Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Round-Up: June 30

Here is a round-up of today's blog posts - and for previous posts, check out the Bestiaria Latina Blog archives. You can keep up with the latest posts by using the RSS feed, or you might prefer to subscribe by email.

HODIE: pridie Kalendas Iulias. You can add a Roman calendar as a widget in your blog or webpage, or display it as a Google Calendar: here's how.

TODAY'S TWITTER:

Vita Caesaris: You can see my IVLIVS CAESAR feed with a sentence from Plutarch's Life of Caesar each day in Greek, Latin and English. Today's Latin portion continues to outline the career choices being made by the young Caesar: 3.4 Ipse quidem postea in oratione qua laudationi Catonis Ciceronianae respondit , precatus est ne militaris sermo ... cum oratoris ingeniosi et qui multum otii dicendo impendisset, eloquentia compararetur.

Proverbiis Pipilo: You can see my Proverbia feed of Latin proverbs which I "tweet" while I am online each day (in English, too). Here's one from today in honor of the sentencing of Mr. Madoff, and all the people who suffered from his misdeeds: Unius peccata tota civitas luit (English: The whole community pays for the crimes of a single person).

TODAY'S PROVERBS:

You can get access to all the proverb of the day scripts (also available as random proverb scripts) at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website.

Audio Latin Proverb of the Day: Today's audio Latin proverb is Innocentia eloquentia (English: Innocence is eloquence). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Iustitia omnibus (English: Justice for all - in the sense of fiat, "(let there be) justice for all").

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: In labore libertas (English: In work there is freedom... a great little saying that promotes the work ethic).

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Littera occidit; Spiritus autem vivificat (II Cor. 3:6). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.

Latin Animal Proverb of the Day: Today's animal proverb is Dum stertit cattus, numquam sibi currit in os mus (English: While the cat is snoring, a mouse never just runs into his mouth... a saying tested on a daily basis by my cat, who both likes to hunt mice - and also to nap!).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day: Today's proper name proverb is Minervam sus docet (English: The pig is teaching Minerva - in other words, a kind of backwards pedagogy, since the pig has nothing really it can teach the goddess of wisdom).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Τὰς δεσποίνας αἱ κύνες μιμούμεναι. (English: Dogs imitate their owners - and in Greek, it's clear we are talking about female dogs and their female owners). If you look at the Greek Proverb of the Day widget, you'll see it comes with a Latin translation, too.

TODAY'S FABLES:

Ictibus Felicibus: Based on the good response I've gotten to the use of accent marks at Tar Heel Reader, I'm collecting fables now with macrons AND accent marks in this blog. Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Ranae et Rex earum, the story of the foolish frogs who thought they needed a king.

Aesopus Elegiacus: For my next book project, I'm collecting Aesop's fables told in the form of elegiac couplets, two per day so that I'll plenty piled up for next summer. Today's elegiac fables are Leo et Capella, the story of a she-goat who wisely resisted the lion's blandishments, and Fiber, the story of the sacrifice the beaver is willing to make in order to save his life. In addition to the new poems for today, I'm also trying out a system for color coding the meter of the elegiac poems - let me know what you think!

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow's Aesop is DE DELPHINO ET SMARIDE (the story of a little fish who had the satisfaction of watching the dead of his nemesis, the dolphin). You can use the Javascript to include the fable of the day automatically each day on your webpage or blog - meanwhile, to find out more about today's fable, visit the Ning Resource Page for this fable, where you will find links to the text, commentary, and a discussion board for questions and comments.

Florilegium Fabularum: I'm working my way, slowly but surely, through the amazing collection of fables by Irenaeus published in 1666. Today's fable is Fortuna Divitis et Pauperis, a really unusual fable about the caprices of the goddess Fortune. If anybody else is familiar with this fable, please let me know; I do not think I have seen it anywhere before this.

Tar Heel Readers: Materials continue to accumulate at Tar Heel Reader (keep up with the latest items at the Libelli Latini blog). Today I decided to feature Imagines in lingua Latina, a read which actually has two kinds of text on each page: there are sentences for you to read side-by-side with the image and the vocabulary underneath. Very nice!




Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.