Download Internal Assessment Resource

Exemplar for internal assessment resource Latin 2.4B for Achievement Standard 91197
Exemplar for Internal Assessment Resource
Latin Level 2
Resource title: Supernatural Literature
This exemplar supports assessment against:
Achievement Standard 91197
Interpret a Roman viewpoint
Expected responses
The moderators have developed expected student responses from a wide variety of sources
Date version published by
Ministry of Education
© Crown 2010
December 2011
To support internal assessment from 2012
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Latin 2.4B for Achievement Standard 91197
Grade Boundary: Low Excellence
1.
To achieve the standard at Excellence the student is required to interpret thoroughly, a
Roman viewpoint.
The student has been asked to interpret the Roman view of the supernatural by
selecting at least three episodes from the studied text ‘Aeneid 2‘ by Virgil, describing
the supernatural events and their context and explaining the meaning or significance of
the use of the supernatural.
The student has applied linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge to establish the
meaning or significance of the Roman view of the supernatural (EN2) (page 1).
Particular points e.g. the role of the Fates (page 1), intervention of the gods (pages 2
and 3) and the significance of portents and dreams have been selected and expanded
thoroughly, by describing them in context, relating their effect and explaining how the
Romans viewed them. Appropriate and unambiguous Latin quotations with an English
translation and/or explanation have been given.
In section 3. The procedure leading to the departure two supernatural events (the
flames licking Iulus’ head and the thunderclap and shooting star) are thoroughly
described and the Roman concepts (page 3) of augurium oblativum and augurium
imperativum explained. The fact that Anchises is influenced by these portents reflects
the fact that Roman readers were familiar with the significance of portents sent by the
gods. There is an appropriate and unambiguous Latin reference to the fates ‘heu
misero coniunx fatone …resedit, /incertum’, with an English translation (page 4) and
the will of the gods is referred to, to expand further some points selected in the other
two episodes.
This work is at Low Excellence because although thorough interpretation has been
given in most cases, Latin evidence has not been given for some events (page 3) and
further information could have been given about the Roman view of sacrifice to the
gods (page 1).
To reach Excellence more securely the student could supply Latin quotations with an
English translation to support the evidence given, particularly in the scene where
Anchises is convinced by the portents (page 3). Mention could be made of the fact that
Hector entrusted the gods of Troy to Aeneas (page 2).
© Crown 2010
Student 1 Low Excellence: page 1
The Romans’ view of the supernatural reflected in the will of the Fates, the intervention
of the Gods and supernatural appearances from three episodes in Aeneid II.
1.
The episode of the wooden horse
Virgil gives many indications that the Greeks received supernatural assistance with the
idea and use of the wooden horse.
ll. 15-16
. . . equum divina Palladis arte/aedificant
They build a horse with the divine skill of Pallas (= Minerva, goddess of wisdom and
craftsmanship). The Greeks would have known her as Artemis, but Virgil uses the
Roman name for his Roman readers to recognise. The Romans were used to the
concept of sacrifices or gifts being made to win a god’s favour, so when the Greek agent
Sinon tells the Trojans that the Greeks built the horse for Minerva and that if it were to be
damaged by Trojan hand, there would be terrible destruction for Priam’s empire and the
Trojans,
ll. 189-191
nam si vestra manus violasset dona Minervae,
tum magnum exitium . . . Priami imperio Phrygibusque futurum;
they would find it credible that the Trojans believed him. Aeneas himself acknowledged
this belief in l. 31. . . innuptae donum . . . Minervae – a gift for the unwed Minerva; it was
only with hindsight after the use of the horse that Aeneas knew that it was exitiale –
deadly.
When Trojan Thymoetes urges the Trojans to bring the horse into the city,
Aeneas speculates that perhaps at that stage Troy’s fate was set,
l. 34
. . . seu iam Troiae sic fata ferebant.
Romans inclined to believe that the Fates set out predestined events for one’s life would
have picked up on this. The concepts of predestination and free will could co-exist, if
certain events were predestined, but free will operated in the procedural happenings
between them. So Laocoon could choose to try to unmask the horse as a trick by
throwing his spear into its side and speaking out against it. However unfortunately for
him supernatural intervention came in the form of twin sea serpents, who with their coils
crushed him and his two small sons when he tried to rescue them.
ll. 203-05
ecce autem gemini a Tenedo tranquilla per alta
(horresco referens) immensis orbibus angues
incumbunt pelago pariterque ad litora tendunt;
But behold, (I shudder in telling this) twin snakes with huge coils
through the calm waters from Tenedos press upon the sea, and side by side
make their way towards the shores.
Aeneas once again suggests to his audience of Dido and her Carthaginians that the
destined will of heaven was set against the Trojans or perhaps, Trojan reason was
faulty. Otherwise Troy would still be standing.
Student 1 Low Excellence: page 2
When the Greek Sinon gets the chance to tell his lies to the Trojans, he makes use of
supernatural aspects to help the Trojans swallow his story. He says that fortune has
made him wretched,
ll. 79-80
miserum fortuna Sinonem/ finxit
and suggests that the Greeks several times unsuccessfully tried to sail away from Troy
and so consulted the oracle of Apollo for advice. Roman readers knew about the
concept of asking for divine advice from an oracle. So, convinced by Sinon’s stories and
by the terrible fate that befell Laocoon, the Trojans called for the horse to be pulled into
Troy, and for prayers of entreaty to be offered to the goddess’s divine will,
ll. 231-2
orandaque divae / numina conclamant
Supernatural events had assisted the Greeks to get their machine of war,
the wooden horse, into Troy, enabling the second stage of the fall of Troy, the fighting for
the city, to begin.
2.
The fight for the city of Troy
During the course of the fighting, various supernatural events and interventions
contributed to Aeneas’ eventual decision to abandon Troy and seek a new home for the
Trojans.
First, the dead Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream and tells him to leave Troy.
ll. 289-90
‘heu fuge, nate dea, teque his ’ait ‘eripe flammis.
hostes habet muros; ruit alto a culmine Troia.’
Alas, flee, son of a goddess, and snatch yourself from these flames,’ he
says, ‘the enemy hold the walls; Troy is crashing down from its highest
reach.’
Roman readers would have been familiar with Hector from study of the Iliad at school
and also with the concept of a ghost conveying information to the living.
Aeneas does not take this advice yet, for when he wakes he hears the sounds of battle
and instinctively girds on his weapons and rushes out to fight. Out amongst the fighting
he meets Panthus, priest of Apollo, who also tells him that Troy has finished l. 325 . . .
fuit Ilium . . . and that fierce Jupiter has handed over everything to the Greeks.
ll. 326-7
. . . ferus omnia Iuppiter Argos /transtulit;
(Virgil continues to use Roman names for gods for rapid recognition by Roman readers.)
Aeneas still does not accept the advice to leave, even although that advice comes from
the priest of the god of prophecy and the decision is said to be the will of the king of the
gods, Jupiter. A little further on, Aeneas states what became obvious to him after the
event, but was not so at the time,
Student 1 Low Excellence: page 3
l. 402
heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis!
Alas, if the gods are unwilling, it is not right for anyone to place trust in them!
He says this on recalling that the Trojan princess, Cassandra, who had foresight granted
by the gods and was cursed to predict the future accurately, but never to be believed,
was dragged from Minerva’s temple to be Greek booty. Once again, the Romans were
familiar with this story of the woman with a supernatural gift and a supernatural
punishment.
The last site where Aeneas was poised to engage in the bitter fighting with the Greeks
was at Priam’s palace. Here a divine appearance to him of his mother, the goddess
Venus, fortunately prevented his murdering Helen the Spartan, which would have
brought him no glory in Roman eyes.
l. 591-3
alma parens,
. . . dextraque prehensum
continuit roseoque haec insuper addidit ore:
And my kindly mother caught me by my right hand and held me back,
and with rosy mouth added these words besides to me, . . .
l. 619
eripe, nate, fugam finemque impone labori.
Snatch your escape my son, and put an end to your struggle.
At last Aeneas takes the collective advice from Hector, Panthus and Venus to take his
family away from Troy.
3.
The procedure leading to the departure
Aeneas came up against a huge impediment when he went home to gather up his family
ready to leave Troy. His father Anchises, feeling old and frail, refused to leave. Aeneas
in desperation and frustration called upon his mother, Venus,
l. 664-5
hoc erat, alma parens, quod me per tela, per ignes/eripis? . . .
Is it for this, kindly mother, that you snatch me from among weapons, among
fires?
After this outburst he started to pick up his weapons ready to return to the fighting again.
When Creusa held his feet to stop him, then insisted on accompanying him,
a miraculous event occurred. A harmless flame licked around the soft hair
and temples of their young son, Iulus. This supernatural event prompted Anchises to call
in Jupiter for confirmation, which came immediately with a thunderclap, followed by a
shooting star. The Romans would have recognised the thunderclap as a sign from
Jupiter, and the halo of fire on the child’s head as an augurium oblativum, an augury
sent without human request, whereas the thunder and shooting star they would know as
an augurium impetrativum because Anchises had asked for a sign. Such concepts were
aspects of the practices and beliefs in Roman religion.
It is tempting to imagine that since Aeneas had called on his mother in his desperation,
she may have applied some persuasion therefore to her own father, Jupiter, to take
dramatic action to get Anchises to get a move on, so that the family can escape.
Student 1 Low Excellence: page 4
There is a final drama before they all make it to safety. Creusa disappears as they dash
down back streets to avoid meeting any enemy soldiers. Aeneas later speculates about
what had happened, blaming ‘an unhappy fate’:
l. 738-40
heu misero coniunx fatone erepta Creusa
substitit, erravitne via seu lassa resedit,/ incertum;
Alas my wife Creusa, snatched away by some unhappy fate, came to a
halt, whether she wandered from the path or whether she sank down
exhausted is not clear.
After Aeneas realises that she has gone missing and does some frantic searching back
in the city, she appears to him as a ghost and tells him that what has happened to her is
not without the divine will of the gods.
l. 777-8
. . . non haec sine numine divum/ eveniunt.
Virgil’s use of the supernatural in these episodes recognises that Roman readers were
familiar with and could identify with supernatural concepts such as talking ghosts,
dreams, prayers and portents. In telling the story of the fall of Troy, which ultimately led
to the foundation of Rome, Virgil makes it clear that these great events in human lives
were steered by divine action, satisfying the Roman desire to see their race and its
power blessed by the gods.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Latin 2.4B for Achievement Standard 91197
Grade Boundary: High Merit
2.
To achieve the standard at Merit the student is required to interpret clearly, a Roman
viewpoint.
The student has been asked to interpret the Roman view of the supernatural by
selecting at least three episodes from the studied text ‘Aeneid 2’ by Virgil, describing
the supernatural events and their context and explaining the meaning or significance of
the use of the supernatural.
The student has applied linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge (EN2) (page 2) to
establish the meaning or significance of the Roman view of the supernatural. Particular
points, e.g. the significance of dreams (page 1), the intervention of the gods (page 2)
and the appearance of ghosts (page 2) have been selected and expanded on by
describing the events in context, relating their effect and explaining the Roman view of
them.
The appearance of Hector in a dream (page 1) is expanded on unambiguously in
English by describing the events leading up to it and explaining the significance of it,
that Aeneas has the sanction of the gods to leave the fighting and undertake the
mission of founding Troy. He is not to be regarded as a coward for leaving Troy.
Furthermore, Aeneas is to take the Penates and symbols of Vesta to their new home.
The episodes concerning the appearance of Venus (page 2) and the ghost of Creusa
(page 2) are interpreted at a similar level. In describing how Aeneas reacted to these
supernatural events, Virgil is reflecting the Roman view that the supernatural influenced
the lives of men.
Some Latin quotations with an English translation have been used to back up points
made.
This work is at High Merit, because although several points are expanded on, they
have not been expanded on fully. E.g. Aeneas’ return home (page 2) after getting
advice from Venus could have been more fully explored.
To reach Excellence the student should support most of the points made with
appropriate and unambiguous Latin quotations and an English translation. The
appearance of Creusa or Venus (page 2) could also be expanded on.
© Crown 2010
Student 2 High Merit: page 1
Three supernatural appearances occur to Aeneas in Book II of the Aeneid, in which
some Roman attitudes to the supernatural are evident.
1.
The dead Hector appears in a dream to his fellow Trojan Aeneas.
2.
Venus, the goddess and mother of Aeneas, appears before him in Priam’s
palace.
3.
The ghost of Creusa appears to her husband Aeneas among Troy’s buildings as
he searches for her in vain.
Each of these three appearances causes Aeneas to take a certain action, leading
towards his departure from Troy. The first occurs as Aeneas sleeps on the night that the
horse has been dragged into the city of Troy, and the Trojans, partying late to celebrate
the departure of the Greeks after 10 years of siege, have fallen into deep sleep.
1.268
tempus erat quo prima quies mortalibus aegris
incipit et dono divum gratissima serpit.
in somnis, ecce, ante oculos maestissimus Hector
visus adesse mihi largosque effundere fletus,
It was the time at which first rest begins for weary mortals and by gift of the gods,
most welcome, it steals over them. In my dreams, behold, before my eyes there
seemed to be present before me a very sad Hector, weeping copious tears.
This Trojan prince, captured by the Greeks during the siege of Troy, had been dragged
ten times around the walls of Troy behind Achilles’ chariot. In Aeneas’ dream Virgil goes
on to describe Hector’s horrific appearance after this treatment,
ll. 272
raptatus bigis ut quondam, aterque cruento
pulvere perque pedes traiectus lora tumentes.
as when one day dragged by a two horse chariot, and black with bloodied dust,
pierced by a thong through his swelling feet.
The purpose of this horrific dream in Virgil’s story is to enable Aeneas to receive advice
from Hector, the King of Troy’s son after all, that it is all right for him to escape. Hector
adds that Troy now entrusts her Penates, her household gods, to him and he shall find a
safe site for a new walled city to give them protection. Hector also entrusts symbols of
the goddess Vesta to Aeneas, goddess of the hearth and home. This advice is
significant. Aeneas now has ‘permission’ to leave. The Romans, when reading Hector’s
advice, would have readily recognised Penates and Vesta, for they had shrines to
household gods in their own homes and there was a temple to Vesta in Rome with its
attendant Vestal Virgins.
Perhaps to emphasise that he is no physical coward, however, Virgil has him ignore this
advice for the moment. It will be remembered by Aeneas later, but immediately on
waking from this dream, he cannot resist rushing out to fight for his invaded city. This
episode of Hector’s appearance helped Aeneas in the end to realise that it was right for
Student 2 High Merit: page 2
him to leave, to found a newcity. Roman readers of the story would have realised that
the descendants of that city would build their own city Rome, and that the gods had
brought this about.
While out fighting, Aeneas reaches the palace of Priam and witnesses the dreadful
slaughter of King Priam by Pyrrhus. While there he also catches sight of the Spartan
queen Helen, former wife of Menelaus, but then runaway bride of the Trojan Paris,
lurking silently to one side in the palace. These two sightings in conjunction enraged
Aeneas. Here was his king, head and symbol of Troy, being slaughtered by a Greek,
and there was the treacherous Greek woman who by her action had caused this murder
to happen. Most Roman readers would have sympathised with the view that Greeks
were not to be trusted. Aeneas is on the point of slaying Helen, even although she is a
woman and that would not normally be honourable for him as a noble Trojan to do, but
the appearance of his mother, Venus, halts him in his tracks.
l. 588
talia iactabam et furiata mente ferebar,
cum mihi se, non ante oculis tam clara, videndam
obtulit . . .
I was tossing thoughts such as these about and being carried along by my frenzied
mind, when she presented herself for me to see, never before so clear to my eyes . . .
Venus gives her son Aeneas advice:
l. 596
non prius aspicies ubi fessum aetate parentem
liqueris Anchisen, super et coniunxne Creusa
Ascaniusque puer?
Will you not first look where you have left behind your age-weary father
Anchises, and whether your wife Creusa and son Ascanius still survive?
This question brings Aeneas back to reality with a jolt, and he does in fact now cease
trying to fight and returns home after further advice from his mother. She tells him that
the gods themselves - Neptune, Juno, Minerva and Jupiter - are assisting in the
destruction of Troy. Confirmation from his own mother reassures Aeneas and builds on
advice given earlier by Hector, that it is right to escape Troy.
When Creusa appears as a ghost, Aeneas receives final permission to leave. If Virgil
had not included this appearance, there might have been questions in Roman readers’
minds about whether Aeneas had fulfilled that aspect of pietas which concerns respect
for and duty towards members of one’s family.
l. 773
visa mihi ante oculos et nota maior imago. / obstipui,
Indeed there appeared to me before my very eyes a ghost (of Creusa), her
appearance well known to me, but larger than life.
This ghost of Creusa reassures Aeneas that fas = what is right and ille regnator Olympi
= Jupiter, forbid Aeneas to take her with him away from Troy. He can now leave with
clear conscience.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Latin 2.4B for Achievement Standard 91197
Grade Boundary: Low Merit
3.
The student has applied linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge (EN2) (page 1) to
select and expand on the part played by Fortune (page 1), a portent (pages 1 and 2)
and consultation of an oracle (pages 2 and 3) and the significance of these
supernatural events.
E.g. the Roman belief in portents and the divine is reflected in Sinon’s story of the
Palladium and his interpretation of how the deities can be offended by humans and
how they can take sides for and against them.
This work is at Low Merit because although the events have been expanded on there
has been insufficient expansion (page 1). Some Latin quotations have been used but
without English translations (pages 1 and 2).
To meet Merit more securely the student could expand on more points.
E.g. in the event concerning the Palladium more information about the involvement of
Minerva in the Trojan War (page 1) could be given or a comment could be made on the
fact that the Roman readers of the Aeneid would have identified with the thought that
the Greeks were liars (page 1).
© Crown 2010
Student 3 Low Merit: page 1
Three supernatural references in Sinon’s tale in Aeneid II, which reflect the Romans’
attitude to the supernatural.
When the Trojans looked out at their sea-shore and saw that after ten years of besieging
Troy, the Greeks had sailed away, they rushed out to celebrate. Down on the beach,
some Trojan shepherds found a Greek left behind, and took him prisoner. This Greek
was Sinon, who had stayed behind deliberately to spread misinformation, but was
pretending to have escaped from the Greeks. Sinon spun a yarn to the Trojans to fool
them into taking the wooden horse into Troy, and in doing so, he referred to three
supernatural concepts:
1.
Fortune
To emphasise that he is telling the truth (although in fact he is telling lies) he says
that although Fortune has made him a wretched man, in her wickedness she will
not also make him untrustworthy and a liar ,
ll. 79-80
. . . nec, si miserum Fortuna Sinonem
finxit, vanum etiam mendacemque improba finget.
He is saying that Fortune (something beyond what is natural, beyond human
power,) has treated him unkindly. He is doing this to win sympathy.
The fact that he is believed means that he has taken one step further towards his
goal of getting the horse taken into Troy. Sinon, a Greek, is taking advantage of
the fact that the Trojans have a concept of fortune, good and bad. Fortuna was
known to the Romans as an Italian goddess and there was a temple to her in
Rome. Roman readers would have recognised the concept of Fortuna, used here
by Virgil in a Greek context.
2.
A statue that does strange things
In describing how the Greeks realised that they had offended Minerva, Sinon
says that a statue of Minerva, the Palladium, was stolen by Greeks Diomede and
Ulysses. These men had cunningly sneaked into Troy when it was under Greek
siege and had taken the image of the goddess from her temple on the citadel,
after killing the sentries there.
ll. 163-6
. . . impius ex quo
Tydides sed enim scelerumque inventor Ulixes
fatale adgressi sacrato avellere templo
Palladium caesis summae custodibus arcis
Once the statue was taken back to the Greek camp, there were several
supernatural signs (so said Sinon) that the Greeks had committed a sin against
the gods. The statues’ eyes flashed with flames, salt sweat ran over its limbs and
it rocked forward on its base, as if trying to attack with its shield and spear.
Sinon uses this amazing event to put the Trojans in awe of the power of Minerva.
‘ If she caused this supernatural event to happen, she must be on the Trojan
side’ is Sinon’s message, and the Trojans fall for it. Virgil has used the Roman
name - Minerva - for the goddess of craftsmanship, for Roman readers to
identify with readily.
Student 3 Low Merit: page 2
3.
Consulting the oracle to get divine advice
Further on in his tale, Sinon says that the Greeks were feeling that the gods were
against them, as every time they tried to leave Troy, even when they had
completed building the horse which was supposed to be a gift for Minerva, the
weather was unfavourable for sailing. So, Sinon says, they decided to get advice
from the gods about what else they had to do, by sending Eurypylus to consult
the oracle of Apollo. Roman readers recognised Apollo as the god of prophecy,
and were aware of the practice of consulting the oracle, who would usually give
an answer which could be interpreted in two ways.
Eurypylus brought back a grim answer:
ll.114-5
suspensi Eurypylum scitatum oracula Phoebi
mittimus, isque adytis haec tristia dicta reportat:
According to Sinon, the Greeks were told that they had to make a human
sacrifice to calm the winds, but did not say who it should be. Eventually the
Greek prophet Calchas chose Sinon as the person to be sacrificed. This part of
the tale is also designed to win pity from the Trojans. Sinon had to invent the last
bit of the tale, that he had managed to escape from the Greeks at the last minute,
to explain to the Trojans how they had come to find him on the beach. It is
strange that the Trojans did not think to question him more about how the
weather calmed down enough for the Greeks to sail, if Sinon had not, in fact,
been sacrificed.
The incident of the Trojans ‘catching’ the lurking Sinon and believing the lies that he tells
them, is a successful plot device to explain the Trojans’ desire to drag the horse into
their city, where the Greek soldiers inside it eventually emerge and destroy them.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Latin 2.4B for Achievement Standard 91197
Grade Boundary: High Achieved
4.
To achieve the standard the student is required to interpret a Roman viewpoint.
The student has been asked to interpret the Roman view of the supernatural by
selecting at least three episodes from the studied text ‘Aeneid 2’ by Virgil, describing
the supernatural events and their contexts and explaining the meaning or significance
of the use of the supernatural.
The student has applied linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge (EN2) (page 1) to
establish the meaning or significance of the Roman view of the supernatural by
selecting events that show the intervention of the gods and the way the omens (page
2) they send can affect humans and influence events.
E.g. Sinon uses the incident of the Palladium to persuade the Trojans that Minerva is
angry with the Greeks. The points have been illustrated by Latin evidence with an
English translation.
This work is at High Achieved because the student has interpreted the Roman view of
the supernatural but has not made a clear interpretation.
E.g. it is not established what Laocoon is doing on the sea shore (page 2, line 1).
To reach Merit the student could expand on some of the points made and link them to
a Roman viewpoint.
E.g. it could be explained that Laocoon had been sacrificing and the Roman view of
sacrifice could be given (page 2). More specific information could be given about the
effect of the omens on Anchises (page 2).
© Crown 2010
Student 4 High Achieved: page 1
Three supernatural events in Aeneid II:
1. The stolen statue of Minerva
2. The arrival of twin sea serpents
3. Harmless flames licking Iulus’ head
1. The captured Greek Sinon told the Trojans a lot of lies to explain why he was on
the beach outside Troy after the Greeks left. As part of his story, he describes a
supernatural event where a statue of Minerva showed how angry the goddess
herself was with the Greeks.
l. 171 nec dubiis ea signa dedit Tritonia monstris.
vix positum castris simulacrum: arsere coruscae
luminibus flammae arrectis, salusque per artus
sudor iit, terque ipsa solo (mirabile dictu)
emicuit parmamque ferens hastamque trementem.
And it wasn’t with doubtful signs that Tritonia (Minerva) gave this
message. Scarcely had the statue been placed in the (Greek) camp,
when sparkling flames blazed forth from its staring eyes, and salty sweat
ran over its limbs, and three times, strange to tell, it itself flashed forth
from the ground, carrying shield and quivering spear.
Sinon uses this amazing description to help sell his story to the Trojans. He is
making the point that the gods are so angry with the Greeks, that they are not
granting them favourable winds to sail back home, leading the Trojans to believe
that the gods are on their side. To them this must be so if a statue is made to
behave as if it were alive. This helps to persuade them that the horse is an
offering from the Greeks to appease Minerva. Roman readers of this story would
have identified with being impressed by a supernatural omen and would also
have expected some supernatural punishment for someone who stole a sacred
object.
