26.07.24: Level 2; Dē crocodīlō [1]

hiō, hiāre, hiāvī [1]: yawn
līmus, -ī [2/m]: mud
mōs, mōris [3/m]: manner / way of behaving
namque: for; since i.e. because
pāreō, pārēre [2]: obey; the verb is followed by a noun in the dative case
pūrgō, purgāre, pūrgāvī [1]: clean
sapiēns, sapientis: wise

[A] In the next three posts which cover this text, I’ve added a number of ‘points’ after each question. If anybody is preparing for a Latin examination, reading comprehension questions will often be followed by a number in brackets, the bigger the number, the more detailed the examiners want the answer to be.

1.      Where exactly did the crocodile live? [2 points]
2.      What did the crocodile do when the sun was shining? [3 points]
3.      How did the bird help the crocodile? [4 points]
4.      What two good characteristics did the crocodile have, and which bad one? [4 points]
5.      Who also lived in the same place? [1 point]
6.      How many sons did he have? [1 point]
7.      Why is the man described as wise? [1 point]
8.      What did he advise his first son not to do, and why? [3 points]
9.      How did the son react to his father’s advice? [2 points]
10.  What did the crocodile do when he saw the boy? [2 points]

[B]
1.      What case is ‘O mī fīlī!’
2.      What is the meaning of ‘que’ in benevolusque?

Notes:

[1] quīdam, quaedam, quoddam: a certain (person / thing); some (person / thing)

• Olim crocodīlus quīdam in Aegyptō habitābat. │ There once lived a certain crocodile in Egypt i.e. quīdam makes the reference non-specific
• Senex quīdam │ a certain old man
• Avis quaedam sapiēns │ a certain wise bird

Many examples of this occur in the Mediaeval text Gesta Rōmānōrum

• Rēx quīdam rēgnāvit, in cuius imperiō erat quīdam iuvenis. │ There ruled a certain emperor in whose empire was a certain young man.
• Imperātrīx quaedam erat, in cuius imperiō erat quīdam mīles │ There was a certain empress in whose empire was a certain soldier
• Perrexit ad quendam philosophum … │ He proceeded / went (on) to a certain philosopher …
• Ad quandam cīvitātem … vēnit │ He came to a certain city.
• Accidit quōdam diē …  │ It happened on a certain day …

The declension of quīdam can be found at:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quidam#Latin

[2] crocodīlus … cui nōmen Rōbertus erat. │ Literally: a crocodile to whom was the name Robert = a crocodile … whose name was Robert / … who had the name Robert.

[3] dum sōl lūcet [present], Rōbertus …dormiēbat [imperfect] │ While the sun was shining, Robert … used to sleep

Although the sentence is in the past tense, dum (while) is regularly used with the present tense to indicate that the action was happening at the same time. English would translate it with a past tense.

Dum hiat [present], avis quaedam sapiēns ad eum advolābat [imperfect] … │ While he was yawning, a certain wise bird used to fly to him …

Hoc dum nārrat [present], forte audīvī [perfect] (Terence) │ I happened to hear this while she was telling it.

[4] Rōbertus igitur, vidēns ¦ hunc stultum puerum ¦ ad flūmen ambulantem … │ Robert, therefore, seeing ¦ this foolish boy ¦ walking towards the river …; ‘vidēns’ and ‘ambulantem’ are examples of present active participles describing what the nouns are doing. Detailed information on this important aspect of Latin grammar is coming up after the text has been covered.