Ides of October

Over the weekend of March 6-8 2020, the Dulcimer Association of Albany held its 31st Annual Dulcimer Festival in Latham, New York. The Dulcimer Association of Albany is a group of mountain dulcimer players who meet once a month to play dulcimers together. At the festival on Saturday, in a workshop called “Ensembles with Classical Music,” one of the handouts distributed to participants was a piece written by the workshop leader on October 15th. The title of the tune was “The Ides of October,” and as the Ides of March fall today, March 15th, here’s a little background on the Roman calendar.

“Beware the Ides of March,” a soothsayer warns Julius Caesar in Act 1 of William Shakespeare’s play, The Life and Death of Julius Caesar. By Act 3, scene 1, Julius Caesar announces to the soothsayer, “The Ides of March are come.” The soothsayer responds, “Ay, Caesar; but not gone.”

The Ides of March on an ancient Roman calendar is March 15th on a modern calendar. Also the Ides of May, July, and October fall on the 15th of each of those months; in all the other Roman months the Ides fall on the 13th on a modern calendar.

The Roman calendar fascinates beginning Latin students. A Roman counted forward to the next fixed date in a month. The first of every month in a Roman calendar is called Kalendae or Calends. The next fixed date is the Nonae or Nones (pronounced Nōnz) that fall on the 5th or 7th of a month, and the third fixed date is Idus or Ides on the 13th or 15th. To identify a date, a Roman counted the number of days to the next fixed date and that Roman included both the day he was on and the next fixed day. The modern date “March 13th” is written in Latin as III a.d. Id. Mart. (three days before the Ides of March) by counting the 13th (1), 14th (2), and 15th (3). The day before the next fixed date has a special designation; yesterday, March 14th, in Latin is prid. Id. Mart. “the day before” the Ides of March. 

Why do we still count down to the Ides of March? Great historical events capture the imagination. In American history we remember December 7th 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and we remember  D-Day, June 6th 1944, the invasion of Normandy, France. We will never forget September 11th 2001 when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were attacked. In Roman history on the Ides of March 44 B.C., a conspiracy of Roman senators assassinated the self-declared Dictator Perpetuus (Dictator for Life) Julius Caesar and precipitated the Roman Civil War that brought the Roman Republic to an end by 27 B.C. when a new leader, Julius Caesar’s great-nephew, later known as Caesar Augustus, became the first Roman emperor. 

And the Ides of October? We both remember and celebrate this date, for in 70 B.C. the great Roman poet Vergil was born.

Venus and Artemis

The January 2012 cover of The Field magazine from England featured a young woman dressed in a short tweed skirt carrying a walking stick and flanked by two dogs. The article on the inside of the magazine was called “Ladies Picking Up,” or ladies using dogs trained to retrieve birds shot by a hunter.  The image called to mind the description by Vergil in Aeneid, Book 1, of his mother, the goddess Venus, disguised as a huntress:

318            namque umerīs dē mōre habilem suspenderat arcum

319            vēnātrīx dederatque comam diffundere ventīs,

320            nūda genū nōdōque sinūs collēcta fluentīs.

[For down from her shoulders according to custom she had hung a handy bow,

and the huntress had given her hair to pour out in the winds,

bare as to her knee and having been gathered as to her flowing folds.]

On the back cover of the magazine was an advertisement for a new model of a Rizzini shot gun called...”Artemis, a perfect combination of elegance and excellence.”  Artemis is the Greek name of the huntress goddess known in Latin as Diana. The classical tradition continues in words and pictures in The Field magazine.

IN THE BAG

Another trip to the grocery store yielded one paper bag, to carry the overflow from my two reusable bags. As I was folding it to save in a cupboard for future newspaper recycling, I noticed the company name printed in blue on the bottom: DURO Bag Mfg. Co., and my particular bag was labeled 1/6 DUROTUFF. Happily, my bag was also made in the USA, and carried the date JUN 17 09. I've sent an email to the company which, although their web page features a short history, does not explain whence the name. The company HQ are in Kentucky; if you are in the market for paper bags, check them out here.

I am guessing that the company name derives from duro (1) I endure, last, a really hopeful name for a paper-bag manufacturer. I love paper bags and wish more stores offered them in lieu of plastic.

Vergil uses this verb in Aeneas' speech to the Trojans after the shipwreck caused by Juno and Aeolus in Book One of the Aeneid: Durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis (line 207): Hang on/endure/be tough and keep/save yourselves for better things/good fortune. Two really good English derivatives are durable and obdurate. Another good trade-name is Duracell batteries.