fulmen -inis n. lightning bolt

Whilst watching the Olympic Trials and getting involved in the build-up to the Games, I came up with another Olympic coin idea: Zeus and the 100m event. Not immediately obvious? Perhaps these pictures will clear things up!

equus -i m. horse

In English, a horse wears a 'horse shoe', or 'shoe for horse'. In French, a horse wears a 'fer à cheval', or 'iron for horse', while German horses are shod with a 'Hufeisen' or 'hoof iron'.

All these signs are motivated: English and French see a relationship between the animal as a whole and the protecting device, while German relates the protecting device to the relevant body part of the horse.

Moreover, French and German highlight the material the protecting device is made of, whereas English, by using shoe, takes an anthropocentric view of the scene.

Isn't language construal fascinating?

*This piece of knowledge comes courtesy of an extract in my linguistics textbook: Dirven & Verspoor (1998: 14-15) cited in Hendrikse et al. 2008. Approaches in Linguistics University of South Africa: Pretoria

Hispania -ae f. Spain

I moved to Chile in 2011 and started to learn Spanish for the first time. While I was out for dinner one night, I asked the waiter what "hongos" were. Mushrooms, he explained. I realised that "hongos" was similar to the English word "fungi". I had already noticed that "hacer" (to do or make) is similar to its Latin equivalent "facere", whence we derive the English word fact.

So I did some digging to find out why the initial 'f' and 'h' were interchanged in words of the same origin. I learnt that most Latin words that began with an 'f' followed by a vowel evolved into Spanish words (alone among Romance languages) as an 'h'. The reason for this change is still unknown, but it has been ascribed to Basque speakers, as the change was first documented in areas where many Basques were known to live. The theory is that the Basque language did not have an 'f' sound, and so substituted it for the nearest sound in their language, which was 'h'. However, this theory has been disputed.

Of course, I tried to come up with more examples of the 'f' - 'h' phenomenon. Can you think of any more?

hongo -- fungus
halcón - falcon
horno -- furnace
hablar -- fable
higo -- fig
horma - form
(hacer -- facere)

nummus -i m. coin

In my last post I referred to Peter Jones' article on the Royal Mint's new coins in celebration of the London Olympics. The man behind the coins mistakenly depicted Jupiter and Juno as the "Gods of Olympia" on the coins. Obviously these are the Roman gods, and not the Greek gods of Mount Olympus, who would have been more appropriate given that the Olympic Games originated in Greece in 776BCE.

The Olympic coins featuring Roman deities.

In their Mythography workshop, my students designed their own Olympic coins, choosing Greek gods and sports that were appropriate to those gods. We came up with the following list of deities and sports. Can you add anything?

Poseidon, God of Water (and horses)
Water sports - Swimming, Diving, Kayaking, etc.
Equestrian sports - show jumping, dressage, etc.

Hermes, God of Travel
Running events - track events, Marathon, Triathlon, etc.

Ares, God of War
'Fighting' (or strength) sports - Wrestling, Boxing, Weight-lifting, Fencing, etc.

Apollo, God of Archery
Archery (Maybe Cupid could work here!)

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom
Javelin (she holds a spear, but this could also be Ares or even Artemis)

Hephaestus, God of Metalwork
Field events - Hammer throw, Shotput

And, of course, although there is no sport for her, special mention should be made of Nike, Goddess of Victory. I'm sure all the athletes will be praying to her...

mythos -ou m. tale, story; graphé -és f. writing

I am teaching an 8-week workshop to students in their last year of high school. The workshop can be on anything as long as it is in English (the students are Chilean). With such a wide brief, how could I resist doing something classical? The only small problem is that in all the other workshops the students are "watching movies" (film study) so my workshop couldn't be purely literary. And so I combined my love of mythology with my interest in photography. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mythography!

Yes, all you pedants out there, I know that the title suggests more the writing of myths rather than any picture taking, but contrivance has always been catchy, and Mythography is really catching on! The students have four lessons a week, two for mythology and two for photography.

Mythology

On the mythology side, the students read Greek creation myths, learn about Greek (and Roman) deities, study the myths leading up to the Trojan War, and watch the film Troy (there had to be a movie!). They do read an introduction to Homer and the Iliad beforehand in order to compare Hollywood's interpretation with the original.

The Olympian Gods
The gods lend their names to our study of mythology and the English language.

Photography

On the photography side, we learn about the composition of photographs - focal point, background, simplicity, rule of thirds, lighting, colour, lines, framing, balance and movement. These rules of composition are taught during class, and students then have the opportunity to practise taking photos around the school using these new ideas. There is also a short lesson on cinematography and film study based on Troy.

Photography
The rules of composition are a useful skill to take outside the classroom.

Language

There are also a few fun language elements in the course, such as word power and ancient Greek! The students decipher the stories behind the naming of the planets and the days of the week (Spanish and English). They also complete a reading comprehension based on Peter Jones' article "The wrong ancient gods" about the commemorative coins for the 2012 London Olympic Games. They have to design their own coins (with Greek gods, of course) and have a short lesson on the history of the Olympic Games and the use of Greek and Latin numbers in English.

Students also have the opportunity to learn the ancient Greek alphabet, as well a few appropriate transliterated words.

Greek Alphabet
Students learn Greek words which have come into English directly (e.g. athlete).
They also write their own names in ancient Greek!

Projects

In order to test the Mythography aspect of the workshop, the students complete 3 projects. Project 1 is after reading the myth of Pandora's Box. In groups, the students create their own enticing Pandora's "pythoi" (vessels). The Evils are all photographs by other photographers, while Hope is a photograph they have taken themselves using the rules of composition learnt in the course. The images all have to be linked (through subject - e.g. children, or through use of color - e.g. black & white).

Pandora's Box
The inside holds 6 photographs of children in desperate situations,
and 1 beautiful photograph of Hope, a happy, smiling child.

The main assignment is a visual and written task in which students compose and capture three images relating to the myths leading up to the Trojan War. The subject matter of these images can be any elements suggested in the myths (love, judgement, war, etc.). The students also write a paragraph on each image explaining the idea and elements of composition behind each picture.

'The Apple of Discord'
Eris' "gift" to Peleus and Thetis at their wedding.

The ultimate project is an oral presentation based on the film Troy. In pairs, students analyse a theme from the movie, looking at cinematography and character development. Hopefully all the background lessons on mythology and photography lend an insight into their analysis.

Troy
Hollywood's version of the great epic poem.

And that is Mythography, a combination of mythology and photography. I believe that the photography skills will be useful to the students for the rest of their lives, while the mythology aspects will enrich their knowledge now, and hopefully allow them to contribute interesting snippets to conversations for years to come. Or at least give them the answer to the deciding question in a pub quiz!