The Junior High School of Ancient Languages and Cultures is the only school in Bulgaria where Ancient Greek and Latin are taught, and it is considered to be the best school in Bulgaria.
We had been discussing their participation in the actions for “THE RETURN OF ODYSSEUS” last year but only this year we managed to really work with a very nice result.
The coordinator of the events (in Junior High School and the University of Sofia) teacher of Latin Marta Alexandrova Metodieva together with Krassinir Dimitrov Ivanov, also a teacher of Latin at school, formed a completely original action involving pupils and teachers.
In particular, a group of five students under the guidance of their teachers, recited singing pieces from the Odyssey. You can see the recitation in the relevant video below but you will certainly have difficulty understanding the words on the one hand because they are singing on the other hand because the students speak with the specific pronunciation. The students who participated were:
- Maxim Dejanov Popov
- Mark Stefanov Tomov
- Christian Miroslavov Stratev
- Eleonora Alexandrov Alexandrov
- Betina Vladimirova Yaneva – a student from the Sofia University
In the second part of the program, two students performed Penelope (Ivana Stojanova Assenova) and Odysseus (Michail Yulianov Zarev) and they recited Penelope’s letter to Odysseus from Ovidius Transformations and a possible answer by Odysseus in Latin. Those who know Latin will be able to understand the texts more easily.
It was really a very nice composition, which will form the basis for the next year’s events, which we started to prepare for now. Here are the first verses of Ovid:
P. OVIDI NASONIS EPISTVLAE HEROIDVM
Penelope Vlixi
Haec tua Penelope lento tibi mittit, Ulixe
nil mihi rescribas attinet: ipse veni!
Troia iacet certe, Danais invisa puellis;
vix Priamus tanti totaque Troia fuit.
O utinam tum, cum Lacedaemona classe petebat,
obrutus insanis esset adulter aquis!