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Latin Class Gives Voice to Ancient Roman Poet

Who says Latin isn’t relevant? Certainly not the students in Honors 3 Latin. They are giving a voice to Clodia Metelli, a first-century BC Roman noblewoman who longed to be a poet and live life with the freedoms enjoyed by men. Sadly, little is known of Clodia. Her poetry has been lost, and all original sources for her were written by the senator Cicero and the poet Catullus, who had reason to portray her in a bad light. 

However, in their study of how societal structures affect social norms, that wrapped up on March 9, the Latin students brought this Ancient Roman poet to life. Using an almost ancient medium, the CD or compact disk, they chose contemporary songs influenced by each of nine Latin readings. For each song they gave a written explanation citing the Latin texts and reflecting on the unit theme. They also created CD jacket inserts which describe Clodia visually and textually using vocabulary from the unit. Lastly, they burned their CDs, printed the jackets, and put it all together as a tangible memento of the project.