Bestiaria Latina Blog: Round-Up: March 4

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 Nonas 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.

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:

Cucurbita in Arbore, a marvelous story about foolish attempts to improve on the perfection of nature.
Simia et Iuppiter, the story of a monkey mother who is very proud of her baby.
Vipera et Lima, the story of an overly ambitious serpent.
Papilio et Vespa, a story about metempsychosis.
Piscatores et Thunnus Improvisus, the fable of a happy fishing accident.

I've picked out my favorite one, Cucurbita in Arbore, to share with you here in the blog - it's a bit on the long side, but one of my all-time favorites!

Sunt quī vel mundī opificem sapientissimum reprehendere audeant. Cum quīdam cucurbitam grandiōrem tenuī in caule humī iacentem vidēret: Hem! (inquit) nōn in caule tenuī, sed in altā quercū egō eam suspendissem. Abīre deinde, et sub quercū aliquā obdormiscere. Quī cum dormīret, ventus glandēs innumerās ā quercū dēcutere, quārum aliqua nāsum hominis vehementius tetigit. Expergēfactus ille, cum sanguinem ē nāsō prōfluentem cerneret: Quid (inquit) sī haec cucurbita fuisset, vix equidem vīverem amplius. Deum profectō sentiō sapientissimē atque optimē mundum disposuisse.

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 Diligite inimicos vestros (English: Love your enemies).

3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Omnia vincit veritas (English: Truth conquers all).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Parvus pendetur fur, magnus abire videtur (English: The petty thief is hanged, while the big thief gets off scot-free - as true today as it was in the Middle Ages).

Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Debet in spe, qui arat, arare (I Cor. 9:10). 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 Taverner: Tunica pallio propior est: My cote is nerer me than my robe or gowne. The Englishe Proverbe sayeth thus: Nere is my cote, but nerer is my shyrt. By this is signified, that one friende is nerer unto a man, than an other is.

Today's Poem: Today's poem is from Owen's delightful epigrams, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:

Illa mihi patria est ubi pascor, non ubi nascor,
Illa ubi sum notus, non ubi natus eram.

English: "My country is where I feed, now where I am born; it is where I am know, not where I was born" - although the Latin gains its charm from the rhymes, pascor/nascor, and the word play of notus/natus.

For an image today, here is an illustration for the story of the proud monkey mother, Simia et Iuppiter: