Latin Poetry - in pictures
1 min readByAnne Dicks
Almost simultaneously realising that I am an aphant (three days ago, at the age of 71) and that this "difference" has had a fundamental and positive impact on my whole career as a teacher of Latin, should, I hope, enable me to regard it as a superpower rather than a deficiency....
The Roman poet Horace states that "Poetry is like a picture" (ut pictura poesis), and Virgil prefaces his description of sea serpents advancing to attack the Trojans with the word "Look!" (Ecce). I was inspired by specific Latin poems to create and pioneer a new 'visual' approach to teaching Latin poetry in a way that is accessible to people whether they know any Latin or not, and only now do I realise that I did all that because of my aphantasia.
The realisation is mind-blowing. I have loved teaching Latin poetry and inspiring my students with the same love for it. I have even designed my garden with elements from 'pictorial' sections of Latin poetry and I have two stone serpents ominously lurking nearby!
If anyone is interested in this, there are probably no longer any copies of my 1980's video "Roman Writing Unravelled" around, but I transferred the ideas to a website and some powerpoints which you can find on "Pyrrha's Roman Pages" pyrrha.me.uk