OCR A2 Latin Verse June 16th and then Prose June 23rd

Hey there fellow A2 Classicists,

With 9 days to go until the Verse exam and a further 7 until the Prose, that is an awfully long time between exams, and I'm just unsure how to fill up all that space effectively with so much potential time to waste.

What kind of revision approach are you taking?

My advice is to remember to comment on sound, choice and placement, and balance in your theme essay.

Is anyone here doing the prose composition, and if so what vocab list are you using?

I feel weirdly relaxed about these exams even though I have a shocking amount of things I need to learn. I don't think I'm actually doing enough work... :/

Do any of you think it is worth trying to read some of Metamorphoses in English? There's no way I'll finish it before the Verse exam, but maybe it will avoid the nightmarish situation of having absolutely no idea what's going on in the translation passage.

I'm doing the AS vocab list for vocab.

I always get this feeling with Latin. Especially with Verse, because the only thing I've ever really remotely struggled with has been the translation, and even then, you can afford to translate things very liberally. I've just been learning some Ovid specific vocab and my set texts and I'll probably do some translation closer to the time.

You're not memorising the Latin set texts though, right? Just the style and context stuff?

Does anyone have any idea what questions might come up for the Aeneid essays? I'm assuming they won't cover the same passages again and maybe won't focus on Dido in the essay questions. Maybe Aeneas, Anna, Iarbas? I'd struggle a lot with a question on Aeneas - besides a physical description likening him to Apollo and his reaction to Mercury, there's very little about him our prescribed text. How would you answer a question about his heroism, piety or something like that?

I really doubt that they'd ask on Iarbas or Anna. That would be cruel. What would you say about them? All the questions my class has been doing have been focused on how Aeneas is presented as a Roman hero, the role of the gods, Aeneas and Dido's relationship, and just Dido by herself. If they did ask on someone like Anna, it would be in relation to how they influenced Aeneas or Dido to do something.

A question on Aeneas would be quite good, but I think you would need to know the right examples to quote. I was thinking about it last night while brainstorming some ideas for the content essay.

If the question was something about him being a hero, I reckon you'd definitely need to focus on how Aeneas is only a prototype Roman hero and doesn't conform to all of the qualities that they would have, such as "pietas", in that he is reluctant to leave Dido until being *******ed by Jupiter to do so, at which point he puts his service to family and the state above his personal life, as a Roman hero would. Another example you might add (if you remember our glorious GCSE text lol) is how Aeneas bravely tries to lead his family to safety out of Troy, and even goes back to search for Creusa when she is lost, showing his dedication at that stage to his family and his destiny.

I think Aeneas' relationship with Dido is also quite important as it has important contextual elements to consider about what a Roman hero should and should not do. We must remember that Virgil was writing the Aeneid to justify Octavian's reign, and the tragic relationship between Aeneas + Dido reminds us of Antony and Cleopatra, another foreign queen who kills herself, which was definitely the social scandal of the era and what Virgil makes clear that a Roman hero like Octavian would not do. At that stage, Aeneas is more Antony and less Octavian.

Aeneas can also not be seen as a Roman hero through his comparison to the god Apollo, and indeed the description given just before Mercury confronts him. Whilst this imagery presents him in a majestic light, at the same time, he is in Carthaginian dress, which any Roman would definitely not do, and shows us that in a sense he has become a Carthaginian, when a true Roman hero would stick to the Roman values and refuse to conform to any foreign culture. There is a definite contrast between the actions of Aeneas before he leaves, and what he should be doing as a hero.

There's loads you can say, I think. It just depends on the angle. Once you have that, you can pretty much exploit it in any way you want, and as long as you introduce context, make reference to the whole book, or even the whole poem, and provide a vaguely structured commentary, it's quite hard to go wrong.

That's brilliant, thanks so much! I'd never really thought about incorporating other books from the poem.

If the question focused on the role of the gods, do you think you could talk about how the weather is utilised by both Juno and Venus (as a destructive, harmful force and as a method of protecting a son - though both arguably could be seen as compassionate acts, since Juno is trying to protect Carthage)? I'd want to focus on the humour and irony of their argument scene, but I'm not sure I could incorporate that into an analytical essay that would relate to the book as a whole. Is there any way significance to the tone of the writing - i.e. exposes a propaganda agenda - or is the scene mainly used as a plot device to foreshadow Juno's intentions for the 'marriage'?

That's brilliant, thanks so much! I'd never really thought about incorporating other books from the poem.

If the question focused on the role of the gods, do you think you could talk about how the weather is utilised by both Juno and Venus (as a destructive, harmful force and as a method of protecting a son - though both arguably could be seen as compassionate acts, since Juno is trying to protect Carthage)? I'd want to focus on the humour and irony of their argument scene, but I'm not sure I could incorporate that into an analytical essay that would relate to the book as a whole. Is there any way significance to the tone of the writing - i.e. exposes a propaganda agenda - or is the scene mainly used as a plot device to foreshadow Juno's intentions for the 'marriage'?

When talking about the humour and irony you can say it provides comic relief from the quite serious plot of Dido and her passion for Aeneas.


I feel like a question purely Aeneas as a hero probably wouldn't come up- It would end up horrible unfair for some, as lots of people (me included) have studied the whole of the Aeneid in Class Civ, and therefore would have far more to say. I actually have to restrain myself to only talking about the one book most of the time, otherwise I simply end up writing a class civ essay without enough style points or quotes from the book to get me marks.