statues just velunt moveri
I have gotten a dispensation to depart from the assigned topics and write my Latin paper on two words in the Pygmalion story - “velle moveri”. As in:
virginis est verae facies, quam vivere credas,
et, si non obstet reverentia, velle moveri:
i.e.
Her appearance is that of a real maiden, whom you might believe to be alive,
and, were it not for reverence, to want to move
The passive infinitive “moveri” can simply be intransitive in sense - “to move [herself]” - but the primary sense is more like “to be moved”. I am going to research whether there might be some lewd subtext to this choice of words and the passive voice. “Moveo”, not surprisingly, has many meanings (think of all the different ways “move” can be used in English), and some of these come close to swiving - e.g. “to strike” (compare the English “fuck”).
So I get to use the OLD and the TLL and “The Latin Sexual Vocabulary” and some secret classics library for which I need to get a key. I’m hoping to find space to bring up a comparison to the creepy Warren and his “girlfriend” April on Buffy (not to mention the fabulous Buffybot!). But I only have two pages to work with…