Idiom
in medias res
Academic Roman origin
Meaning
Starting in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning.
Examples
“The film opens in medias res, in the middle of the robbery.”
“Her tutor told her to cut the first three pages and start in medias res, with the phone call.”
“Beginning in medias res buys attention on credit: the reader is willing to be confused for a chapter, but the debt has to be paid, and novels that never settle up are the ones readers abandon at page forty.”
Examples
simple
“The film opens in medias res, in the middle of the robbery.”
contextual
“Her tutor told her to cut the first three pages and start in medias res, with the phone call.”
complex
“Beginning in medias res buys attention on credit: the reader is willing to be confused for a chapter, but the debt has to be paid, and novels that never settle up are the ones readers abandon at page forty.”
Origin
Horace coined the term in the Ars Poetica, praising Homer for a specific technical decision. Homer does not begin the story at the beginning; he hurries to the outcome and pulls the listener in medias res, into the middle of things, filling in what came before once the reader is already committed.
Horace's contrast was with starting ab ovo — from the egg — meaning the egg from which Helen of Troy was born, which is where a strictly chronological account of the Trojan War would have to begin. His point was that nobody would still be listening.
The term is now standard vocabulary for anyone teaching or reviewing narrative, and the technique it names is the default opening of most thrillers, most television dramas, and a good number of job interviews.
Stories
The Poets' Latin · See all Roman origin
Horace, Virgil and Cicero, still quoted in the original.
carpe diem — Seize the day — make use of today rather than counting on tomorrow.
tempus fugit — Time flies — said when far more of it has gone than you expected.
memento mori — A reminder that you are going to die, and that this should change how you spend the time.
in vino veritas — People say what they actually think once they have had a drink.
festina lente — Make haste slowly — move quickly, but never faster than you can do it properly.
to err is human — Making mistakes is part of being a person, so a mistake alone is not a scandal.
- Level
- C2 · Proficiency
- Updated