2. Aeneas recounts that after Laocoon, the Trojan priest of Neptune, had thrown a
spear into the wooden horse’s side, twin snakes came from the sea and headed
directly for the beach, to feed on Laocoon’s two little boys.
l. 203
ecce autem gemini a Tenedo tranquilla per alta
(horresco referens) immensis orbibus angues
incumbunt pelago pariterque ad litora tendunt;
But behold, (I shudder in telling this) twin snakes with huge coils breast
the sea from Tenedos through the quiet waters, and side by side make
their way towards the beach.
Student 4 High Achieved: page 2
Laocoon is the priest of Neptune, so for sea serpents to come from the sea and
kill his sons and crush him in their coils too, is a sign that Neptune does not
agree with what he is trying to tell the Trojans. Laocoon is being punished for
throwing his spear into the wooden horse.
(Once again, Roman readers would identify with the horror felt when someone
defiles a sacred object, and therefore they would understand the Trojans’
thinking that Laocoon had acted wrongly.)
Sinon has said that the horse was intended for Minerva and the serpents slither
up to her shrine in Troy for shelter after crushing Laocoon and his family. The
Trojans can easily believe after this supernatural event that they are intended to
take the wooden horse into their city now that their priest who was advising them
not to do so has been silenced. The decision is made to take the horse in, and
the fall of Troy is the eventual result. This episode with the snakes is a significant
event.
3. After Troy had fallen and Aeneas had been convinced that the best thing to do
now was to lead his family to safety away from the city, his wife Creusa and his
son Iulus were ready to leave, but his father Anchises was unwilling, saying that
he was old and slow, and that it would be better to remain in the city he had
known all his life and to rely on the enemy’s pity. Aeneas could not bring himself
to leave his father behind, so prepared instead to go back out to face the enemy
and fight to the death. His distraught wife Creusa begged him to take her and
their son with him. There was a sudden miracle which brought Aeneas to a halt:
l. 681
namque manus inter maestorumque ora parentum
ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli
fundere lumen apex, tactuque innoxia molles
lambere flamma comas et circum tempora pasci.
For now between the hands and faces of the sad parents behold there is
seen a flickering tongue of fire giving forth light from the top of Iulus’
head, and a flame, harmless to the touch, licking his soft hair and feeding
around his temples .
What seemed like a naked flame to be burning harmlessly on their son’s head
was regarded as a supernatural sign. It prompted Anchises to pray to Jupiter for
a further sign to convince him to leave Troy. He got his wish, as Jupiter sent
down a thunderbolt and a shooting star across the sky.
This opened the way for Aeneas to lead the Trojans, his own family and some
other survivors, away from Troy on the first stage of a journey that eventually
would take Aeneas to Italy, enabling Rome to be founded generations later.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Latin 2.4B for Achievement Standard 91197
Grade Boundary: Low Achieved
5.
The student has applied linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge (EN2) (page 1) to
establish the meaning or significance of the Roman view of the supernatural by
selecting events that show the intervention of the Fates/Fate/Destiny.
E.g. the fact the Greeks felt buffeted by the Fates and is interpreted by Aeneas as the
gods denying the Greeks vengeance (page 1).
The three examples are illustrated by quotations in Latin with an English translation.
This work is at Low Achieved because the student has written very briefly about each
event and has not really explained Fata (page 1).
To meet the standard more securely the student could explain what or who the
Romans considered the Fates to be.
Mention could also be made of Minerva’s role (page 1) in helping the Greeks to build
the wooden horse, thus helping them to achieve success.
© Crown 2010
Student 5: Low Achieved
Three occasions in Aeneid II involving the Roman concept of the Fates or Fate or
Destiny:
1.
ll. 13-14
. . . fracti bello fatisque repulsi/ductores Danaum . . .
Broken by the war and driven back by the fates, the leaders of the Greeks
This comes in Aeneas’ description of how the Greeks felt near the end of their 10 year
siege of Troy, before they had the idea to build the wooden horse to trick their way inside
the city. This seems to imply that Aeneas thinks that up to that point, the fates had not
decided to give the Greeks what they wanted, which was vengeance for the Trojan
Paris’ stealing of Spartan King Menelaus’ wife, Helen. Virgil here is acknowledging that
the Fates had control over the timing of human actions and his Roman readers would
have found this concept familiar.
2.
l. 34
sive dolo seu iam Troiae sic fata ferebant.
whether by trickery or whether the fates of Troy were already heading in
this direction.
Here Aeneas is suggesting that when the Trojan Thymoetes encouraged his fellow
countrymen to bring the wooden horse inside Troy, it might have been because the
Fates had already decided that Troy would fall (or it could have been because
Thymoetes was being treacherous to his own people).
This indicates that Aeneas and the Trojans believed that the Fates governed what would
happen to them.
3.
l. 54
et, si fata deum, si mens non laeva fuisset,
And if the fates of the gods, if our mind had not been unfavourable . . .
This comment is made by Aeneas about why the Trojans did not take notice of the fact
that when Laocoon pierced the side of the wooden horse with his spear, the sound made
it obvious that there was a hollow space inside, where people could be hiding. If they
had, they might not have pulled it inside the city. Instead they were too excited about the
fact that the Greeks seemed to have departed after ten long years and they were too
keen for peace. The word laeva literally means left in Latin, but as the Romans
superstitiously believed that the left hand was unlucky, they would have recognised the
use of laeva here as meaning something capable of bringing misfortune.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Latin 2.4B for Achievement Standard 91197
Grade Boundary: High Not Achieved
6.
The student has attempted to apply linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge (EN2) to
establish the meaning or the significance of the Roman view of the supernatural by
selecting three events that show the intervention of the gods.
This work is at High Not Achieved because the student has not demonstrated what the
inclusion of the supernatural events tells the reader about the Roman attitude to the
supernatural. There is a plot summary and although the student has used Latin
quotations, the impression is given that there has been considerable reliance on an
English translation.
To reach Achieved the student could give more explanation of the events.
E.g. why the Greeks needed divine help and how it enabled them to succeed, the fact
that Venus was Aeneas’ mother and especially how the events showed the Roman
attitude to the gods (page 1).
© Crown 2010
Student 6: High Not Achieved
Three gods/goddesses intervene in human affairs in Book II – Pallas Minerva, Venus
and Jupiter:
1. Pallas Minerva
At the beginning of the book, Aeneas tells his listeners that ‘the Greek
commanders . . . built a giant of a wooden horse, making its flanks from a trellis
of sawn firwood. The craftsmanship was divinely inspired by Pallas.’
l. 15 instar montis equum divina Palladis arte
This means that Pallas, also known as Minerva (the Roman name) the goddess
of craftsmanship, gave the Greeks the idea of building the wooden horse as a
means of getting inside Troy.
After the sea serpents had killed Laocoon, priest of Neptune and his sons, they
slid up to Troys’s citadel, where they took refuge in Minerva’s shrine. This shows
that she was protecting those who were looking after the wooden horse which
she had inspired.
2. Venus
After the Greeks broke into Troy using the wooden horse trick, Aeneas was
woken by the noise of fighting and the city’s burning. He rushed off to join the
fighting and eventually reached King Priam’s palace. There he witnessed the
king being slain and he also caught sight of Helen hiding behind a pillar.
He was so angry with this woman who had tempted Paris that he was about to
kill her, but Venus (a Roman name) appeared to him and stopped him from doing
this. She suggested that instead, he go back home to his father, wife and son,
which he did.
l. 591 alma parens, confessa deam qualisque videri
3. Jupiter
After Aeneas got home, he found that his father was not willing to leave Troy in
order to escape death. The family tried to persuade him to leave, and Anchises
prayed to Jupiter, ‘Jupiter Almighty, if any prayer can change your will, look down
on us this once’. In response Jupiter (a Roman name) sent a thunderbolt and a
shooting star to convince Anchises to leave.
l. 689 Iuppiter omnipotens, precibus si flecteris ullis,
Anchises was impressed by this, changed his mind and joined Aeneas and the
family in running from Troy.