Bestiaria Latina Blog: Round-Up: January 28

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 quintum 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:

Canis et Luna, an emblem of the dog howling at the moon.
Vulpis et Aquila, the dramatic story of what happened when the eagle stole the fox's pups.
Turdus et Hirundo, a story about the misbegotten friendship of a thrush and a swallow.
Agricola et Filii eius, the story of an old father and his slacker sons.
Lupus et Hystrix, the story of the wolf trying to get the hedgehog to lay down his arms.

I've picked out my favorite one, Agricola et Filii eius, to share with you here in the blog; it's a longer one - but what a great message!

Agricola haud sānē pauper, cum iam mortem adesse intellegeret, fīliōs advocātōs, remōtis aliīs, ita adlocūtus esse fertur: "Agrum" inquit "nōlīte vēndere, quem maiōrēs nostrī nōbīs relīquērunt. Thēsaurus enim ibi conditus est. Cuius quamquam locum nōndum nōvī, sat sciō fore ut paulō fortius mōlientēs eum aliquandō reperiātis. Statim post messem terram vertite, effodite, scrūtāmini. Nūllus sit locus, ubi nōn aliquid saepius ēgerint manūs vestrae." Patre igitur mortuō fīliī agrum hinc atque illinc undique effodiunt, et tantā quidem industriā, ut multō maiōrēs inde frūctūs illō annō percēperint. Argentī sānē nihil erat conditī. At pater sapientissimus, quī eōs thēsaurum docēret esse industriam.

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 Contentus vivo parvo (English: I live, content with little... one of my own personal mottoes!).

3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Fortunae rota volvitur (English: The wheel of Fortune is turning - up and down it goes!).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Sunt tibi vitandi sermones undique blandi (English: You should always avoid flattering words - a lesson Aesop's crow learned at the cost of his cheese!).

Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Doctrinam magis quam aurum eligite (Proverbs 8:10). 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: Caute loquacior: More clatteringe then a rocke. A proverbe applied to great speakers, gathered of the continuall clackinge that the sea maketh when it striketh agaynst a rocke.

Today's Poem: Today's poem is from Cato's Distichs, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:

Non pudeat, quae nescieris, te velle doceri:
Scire aliquid laus est, culpa est nil discere velle.

English: "It is not shameful to want to be taught what you don't know; to know something is commendable - the problem is not wanting learn anything." What a great saying for lifelong learning!

Today's image is an illustration for the story of the fox and the eagle, Vulpis et Aquila: