About the Blog

"...γυμνὸν σπείρειν, γυμνὸν δὲ βοωτεῖν,

γυμνὸν δ᾽ἀμάειν..."

Hesiod, Works and Days

Nuda Ita Ara Sere Nuda is the project of a classicist gone native.  I am bending my pen into a pruning hook and turning my hands to the plow.  In other words, instead of writing a dissertation on ancient farming, I'm interning at a diversified, sustainable farm in New York State--the closest I could come to Vergil's Georgics without leaving America.  Though I intend on remaining fully clothed, Hesiod's advice (from the oldest text on farming in the western tradition, the Works and Days) to "sow naked and plough naked and reap naked" is the inspiration for this blog's title.  Paraphrased by Vergil, "nudus ara; sere nudus [plough naked; sow naked]" in Georgics I.299, my title paraphrases again to acknowledge its author's femininity.  The insertion of "ita" was the most meaningful and sensible way to avoid hiatus between nuda and ara while maintaining the metrical integrity of the line.  Thus, reinserted into Vergil's lovely lines, we get: 

At rubicunda Ceres medio succiditur aestu 

et medio tostas aestu terit area fruges.

nuda ita ara, sere nuda.  hiems ignava colono. 

But the ruddy grain is mowed in the middle of the summer

and in the middle of the summer the floor threshes the parched grain.

Therefore plough naked, sow naked.  Winter is the sabbath for the farmer. 

Enough about the title.  The purpose of this blog is to keep me reading Greek and Latin.  My intention is to discuss classical texts on sustainable farming practices and compare them with the practices I learn in my internship.  For starters, I'll be looking at Hesiod's Works and Days, Vergil's Georgics, and Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura.  I am open to reading suggestions and welcome comments, critiques, article recommendations, and the like!