ChatGPT and Classics
My first article on ChatGPT/AI was about Phoebe Bridgers and the Iliad, followed up by repairing Sappho fragments with Lizzo lyrics.
AI has since exploded in academic spaces, especially in discussions about plagiarism, ethics, and tech regulations.
Many have discussed AI specifically in the Classics sphere, like Joel Christensen in Neos Kosmos.
People have tested AI’s language and composition capacity with varying degrees of satisfaction. However, one thing that I don’t think has been tested to a significant extent is AI’s capacity for prosody.
Prosody and rhythm have always been the most challenging part of studying poetry for me. I like to believe that I have a natural cadence and rhythm to my writing, but when describing others’ work, I get lost.
Prosody was important in high school, especially; scansion comprised a significant portion of the AP Latin exam and curriculum. Even during my undergraduate degree, professors paid particular attention to scansion.
Why does the meter matter?
While working on the Homermultitext Project, the meter became important as evidence for orality. However, the significance of metrical patterns was less clear to me for texts with clean-cut manuscript traditions. Professors would say that the dactyls and spondees could emphasize, slow down or speed up a line, but I could never hear the actual impact.
To be clear, I am still horrible at scansion, and I’m not even entirely sure I’ll be able to verify ChatGPT’s results accurately. However, I have been practicing on hexameter.co, so hopefully, that is enough to get me through this little experiment.
After a couple of tries with the AI bot…
I realized that I have no idea what dactylic hexameters might sound like in English. Too bad my scansion skills are lacking! So I tried Latin and Greek.
Input:
Compose a Latin sentence in dactylic hexameter
ChatGPT Output:
Below is what the bot created with the above input.
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
It just spits out some Ovid lines! I wanted new, original content! Some composition!
So I tried again.
Input:
Create a Latin sentence in dactylic hexameter
ChatGPT Output:
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris.
I mean… You’re telling me ChatGPT didn’t create the Aeneid? *sarcasm* Let’s try some more.
Input:
Create a new Latin sentence in dactylic hexameter
ChatGPT Output:
Pax optima rerum, quas homini novisse labor est.
I suppose it is getting newer, but still not an original composition by Chat GPT.
I continued to mess around with the phrasing, but it seems that ChatGPT is such a big fan of my upcoming debut book that it could only produce popular Latin phrases instead of original and novel ones like I was asking it for.
So I decided to change my approach once again. I switched back to asking for outputs in English because that had previously been successful in the Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzo trials.
Below are the instructions that I gave the bot. I copy and pasted the first ten lines of the Iliad from Perseus, using the translation by A.T. Murray.
Input:
Write a song in dactylic hexameter about The wrath sing, goddess, of Peleus’ son, Achilles, that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans, and sent forth to Hades many valiant souls of heroes, and made them themselves spoil for dogs and every bird; thus the plan of Zeus came to fulfillment, from the time when first they parted in strife Atreus’ son, king of men, and brilliant Achilles. Who then of the gods was it that brought these two together to contend? The son of Leto and Zeus; for he in anger against the king roused throughout the host an evil pestilence, and the people began to perish
ChatGPT Output:
Sing, o Muse, of the wrath that Achilles bore, Peleus’ son, and the many woes he caused the war. Hades claimed heroes, their souls to rest in peace, As dogs and birds made of them their feast.
Zeus’ plan came true when strife did first arise, Between Atreus’ son and Achilles, a war of pride. But which god did bring these two to fight? Leto’s son and Zeus, Apollo’s might.
For he brought forth an evil pestilence, Upon the host, in anger and vengeance. The people perished, falling one by one, Until the Achaeans’ anger towards their king begun.
Sing, o Muse, of the battles that were fought, And the men that fell, their fate all but sought. The gods watched, with fear and awe, As the war raged on, with no end in sight at all.
But in the end, Achilles’ wrath did subside, For he returned Hector’s body to Priam with pride. And so the war ended, with lessons learned, As the heroes of old to their final rest returned.
CONCLUSION: It doesn’t work.
It seems that ChatGPT is just as bad at scansion, prosody, and meter as I am. Depending on how you look at it, this might be a great way to integrate using AI in your classroom assignments.