Bestiaria Latina Blog: Round-Up: January 23

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. Plus, you can find some Latin "pipilationes" at my Proverbia Latina feed and at the IVLIVS CAESAR feed (Plutarch's Life of Caesar twittered trilingually).

HODIE: ante diem decimum Kalendas Februarias. 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:

Canes et Corcodili, the story of the dogs who want to take a drink at the Nile.
De Avibus Scarabeos Timentibus, a story of birds afraid of the dung-beetles' dung-balls.
Anguillae, a story about muddying the waters in order to fish for eels.
Rusticus Amnem Transiturus, a fable about still waters that run deep.
Ranae Regem Petunt, an elaborate version of the frogs who wanted a king, as adapted from LaFontaine.

I've picked out my favorite one, Canes et Corcodilli, to share with you here in the blog (this version has a somewhat easier word order than Phaedrus's original version in verse):

Quī cōnsilia prāva hominibus cautīs dant, et operam perdunt et turpiter dērīdentur. Trāditum est canēs in Nīlō flūmine bibere currentēs, nē ā corcodīlīs rapiantur. Igitur, cum canis bibere coepisset, currēns, sīc corcodīlus: Ōtiō quamlibet lambe, nōlī verērī. At ille: Facerem, m'herculēs, nisi scīrem tē carnis meae cupidum esse.

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.

Tiny Proverbs: Today's tiny proverb is: Scientia potentia (English: Knowledge is power - and, even better, in Latin it rhymes!).

3-Word Mottoes Verb-less: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Vigilantibus, non dormientibus (English: For those who watch, not those who sleep - a great use of the dative to imply the missing verb).

Latin Animal Proverb: Today's animal proverb is Canes vetulos loro non assuefacies (English: You will not accustom old dogs to a leash).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Asinus magis stramina vult quam aurum (English: The donkey wants straw more than gold - some may consider the donkey foolish for that, but I agree with the donkey myself!).

Proper Name Proverb from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Cyclopis donum (English: The gift of a Cyclops - which is an ironic proverb, since the gift that Polyphemus the Cyclops promised to Odysseus was that he would eat him last… not much of a gift, ha ha; this comes from Adagia 1.4.5).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Κακὸν ἄγγος οὐ κλᾷται (English: A bad pot doesn't break).

I chose an image of Polyphemus today, in honor of the saying Cyclopis donum... it's an illustration by John Flaxman: