[1] The text makes frequent use of the pronoun sē;
for speakers of, for example, French, German and Russian, this is the
equivalent of Fr. se / Gmn. sich / Russ. -sya; -s’; sebya. In English it is ‘-self’
and is used to indicate a reflexive action i.e. one that the subject
performs on himself or herself.
Fr. il se lave / Gmn. er wäscht sich / Russ.
on umyvaetsya; Engl. he’s washing himself (although
English can be a little haphazard about this, most likely missing out the
‘himself’ or rephrasing it to ‘he’s getting washed’ if it’s obvious he’s
washing himself and not the dog.)
[2] The construction with -self in English serves a double
function:
[i] He’s getting himself all worried = reflexive i.e.
he’s worrying himself, he is doing that to himself
[ii] He’ll need to do that himself = not
reflexive but emphatic stressing that he will do it alone
In Latin sē is not used to express the second
function; La. uses ipse, ipsa, ipsum (himself, herself, itself) which is
known as an emphatic or intensive pronoun:
Agricola ipse hoc fēcit. │ The farmer himself did
it.
[3] sē can mean himself / herself / themselves i.e.
it is a third person reflexive pronoun referring to another person or
other people, and it does not change according to gender. Therefore, only
context will determine whether it means himself or themselves
etc. An English translation may or may not convey it.
undīs sē dedit │ he gave himself to the waves,
which is a very odd literal translation and so you need to go to the second
stage to render it more fluently [ = he surrendered (himself) to the
waves (he plunged into the waves)]
Dum Rōmānī undīs sē dare dubitant, … │ While the
Romans were hesitating to give themselves to the waves [ = were
hestitant / unsure about throwing themselves / plunging into the waves]
ad pugnam sē parāvērunt │ they prepared (themselves)
for the battle [= they got prepared / ready for battle]
Rōmānī ad aquiliferum sē congregāverant │ the Romans
gathered (themselves) at the standard-bearer [= the Romans assembled at
the standard-bearer]
Britannī sē fugae dederant. │ The Britons had given themselves
to flight [ = the Britons had fled]
Image #1: these are the forms of sē in the different
cases; there is no nominative case because a reflexive pronoun is always
referring back to the subject of the sentence:
[4] Examples:
Accusative
Puer sē videt in speculō. │ The boy sees himself
in the mirror.
Cleopatra sē interfēcit │ Cleopatra killed herself.
Sē ex nāvī prōiēcit. (Caesar) │ He threw himself
from the ship. (Note: this is the actual quotation from the description of the
event mentioned in the text)
Dumnorīgem ad sē vocat. (Caesar) │ He calls Dumnorix to him(self)
Sēsē castrīs tenēbant. (Caesar) │ They kept themselves
in the camp.
Genitive
Ut Seneca philosophus dīxit, īra brevis īnsānia et impotēns suī
est. │ As the philosopher Seneca said: anger is a brief madness and has no
control of itself / power over itself.
Dative
Iuppiter sibi dedit fōrmam taurī. │ Juppiter gave himself
the form of a bull [= the form of a bull to himself]
Hominem sibi cārum audivit. │ He heard a man (who
was) dear to him(self) i.e. dear to the person who heard
Ipsī autem sibi dedērunt cōnsilium hoc (Vulgate) │
But they made this plan for themselves
Ablative
Homō doctus in sē semper dīvitiās habet. │ A
learned man always has riches within himself.
Caesar, postquam hostēs superāvit, litterās ad senātum dē sē mīsit, 'Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī.' │ After he conquered the enemy, Caesar sent a letter to the senate about himself, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.'
Alexander, post mortem Clītī, vix ā sē manūs
abstinuit. │ After the death of Clitus,
Alexander barely (with difficulty) kept his hands from himself (i.e. refrained
from suicide).
Prīmum sēcum dīxit: “Iste bombus aliquid significat.” (Winne Ille Pu) │ First of all he said to himself “That buzzing means something” [Note: Latin literally says with himself]
[5] The reflexive constructions below refer to a first or second
person either as [i] a direct or [ii] an indirect object, for example:
[i] I wash myself; [ii] I sent a Valentine’s card to
myself
[i] You’re fooling yourself; [ii] give (to) yourself
a pat on the back
[i] We’re preparing ourselves; [ii] we bought ourselves
a new car = …a new car for ourselves
[i] You need to help yourselves; [ii] you’re causing
problems for yourselves
Latin does not have a separate reflexive pronoun to convey
these but uses the accusative or dative personal pronouns in whatever case is
required.
Examples in the accusative case:
Mē videō │ I see myself.
Mē bene habeō. │ I’m (doing) fine [Literally: I’m
keeping / holding myself well]
Tē laudās │ You praise yourself.
Quōmodo tē habēs? │ How are you (doing)? [Literally:
How are you keeping / holding yourself?]
But:
Iūlia sē male habet.* │ Julia is doing badly / feels
poorly [Literally: Livia is keeping / hoding herself badly.]*
*”With sē… to hold or keep
himself or itself in a certain manner, i. e. … to find
one's self, to be, in any manner.” (Lewis and Short)
Sē laudat. │ (S)he praises him/herself; it
cannot be any other accusative pronoun e.g. eum / eam or illum / illam because
that woud suggest that somebody else is praised rather than the subject
praising him/herself
From the text:
Ad aquilam vōs congregāte! │ Gather yourselves
at the eagle standard.
Examples in the dative case.
Cūr tibi litterās scrīpsistī? │ Why did you
write a letter to yourself?
Date vōbīs virōs sapientēs (Vulgate) │ Give wise men to
yourselves. [ = Choose wise men for
yourselves]
Example in the accusative and dative case:
Līberāvī mē [accusative] perīculō : beneficium mihi
[dative] dedī. (Seneca) │ I have freed myself; I have given a benefit to
myself.
____________________
Latin tutorial:
Sing this when you’re in the
grocery store and see what happens …
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