Part 6057751 /  by Anthony Gibbins

Just for fun, here is an introduction (or not) to the meta-language of Lego. Firstly, this ‘piece’ is a ‘part’. And this part? Part 6057751. Also known as Cat No. 2. It was first introduced in 2015 and its colour is officially listed as Dark Orange. The part itself is filed under System: Animals and Creatures.

Part 6057751 has appeared in four sets since its inception. It’s first appearance was in Set 40125: Santa’s Visit, a Seasonal Christmas Vignette. The cat is waiting by the fireplace for Santa to arrive. Its second appearance was in Set 10684: Supermarket Suitcase, a Juniors set that also came with a lot of bread, ice-cream and flowers. I got mine in Set 10246: Detective’s Office, which is classified as a Modular Building. It’s the set with the Highlander, Al’s barber shop and the mysterious rooftop hangout. Finally, it has appeared once this year in Set 76052: Batman Classic TV Series Batcave, which is a 2,526 part Batcave based on the 60’s tv-show. Here is a link, in case you want to check it out (http://brickset.com/sets/76052-1/Batman-Classic-TV-Series-Batcave). Apparently they had a cat.

Part 6057751 also appeared with one Collectable Minifigure from the Lego Movie series, that is 71004: Mrs. Scratchen-Post. I recently ordered one of these on e-bay. I needed the long grey hair and I thought a back-up Pico wouldn’t be as bad idea. Speaking of online shopping, you can pick up a pre-owned but mint-condition Pico on Bricklink.com for under a dollar. The Brick Strikes Back (France) has the cheapest, but if you are going for quantity U.S Bricks has 4,247 of them. Wow!

Okay, I think we are done here. Have a great day! Here is the translation. 

Pico, in my opinion, is an excellent cat. Today I want to tell you a story about a usual solito day in the delightful iucunda life of Pico the cat.

 

Pico advenit /  by Anthony Gibbins

Welcome to the third part of Legonium. My apologies if this episode has seemed over-hyped, but the truth is I’ve been quite impatient to share it with you. Pico, you see, is the name of my wife’s most-excellent cat, who sadly passed this year. This episode is a celebration of his life, and an attempt to capture something of his character. I originally put Pico into pars prima (I’ve included the page bellow), but it was Beth’s idea that her cat could be a star of his own pars. This is the result.

Hello reader. How are you? In the first part of my story, you heard about a cat standing on the roof of Marcellus, named Pico.

One More Sleep /  by Anthony Gibbins

So that's the end of the The Wooden Horse. Tomorrow Pico will be released on Legonium.com. I can't imagine that anyone is nearly as excited about this as I am. Do people on the internet even like cats?

The Fall of Troy or The Wooden Horse Part 12 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 12. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

Now peals of shouts come thund'ring from afar,

Cries, threats, and loud laments, and mingled war:

The noise approaches, tho' our palace stood

Aloof from streets, encompass'd with a wood.

Louder, and yet more loud, I hear th' alarms

Of human cries distinct, and clashing arms.

Fear broke my slumbers; I no longer stay,

But mount the terrace, thence the town survey,

And hearken what the frightful sounds convey.

 

tum : tum, as we have already seen, is an adverb meaning ‘then’.

reliqui Graeci : reliquus Graecus, as we have also already seen, means ‘left over Greek’. We last met the reliqui Graeci (those who did not board the horse) when they sailed off to Tenedos. Now they have returned to be the plural nominative subjects of this sentence.

urbem : urbs is a feminine noun meaning ‘city’. Here it is in its singular (there is but one Troy) accusative form. It is the object of the verb.

Troiam : Troia is the Latin name for the city Troy. It is in the accusative case so that, along with urbem, it can be the object of the verb. It is interesting to note that, where English would say ‘the city of Troy’, Latin prefers ‘the city Troy’, although we can understand it either way.

expugnant : expugnare is a verb that means ‘to storm’ or ‘to conquer’. Here it is in the present tense, despite describing a past action, to create a sense of excitement. It is third person plural as its subject, reliqui Graeci, requires this. Its object is urbem Troiam.

