HODIE: ante diem nonum Kalendas Novembres. 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 POEM: Here is today's little poem, from the Poetry Widget. Today's poem is an entire little fable in iambic verse by the Renaissance poet Faernus, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com as usual (note that milvius is a metrical alternative for milvus, the rapacious hawk):
Murem rogat laqueo impeditus milviusEnglish: "A hawk, caught in a snare, asks the mouse to set him free. The mouse does this by gnawing the net; the kite repays the mouse by gobbling him up! Such are the wicked thanks with which wicked people repay good deeds." The contrast between this fable and the more famous fable of the mouse and the lion is very strong - with this fable providing a healthy reminder of how things often do often turn out in this wicked world of ours! For those of you interested in meter, this is a perfect little iambic poem to read aloud; except for the elision in the first line (laqu'impeditus), there is nothing to beware of at all, with none of those metrical substitutions that can sometimes make iambic meter so hard to read.
Se liberet. Mus id facit rodens plagam,
Compensat hoc murem vorando milvius.
Mali malas bonis rependunt gratias.
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 is about Cato's growing alarm at Caesar's alliances: Cato autem saepenumero quae futura essent uaticinans, eum solum fructum tulit, ut tum morosus et curiosus homo, post prudentior quam felicior consultor haberetur (that's a great example of curious in Latin, rendering πολυπράγμων from Plutarch's Greek).
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 an amazing little saying about lifelong learning - and it rhymes, too: Discite victuri, sed vivite cras morituri (English: Learn as if you were going to live, but live as if you were going to die tomorrow).
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 Victrix malorum patientia est (English: Patience is the conqueror of evils). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.
Maxims of Publilius Syrus: Today's proverb from Publilius Syrus is: Iracundiam qui vincit, hostem superat maximum (English: If you tame your anger, you defeat your greatest enemy… sadly, this proverb is very true in my own case - but proverbs help us realize that each of us is not alone in being our own worst enemy!).
Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Mortales laetos vinum facit atque facetos (English: Wine makes us mortals happy and witty… although I do feel obliged to add: wine in moderation!).
Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Asinus ad lyram (English: The donkey listens to the lyre… but, of course, being a donkey, he is hardly a connoisseur of the music!).
Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Species decipit (English: Appearances are deceiving!).
Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Ferrum robigo consumit (English: Rust eats away the iron… don't let the word order fool you: ferrum has to be the object, not the subject, here).
Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium; intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces (Matt. 7:15). 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 Plaustrum bovem trahit (English: The cart is dragging the ox - in other words, someone has put their cart before the horse, as we would say in English).
Latin Animal Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb is Noctua inter cornices (English: An owl amongst the crows - which is a proverbially incongruous situation, from Adagia 1.5.41 - in this case, the saying refers to a slow-witted person getting mixed up with some characters who are far smarter than he is - and also much louder!).
Proper Name Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb is Lydus in meridie (English: A Lydian at noon; from Adagia 2.6.94; the proverbial saying alludes to the supposedly oversexed inhabitants of ancient Lydians, so eager in their pursuit of sexual pleasures that they would even indulge in such pursuits in the heat of midday.).
Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Ἅμαξα τὸν βουν ἕλκει (English: The cart is pulling the ox… what a coincidence: this is also one of the Latin sayings for today, cited above!).
TODAY'S FABLES:
Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Pavo et Grus, a debate between the peacock and the crane about the meaning of beauty.
Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE LEONE AMATORIO, the sad story of the unsuspecting lion in love.
For an image today, I chose this page from a Tar Heel Reader (the fable of Venus and the cat), which illustrates one of the Latin sayings from today: Species decipit.
