RUPESTRIAN DELIGHTS

I was delighted to learn the word rupestrian from World Wide Words, an e-newsletter which I receive weekly on Saturdays here in New York. Here you can read the short article. One of my favorite passages from Ovid contains the word rupes, rupis f. cliff, rock; see Ovid's Remedia Amoris, lines 175-190 at The Latin Library: ecce, petunt rupes praeruptaque saxa capellae (Look, the she-goats seek the cliffs and sheer rocks, line 179). Ah, I wonder if past Latin 3 students remember this passage, which also has a fabulous two-line (lines 187-188) summary of the four seasons.

Watchers of PBS may recognize the allusion in the title to riparian delights, as expounded by Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bou-quet) in the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances, but more on riparian another time.