HODIE: ante diem tertium Idus Ianuarias. 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 FABLES: Here are today's fables from the Ictibus Felicibus project. These fables ALL have long marks, plus stress marks for easy reading, and the poems have meter marks, too, along with an easy-to-read prose presentation of the story:
- Auriga et Equus, one of Abstemsiu's moral emblems about a horse rushing headlong.
- Mus et Rana, the story of the mouse and the frog in which the little creatures are depicted as true warriors.
- Anus et Daemon, an absolutely fabulous story about how the devil feels when you say the devil made you do something!
- Columba et Pica, a tiny fable by Abstemius about the simple-minded dove.
- Columba et Formica, a delightful story about the mutual aid between an ant and a dove.
Volunt hominēs ut plūrimum, quando sua culpa aliquid sibi acciderit adversī, in fortūnam vel in daemōnem culpam conferre, ut sē crīmine exuant, adeō omnēs sibi indulgent. Hoc daemon aegrē ferēns, cum vidēret anum quandam arborem ascendentem, ex quā illam ruitūram, et in sē culpam collātūram praevīderat, accītīs testibus dīxit: "Vidēte anum illam absque meō cōnsiliō arborem ascendentem, unde eam cāsūram esse prōspiciō. Estōte mihi testēs, mē eī nōn suāsisse, ut soleāta illic ascenderet." Mox anus cecidit, et cum interrogārētur, cum soleāta arborem ascendisset, "Daemon (inquit) mē impulit." Tunc daemon adductīs testibus probāvit id ab anū absque suō factum esse cōnsiliō. Fābula indicat hominēs minimē veniā dignōs, quī, cum līberē peccent, fortūnam vel daemōnem accūsant.TODAY'S MOTTOES & PROVERBS: You can get access to ALL the "proverb of the day scripts" (also available as random proverb scripts) at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website.
3-Word Mottoes: Today's 3-word motto is Cogito, ergo sum (English: I think, therefore I am - the famous motto of Descartes).
3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Cavendo tutus eris (English: By being cautious you will be safe - a great use of the Latin gerund).
Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Nocte laboratum non est opus undique gratum (English: When a work is done by night, it is not pleasing in any way - although I doubt that will stop any of you students out there from pulling all-nighters in the coming semester!).
Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Super omnia vincit veritas. (I Esdras 3:12). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.
Elizabethan Proverb Commentary: Here is today's proverb commentary, this time by Conybeare: Nec allii quidem caput: He gave not so muche as a garlike heade, a proverbe spoken of a nygarde, and one that will departe with nothinge (a good saying for remembering the difference between Latin alius, "other," and Latin allium, "garlic" - hence the Latin "aglio").
Today's Poem: Today's poem is one of the elegant little epigrams by Owen, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:
Non vixisse diu vita est, at vivere vita est.English: "Life is not to have lived a long time, but life is to be living, for what is the point of living for a long time, when you die in the end?" The contrast between the perfect infinitive and the present infinitive, vixisse and vivere, is very thought-provoking!
Quid iuvat ergo diu vivere, deinde mori?
For today's image, here is an illustration for the story De Columba et Pica (image source), showing a dove in her nest:
