Friday, June 12, 2009

Aeneid 1.33: Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem.

"It was such a massive task to establish the Roman race." This famous line sums up the previous lines about the struggles Aeneas suffered at the hands of Juno and states the larger theme of the entire poem - the founding (condere) of Rome and, since Rome is more than a geographical location, the founding of the Roman race. The word, condere, is the infinitive of condo, which is a combination of the preposition com (when not used in a compound, we know it as the preposition cum, meaning with) and the verb stem do, meaning 'to bring' or 'to place.' Therefore condere, most literally, means 'to bring together,' frequently in the context of bringing, or joining, something together into a whole.

This offers great insight into the mindset of the Romans from Vergil's perspective. 'Founding' or 'establishing' Rome involves taking incomplete elements at bringing them together into something perfect. To what extent does Vergil view this as a process that is capable of ever being completed perfectly? How might this be similar to or different from the mindset of present-day nations?

By the way, the verb stem do- does not seem to be related to the very common Latin verb do, dare, (to give), with its many English derivatives (donate, donor, vendor, condone, trade, tradition, perdition, etc.), but in fact is cognate with the English word, 'do' (to make, or put), and is related to the Latin verb facio, ere (to do or to make). English words related to condo, ere, include abscond (to put away, i.e. to put out of sight, conceal secretly) and recondite (something that is obscure, or has a hidden or profound meaning, with re here meaning (away from)). English words like credit, credible, creed etc. come from cre-do, meaning 'to put faith in something, to trust.'

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