Translation: Then the other Greeks storm the city of Troy.

Kylo’s Return! or The Wooden Horse Part 11 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 11. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

A nameless crowd succeed; their forces join

T' invade the town, oppress'd with sleep and wine.

Those few they find awake first meet their fate;

Then to their fellows they unbar the gate.

 

custodes : custos is another noun that takes its gender from the actual gender of the individual. It means guard. custodes is plural. It is nominative, to indicate that it is the subject.

portarum : porta is a feminine noun meaning ‘gate’. portarum is plural to indicate the presence of multiple gates (despite what the picture might suggest). It is in the genitive case, indicating that it means ‘of the gates’.

sine : sine is a preposition that means ‘without’. It is always followed by a noun (or pronoun) in the ablative case.

mora : mora is a feminine noun meaning ‘delay’. Here it is singular and ablative. It is ablative to indicate that it forms a prepositional phrase together with sine.

occisi sunt : occidere is a verb that means ‘to kill’. occisi sunt is the only passive verb in this story. All the other verbs have been active. Passive verbs have a subject, just like active verbs, but with a passive verb the subject isn’t doing something, it is having something done to it. And in this case, it’s pretty nasty. occisi sunt is third person plural, because the subject custodes requires that. It is in the perfect tense, to indicate an action that was completed in the past.

Translation: The guards of the gates were slaughtered without delay.

From the Belly of the Beast! or The Wooden Horse Part 10 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 10. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

Meantime the rapid heav'ns roll'd down the light,

And on the shaded ocean rush'd the night;

Our men, secure, nor guards nor sentries held,

But easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.

The Grecians had embark'd their naval pow'rs

From Tenedos, and sought our well-known shores,

Safe under covert of the silent night,

And guided by th' imperial galley's light;

When Sinon, favor'd by the partial gods,

Unlock'd the horse, and op'd his dark abodes;

Restor'd to vital air our hidden foes,

Who joyful from their long confinement rose.

 

eadem : idem is another demonstrative adjective, this one meaning ‘the same’. Here it is feminine, singular and ablative to ‘agree with’ nocte.

nocte : nox is a feminine noun meaning ‘night’. Here it is in the ablative case. The ablative is capable of expressing a wide range of ideas. Here it is expressing the time when an action occurred. Together with eadem, eadem nocte can be understood as ‘on the same night’.

Graeci : Graecus we have seen to mean ‘Greek’ or ‘a Greek’. Here it is masculine and plural, meaning ‘the Greeks’. It is in the nominative case to indicate that it is the subject of the verb.

ex : ex is a preposition meaning ‘out of’. As for all prepositions, we must learn the case that follows ex. It is the ablative case.

equo : equus we are most familiar with, but here it appears for the first time in the ablative case. The ablative case indicates that equo is forming a prepositional phrase with ex. Together ex equo means ‘out of the horse’.

emergunt : emergere is a verb that means ‘to emerge’ or ‘to extricate one’s self.’ It is third person plural, because its subject is Graeci. It is in the present tense despite describing a past action, because the author wishes to create a sense of energy and excitement.

Translation: On the same night the Greeks emerged out of the horse.

Yikes! or The Wooden Horse Part 9 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 9. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

All vote t' admit the steed, that vows be paid

And incense offer'd to th' offended maid.

A spacious breach is made; the town lies bare;

Some hoisting-levers, some the wheels prepare

And fasten to the horse's feet; the rest

With cables haul along th' unwieldly beast.

Each on his fellow for assistance calls;

At length the fatal fabric mounts the walls,

Big with destruction. Boys with chaplets crown'd,

And choirs of virgins, sing and dance around.

Thus rais'd aloft, and then descending down,

It enters o'er our heads, and threats the town.

 

equum : equus is a noun that we have become very familiar with. Here it is in the accusative case to indicate that it is the object of the verb.

tamen : tamen is an adverb meaning ‘however’ or ‘nevertheless’. Here the idea is something like, Laocoon tried to dissuade them, the Trojans tamen carried out what they were planning.

stulti: stultus is a rather nasty adjective meaning ‘foolish’ or ‘silly’. Here it is masculine, plural and in the nominative case to ‘agree with’ cives.

cives : civis is a noun meaning ‘citizen’. Like sacerdos on the previous page, the gender of civis depends on the gender of the individual. In Latin, as in many of the Romance languages, if even a single individual in a group identifies as male, the entire group is treated as masculine. So, cives is masculine.

in : in is that clever preposition that can mean ‘in/on’ or ‘into/onto’ depending on the case that follows it.

urbem : urbs is a feminine noun that means ‘the city’. Here it is singular, referring to the one and only Troy. It is in the accusative case to indicate that it is forming a prepositional phrase with in and that in is to be understood as ‘into’.

traxerunt : trahere is a verb that we have met previously in the infinitive form meaning ‘to drag’. Here it is third person plural because it has a third person plural subject, cives. It is in the perfect tense as it describes an action that was completed in the past. Its object is equum.

Translation: The foolish citizens nevertheless dragged the horse into the city.

Laocoon or The Wooden Horse Part 8 of 12 /  by Anthony Gibbins

The Wooden Horse. Part 8. As we await the October 1 arrival of Legonium pars tertia, here is some complete nonsense in 12 parts.

From the translation of The Aeneid, Book II by John Dryden

Laocoon, follow'd by a num'rous crowd,

Ran from the fort, and cried, from far, aloud:

'O wretched countrymen! what fury reigns?

What more than madness has possess'd your brains?

Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone?

And are Ulysses' arts no better known?

This hollow fabric either must inclose,

Within its blind recess, our secret foes;

Or 't is an engine rais'd above the town,

T' o'erlook the walls, and then to batter down.

Somewhat is sure design'd, by fraud or force:

Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.'

 

Laocoon : Laocoon is a Greek proper name. (The two o’s at the end, by the way, are pronounced separately.) Laocoon, as we are about to find out, was a Trojan priest of the sea god Neptune. He attempted to discouraged the Trojans from bringing the horse into Troy. He was killed by two giant serpents that came out of the sea. His name is in the nominative case to indicate that he is the subject of the verb.

autem : autem is a conjunction. Like prepositions, there is absolutely no change to their form. autem is best understood here as ‘however’, ‘but’ or ‘on the other hand’. The point is, some Trojans wanted to drag the horse onto the citadel, Laocoon autem had other ideas.

Neptuni: Neptunus is the Roman god of the sea. Here the name is in the genitive case and is singular. The genitive, you may remember, has as its main task the indication of possession, like an ‘s in English. So, here, we understand Neptuni as something like ‘Neptune’s’ or ‘of Neptune’.

sacerdos : sacerdos is a noun meaning ‘priest’. The gender of sacerdos is common, which means that the grammatical gender will depend entirely on the gender of the individual. Laocoon identifies as male, so we treat sacerdos as a masculine noun. sacerdos is nominative because it is giving us further detail about Laocoon, who was also in the nominative.

hoc : hic we saw on the previous page functioning as a demonstrative adjective, meaning ‘this’. Here it is functioning as a demonstrative pronoun, also meaning ‘this’. Because it is singular and neuter, it is best thought of as ‘this thing’. Because it is in the accusative, we know it to be the object of the verb. In this sentence, hoc refers to the very idea of bringing the horse into the city.

dissuasit : dissuadere is a verb that means ‘to advise against’ or ‘discourage’. It is third person singular because its subject Laocoon is third person singular. It is perfect because it describes an action completed in the past. The object is hoc.

Translation: Laocoon, however, a priest of Neptune, discouraged this.