Mater filiam hortatur ne ante iudicium veritatem timeat.

The cases tell you:

• Mater is nominative singular, so it is the subject: the mother
• filiam is accusative singular, so it is the direct object: the daughter

So Mater filiam hortatur means the mother urges/encourages the daughter, not the other way around.

Because Latin uses case endings, it does not rely on word order as heavily as English does.

Hortatur is from hortor, hortari, hortatus sum, a deponent verb.

Deponent verbs:

• have passive forms
• but active meanings

So hortatur is grammatically a passive-looking form, but it means he/she urges, encourages, exhorts.

Here:

• hortatur = she urges

This is very common in Latin, and learners often just have to memorize which verbs are deponent.

Because hortor normally takes the person being urged as a direct object.

So:

• Mater filiam hortatur = The mother urges the daughter

This is different from some English patterns, where we sometimes think in terms of urge someone to do something. In Latin, the someone is simply put in the accusative, and then the action they are urged to do is usually expressed with a subordinate clause.

After verbs of urging, advising, persuading, commanding, and similar ideas, Latin often uses a clause with:

• ut = that / to
• ne = that not

Since this sentence is negative, it uses ne:

• hortatur ne ... timeat = urges her not to fear ...

This kind of clause is often called an indirect command or substantive clause of urging.

A very literal sense would be:

• The mother urges the daughter that she not fear the truth

But in natural English we say:

• The mother urges her daughter not to fear the truth

Because after ne in this kind of clause, Latin uses the subjunctive, not the indicative.

• timet = indicative = she fears
• timeat = subjunctive = used here because it depends on hortatur

So:

• hortatur ne timeat = she urges her not to fear

The present subjunctive is used because the fearing is viewed as happening at the same time as the urging, or as something the mother wants to affect now/going forward.

The subject of timeat is understood to be the daughter.

That is a very common pattern in Latin:

• main verb: Mater filiam hortatur
• subordinate clause: ne ... timeat

The person being urged in the main clause, filiam, is the one who is understood as doing the action in the subordinate clause unless Latin indicates otherwise.

So the sense is:

• The mother urges the daughter not to fear ...

not:

• The mother urges the daughter so that the mother may not fear ...

Ante is a preposition that takes the accusative, which is why you get iudicium here.

It can mean:

• before in time
• sometimes in front of in space

With iudicium, the most likely meaning is temporal:

• before the trial
• before the judgment
• before the court proceedings

Depending on context, iudicium can mean judgment, trial, court hearing, or legal proceedings.

Veritatem is the direct object of timeat.

• veritatem = the truth
• timeat veritatem = may fear the truth / fear the truth

So the daughter is being urged not to fear the truth.

Grammatically, this is straightforward:

• timeo takes an object in the accusative
• therefore veritatem is accusative singular

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because case endings do most of the grammatical work.

This sentence is arranged as:

• Mater — subject first
• filiam — object next
• hortatur — main verb
• ne ante iudicium veritatem timeat — subordinate clause

English usually wants something like:

• The mother urges her daughter not to fear the truth before the trial

Latin can move words around for emphasis, rhythm, or style without changing the basic grammar.

For example, the sentence could be rearranged in several ways and still mean essentially the same thing, as long as the forms remain the same.

Yes, in a very literal or old-fashioned translation, you could use lest:

• The mother urges her daughter lest she fear the truth before the trial

But in normal modern English, that sounds unnatural. The best natural translation is:

• The mother urges her daughter not to fear the truth before the trial

So lest can help you understand the grammar, but it is usually not the best final translation.

Yes. Latin normally does not use a simple infinitive after hortor the way English often does.

English:

• She urges her daughter not to fear

Latin usually prefers:

• hortatur ne timeat

So instead of a bare infinitive, Latin uses:

• the person urged as a direct object
• plus a clause with ut or ne and the subjunctive

That is the standard construction to learn with hortor.