SPQR Blues Chapter IV: CCXXXVI

[spqrblues]

Here's the next comic--sort of: the final panel is still in pencils while I argue with a map (which happens more than you'd think).

This comic includes a character I'd promised to put in maybe two years ago. (Not the horse. The horse is new to the cast.) So, finally.

To those who read ancient Greek: Please remember there were regional variations. That said, gentle corrections are appreciated!





 

Comments

[amedia.livejournal.com]

My Greek has been rusting slowly away . . . but I think it's likelier to be to ploion rather than ton?

Bilingual!Felix just gets hotter and hotter.

He is also demonstrating the advantages of a short haircut. I *love* how the girl's hair shows us how fiercely the wind is blowing!!! And how the wind is even sorta pushing into the third panel.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

You're right, and I knew that. I was writing ton all over everywhere and wrote it there too by mistake. ARGH. I was so careful about it everywhere except when I was actually writing it into the balloon. I can't even begin to tell you how annoyed I am with myself.

I read that the weirdness of the wind and water the bay actually helped some ships get where they wanted to go.

And a whole lot of ships sank. So I read.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Also (and this only works if the Greek letters show up properly), when I was looking for variations in Perseus's word study tool, it gave me the sentence below, and I spent several minutes wondering why I didn't recognise the Greek word "στρονγερ":

γοῦν γε οὖν α στρονγερ φορμ οφ γε

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Mooha!!!! (That was in reaction to the Greek tidbit from Perseus.)

Pray don't be too annoyed with yourself! I admired "goun" greatly--I never got the hang of those little words. Ton for to is just a handwritten typo. *flappy hands*

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I'll try to stop obsessing over the typo (hand-o) :P

I love all those little bitty words. I should add the "Great Scott" dictionary to my list of desert-island books along with the OED and the Chicago Manual of Style.

When I type that out, it occurs to me how peculiar it sounds. I--er--will also take The Lord of the Rings and Outlander and stuff....

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Peculiar? Sounds totes normal to me. :-D

Don't forget Brewer's Book of Phrase and Fable. That's how I wasted time before the Internet. "I'll just look up this one expression--(*flipping to the page, spotting something completely unrelated*)--hey, what's that?" [three hours later] "What was I looking for?"

[corvideye.livejournal.com]

I think that's a great desert island list! The OED would be endless hours of fun, as long as your eyes didn't give out. My copy is definitely one of my 'grab if the house is on fire' items...

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Bring the version that comes with the magnifying glass and it has many practical desert-island uses too!

[kit-the-brave.livejournal.com]

Panel 1 attempted translation: "all this rain makes Dad emo." Yeah, when you don't use it, you lose it...

Good thing Felix's Greek is better than mine!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

"This is my father's ship."

But I like your translation better :D

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Nice!!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

I have to ask : what's the horse's name?

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

It's a horse with no name. He's riding it toward a desert, to get out of the rain.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Perfect :)

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I don't know!

What would you name her? :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

I'd name her Damascina, in memory of a mare I knew as a kid, whose name was Quetsche, which is a French name for the Damson plum and "damson" is derived from "Damascene".

She was a very nice pony, except for that habit of suddenly biting you when you when you were tightening the saddle's girth. You had to watch out for that.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

That's lovely.

We may have a winner, though the polls are still open :)

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Those first two panels, intruding on the third, are heartbreakingly classically beautiful.

Dr. Phil

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Those panels turned out fancier than I expected.

I might expand the scene across the row at some point a s show the buffeted ship in the strange waters.