I'll be teaching Literature in Translation to my new IB Diploma class next term and I've decided to do Book VI of Vergil's
Aeneid. I had an idea for my students to make wax tablets as part of their learning. My students will be tackling this project in July or August, but today I did a "dummy run" to see how feasible this project will be. Here are some instructions and the final product.
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| The materials needed: a box, tinfoil, scissors, candles, matches, chopsticks and a craft knife. (And, of course, a suitably Roman quote!) |
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| Use a smallish box (I used 14x10cm) and cut it down to about 2cm in height. Cover it in tinfoil so that none of the wax leaks out. (I might ask my students to 'decorate' the outside of the box so that it looks wooden or more 'authentic') |
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| Fill the box with wax. I used three candles for this, but I would recommend putting a false bottom into the box as you don't need 2cm of wax to write on! It would be easier to melt the wax in a pot on the stove and pour it into the box, but I won't have a stove to use at school, so I melted the candles by burning them. This is quite time-consuming, and it also burnt the wax a bit, resulting in the wax turning grey-black at times. Not a big deal. |
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| The next step is to make a stylus. For this I sharpened one end of a
chopstick using a craft knife. I also flattened the other end of the
chopstick (3c), as this was the Romans' way of smoothing out the wax to
erase any errors. |
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| Finally it's time to write! I chose the opening two lines of the Aeneid. In order to write, you have to scratch out the wax, leaving a dent to form each letter. You'll need to clear the wax as it builds up. |
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"I sing of arms and the man, exiled by fate,
who first came from the coast of Troy to Italy"
Aeneid I, 1-2 |
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| The final product |
I'm looking forward to doing this with my students; I think we can fit it into a double lesson. Hopefully this activity will help them to remember important quotes from the poem to use in their essays!
