Don't Forget Mnemonics

Classical literary terms and ancient mind maps

30 days hath November,
April, June, and September...

BIDMAS (brackets, indices, division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction)…

Richard Of York Gave Battle in Vain…

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour…

How many everyday things do we remember by reciting a short rhyme or creating an acrophonic pattern (one in which the first letter stands for a word)? Mnemonics used to be common and can still be useful, particularly if they use memorable rhythm and rhyme.

In a mnemonic phrase, ideally the ‘vehicle’ (e.g. the poem or acronym) will clearly signal the thing one wants to remember, the ‘tenor’. These terms are used in literary analysis of metaphor and simile: when Burns writes My love is like a red red rose the vehicle is the comparison (rose), the tenor the thing being compared (love). How will you remember which is which? Use a mnemonic! Just recite

If 'tenor' and 'vehicle' cause you to fuss,
Just think "Pavarotti was built like a bus".

It’s not hard to identify which is the tenor and which the vehicle. Just apply this to any phrase ‘x is like y’.

The very effort of memorising (or even creating) rhyming and rhythmical mnemonics works to reinforce memory. I created a whole series of mnemonics for hearing complex rhythms of Greek metre. My mnemonic for Alcaic metre (‘alcaics’) starts with the words All cakes…and then goes on to give a ‘recipe’:

All cakes depend on metrical expertise:                     −   −   ∪   −  −       −   ∪  ∪  −   ∪   −
Spoon out the flour - use accurate estimates;           −   −   ∪   −  −       −   ∪  ∪  −   ∪   −
Fold in the egg white, then the egg yolk:                   −   −   ∪   −  −        −   ∪   −  − 
Baking a cake is a task for experts.                           −   ∪  ∪  −   ∪  ∪   −   ∪   −  − 

This gives one the rhythm for reciting an Alcaic verse by Horace (Odes 3.2) such as:

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
     nec parcit imbellis iuventae
     poplitibus timidove tergo.               

To die for one's country is noble and glorious.
A coward who scarpers makes Death no less furious:
The young man who shrinks from the battle he'll find
and, slashing his hamstrings, chop down from behind.

If you want to remember Aristotle’s six parts of tragedy, which he identified as (in Greek) Mythos, Ethos, Lexis, Dianoia, Opsis, Melopoiia, the acronym 'MELDOM’ may be worked into a rhyme such as

The six key parts of tragedy are seldom
Forgotten if you know the codeword MELDOM.

These terms might, incidentally, be translated Story (plot), Aspects of character, Diction, Idea, Staging, Music.

If readers must resort to ready-madeism,
Six parts of tragedy equate to SADISM.

Challenged today by a classicist to create a mnemonic for the seven hills of Rome, I proposed remembering the phrase PACE q.v. CAPITOL (Latin for ‘with respect to what you see as CAPITOL’), which gives the opening letters of:

Palatine & Aventine,
Caelian & Esquiline,
Quirinal & Viminal,
Finishing with Capitol.  

Or in Latin:

Palatinus Aventinus
Caelianus Esquilinus
Quirinalis Vīminalis
Capitōlīnus finalis.

ChatGPT helpfully suggests:

To traverse all seven hills of Rome, start from Palatine with its archaeological riches and walk southeast to the Aventine, which offers panoramic views and key attractions like the Orange Garden. Then head southeast to explore the Caelian, known for its ancient churches and Roman houses. Continue northeast to the Esquiline, home to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Proceed north to the Viminal, which played an important role in ancient Rome's development, then northwest to the Quirinal, the highest of the seven, which hosts the presidential palace and gardens. Conclude with the Capitoline, the symbolic centre of ancient Rome, now adorned with museums and works by Michelangelo.