Lūcia Hērōs
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Reading level
The author’s introduction states that this novella was written for readers in their second year of study. Comprehensible Antiquity puts this novella at Level D.
Diverse & Multicultural Identities
For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.Parallel cultures
No depictions identified.Gender
Features one cis female main character (Lucia), and directly addresses the gender roles of men and women in Roman society and mythology. Features no cis male main characters or transgender main characters.Sexual identity
Features a depiction of heterosexual identity: Lucia has a mother and father.SES/class
No depictions identified.Religion
No depictions identified.Disability
No depictions identified.Language Statistics
Vocabulary
Word List
A complete word list for Lūcia Hērōs can be found here.
Glosses
This novella contains glosses in the form of footnotes with English translations or cultural notes in English.
Of the 278 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 41 of them (14.7%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 7964 total words in the text, 67 of them (0.8%) are glossed.
Of the 278 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 41 of them (14.7%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 7964 total words in the text, 67 of them (0.8%) are glossed.
Glossary
This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with every form of each word listed separately. The glossary is incomplete; some words used in the text are not found in the glossary.
Syntax
The ratio of complex sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are complex sentences, on average. A complex sentence is defined as a sentence with one or more subordinate clauses or verb phrases.
Summary
Genre & Sources
This novella is in the genre of historical (Classical) with embedded stories from Classical mythology and Roman historical legend.
It contains adaptations of several stories: Circe changing Ulysses’s sailors into pigs (found in Odyssey book 10), Medea helping Jason acquire the Golden Fleece (found in Apollonius of Rhodes’s Argonautica and elsewhere), and Cloelia's escape from being a hostage (found in Livy 2.13). It alludes to other characters from myth, including Atalanta, Camilla, Penelope, Antigone, Penthesilea, Theseus, Bellerophon, Perseus, and Achilles.
It contains adaptations of several stories: Circe changing Ulysses’s sailors into pigs (found in Odyssey book 10), Medea helping Jason acquire the Golden Fleece (found in Apollonius of Rhodes’s Argonautica and elsewhere), and Cloelia's escape from being a hostage (found in Livy 2.13). It alludes to other characters from myth, including Atalanta, Camilla, Penelope, Antigone, Penthesilea, Theseus, Bellerophon, Perseus, and Achilles.
Complete Plot Summary
CONTAINS SPOILERS
Lucia is a Roman girl who enjoys getting into mischief. She is always told by her mother that she is a “bad girl,” while her brother Sextus is never told that he is a “bad boy” for his hijinks. She wants to go to school like her brother does, but her mother says it is proper for girls to stay at home and weave. When he returns from school, Sextus tells Lucia a brief story from the Odyssey: when Ulysses arrives at Circe’s island, his sailors are turned into pigs. Lucia takes this to mean that all pigs might be transformed people. She goes to get her friend Rufus, and they try to change a pig in the kitchen back into a human. The pig escapes and runs through the kitchen, and Lucia gets in trouble. Another time, Sextus briefly tells the story of Jason, who, with the help of Medea’s magic, overcame a snake to acquire the Golden Fleece. Lucia decides to pretend that Sextus is the snake, and his toga is the Golden Fleece. She hides in his bed and jumps out, steals the toga, and brings it outside into the mud. She gets in trouble for this, and her mother says that she can’t be a hero because she is a girl. Lucia is sad, and goes to Rufus’s house. His mother Agrippina, no stranger to subverting Roman gender roles, explains to Lucia that girls can be heroes too. As an example, she tells her the story of Cloelia, who escaped from being a hostage and was recognized for her bravery with a statue. Agrippina gives Lucia a sword to remind her of this lesson. Later, Lucia and Rufus are walking through the woods when they see a group of boys bullying Sextus. Lucia scares off the bullies by throwing mud at them. Lucia’s mother tells her that she is a hero and a good girl.
First 100 Words
Underlined words are glossed in the text.Lūcia puella mala est. Lūcia ipsa mala nōn est...sed Lūcia multa mala agit.
Lūcia cum familia habitat. Lūcia in domō magnā cum mātre et patre et frātre habitat. Fratri nōmen est Sextus, et frāter Lūciam vexat.
Itaque, Lūciam dēlectat vexāre Sextum.
Lūciam dēlectat in lutō lūdere, et Lūciam dēlectat capere rānas. Omnēs rānae Lūciam dēlectant.
Etiam...Lūciam dēlectat lutum in Sextī lectō pōnere, et Lūciam dēlectat ranās in Sextī saccō ponere. Sextum nōn dēlectat lutum. Et Sextum nōn dēlectant rānae. Itaque hoc dēlectat Lūciam.
Consilia mala capere Lūciam dēlectat. Consilia Lūciae semper Lūciam dēlectat et numquam familiam dēlectant.
Supplementary Materials
If you have resources for Lūcia Hērōs and would like to share them on LNDb, please contact me.Presentation
| Illustrations? | yes |
| Illustrator | Sam Palacios |
| Macrons? | yes |
| Font | Comic Sans, 15 pt |
| Pages of story | 125 |
| Total pages | 144 |
| Chapters | 20 |
Key Information
| Publication date | September 4, 2019 |
| Publisher | Independently published |
| ISBN | 1688591648 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1688591646 |
