Friday, March 12, 2010

Round-Up: March 12

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.

HODIE: ante diem quartum Idus Martias. You can add a Roman calendar as a widget in your blog or webpage, or display it as a Google Calendar: here's how.

MORE 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:
  • Haereticus et Musca, the story of a divine fly.
  • Lupus et Ovis, the story of a wounded wolf who asks a sheep for help.
  • Senex et Mors, the story of an old and death, in which the old man learns that death has been announcing her arrival with many signs.
  • Roscius Iurisconsultus, although it's not an Aesop's fable, it's a good lawyer joke!
  • Hirundo et Formicae, a fable in which the swallow learns that the ants' way of life does not suit everyone.
I've picked out my favorite one, Abstemius's wonderful story about the signs of death, XXX, to share with you here in the blog - it's a bit long, but very much worth reading:
Senex quīdam mortem, quae eum ē vīta raptūra advēnerat, rogābat, ut paululum differat, dum testāmentum conderet et cētera ad tantum iter necessāria praeparāret. Cui mors: cūr, inquit, nōn hactenus praeparāstī, toties ā mē monitus? Et cum ille eam numquam ā sē vīsam amplius dīceret: cum, inquit, nōn aequālēs tuōs modo, quōrum nullī iam ferē restant, vērum etiam iuvenēs, puerōs, infantēs quotīdiē rapiēbam, nonne tē admonēbam mortālitātis tuae: cum oculōs hebescere, audītum minuī, cēterōsque sēnsūs in diēs dēficere, corpus ingravescere sentiēbās, nonne tibi mē propinquam esse dīcēbant? et tē admonitum negās? quārē ulterius differendum nōn est.
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 Mottoes: Today's tiny motto is: Fortuna favente (English: With Fortune's favor - a nice use of the ablative absolute for motto-making purposes).

3-Word Proverbs Verb-less: Today's 3-word verb-less proverb is Primus amor potior (English: The first love is finer)

Audio Latin Proverb: Today's audio Latin proverb is Homo ad laborem natus est et avis ad volatum (English: A man is born to work and a bird to fly). 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: Bis vincit qui se vincit in victoria (English: To conquer yourself in victory is to conquer twice).

Animal Proverb from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb from Erasmus is De asini umbra libet audire (English: You're glad to listen to a story about a donkey's shadow - an allusion to the famous fable about Demosthenes; from Adagia 1.3.52).

For an image today, here's one way of imagining a conversation with Death, as in the story of the signs of death, Senex et Mors (it's actually an illustration for a different fable about an old man and death, if you are interested!):




Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.