, along with the poem on Cyprian, survive).

On This Day (September 27)

September 27th is the anniversary of Theoderic’s defeat of Odovacer at the Battle of Verona in 489:

Odovacer must have known for some time of Theoderic’s advance, and his sending of a victory legation to Zeno after his defeat of the Rugians in 487 implies a desire to conciliate him, while the acceptance in the East of Odovacer’s nominee as consul in 490 may indicate that his star had not set as far as Constantinople was concerned. He is described as having called forth all the nations against Theoderic, so many kings coming to fight with him that their soldiers could scarcely be supported. The identity of these kings is unknown, but any help they may have given was not evident when Theoderic appeared at the river Isonzo to the east of Aquileia on 28 August, for Odovacer, perhaps alarmed at the size of Theoderic’s forces, retreated, possibly before battle had been joined. He made his way to Verona where, on 27 September, he prepared a fortified camp. Verona was probably a predictable site, for, located as it was at the junction of the viae Claudia Augusta, Gallica, and Posthumia, it was a key centre for the defence of Italy, and was subsequently to become important to Theoderic for this reason. But Odovacer was quickly followed, and Ennodius describes Theoderic on the night before the battle looking at the fires of his enemies, which shone like stars. But he knew no fear, and the next morning, when his mother and sister, tossed between hope and fear, came to see him, he supplied reassurance: it was a true man (vir) to whom his mother had given birth, and on that day he was going to show himself a man; the glories won by his ancestors would not perish through him! He asked the women to bring his best clothes, such as would make him more easily recognized, and on a field b y the River Adige battle was joined. Both sides sustained heavy losses, but Odovacer was finally obliged to quit the field, leaving victory to Theoderic. The field was covered with bodies; some 18 years later Ennodius complained that hungry cattle were destroying evidence of the victory provided by the bones that still lay there. Odovacer fled, almost certainly to Ravenna. (John Moorhead, Theoderic in Italy, pp. 21-2)