HODIE: antediem quintum 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:
- Mus et Leo, a story about how the mouse repaid his debt to the lion.
- Musca et Currus, a short poem about a boastful fly.
- Aranea et Hirundo, Abstemius's fable about a spider who foolishly tried to catch a bird in its net.
- Rusticus Torrentem Transiturus, a story about how still waters can run deep - and dangerous!
- Dolus in suos: Anas Perfida, Alciato's story of the treacherous duck.
Arānea in hirundinem excandescēns, quae muscās, quī suus est cibus, capiēbat, rētia in foribus, per quās volitāre solēbat, ut eam caperet, suspenderat. Hirundo vērō advolāns, rētia cum textrīce per āera portābat. Tunc arānea in āere pendēns et sē iamiam peritūram intelligēns, "Quam iustē haec patior (dīcēbat) quae minima volātilia magnō labōre vix capiēns, crēdidī tam magnās avēs comprehendere." Hāc monēmur fābulā nē vīribus māiōra aggrediāmur.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: Diu delibera (English: Ponder at length - and the Latin has the added charm of alliteration!).
3-Word Mottoes Verb-less: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Dulce et utile (English: Something pleasant and useful - a motto that can be applied very nicely to the fables and proverbs themselves!)
Latin Animal Proverb: Today's animal proverb is Felibus domo absentibus, mures saltant (English: When the cats are out of the house, the mice leap for joy - something like our saying, "when the cat's away, the mice will play").
Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Excolantes culicem camelum glutiunt (English: They strain out a gnat and swallow a camel… one of the great metaphors for hypocrisy of all time, I think!).
Proper Name Proverb from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Cretensis mare nescit (English: The man from Crete says he's ignorant of the sea - but, of course, he is lying: the Cretans were proverbial liars and of course as island-dwellers they know the sea well; the saying is from Adagia 1.2.31 and be used for any situation where someone is patently telling a lie).
Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Ἡ βραχυλογία ἐγγύς ἐστι τοῦ σιγᾷν (English: Being brief in speech is almost silence - which is to say, it is almost as good as being silent!).
Today's image is an illustration by Aractingy for the fable about the mouse and the lion, Mus et Leo:
