Round-Up: April 15

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 septimum decimum Kalendas Maias. 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:

• Asellus Viridis, the story of how people can get used to anything.
• Silvanus et Leo, a man and a lion debate who is the stronger.
• Viator et Mercurius, how a man sneakily fulfills a vow to Mercury.
• Unicornis et Homo, a story about life's sweetness, and its peril.
• Canis Mordax, the story of a biting dog and his inflated sense of self-importance.

I've picked out my favorite one, the debate between the man and the lion, Silvanus et Leo, to share with you here in the blog; for an illustration, see below.

Silvānus et Leo ūnā iter conficiēbant et in trānsitū cernēbant monumentum eximium sūprā quod armātus stetit Homo et sub pedibus Leōnem dēbellātum conterēbat. Significatiōnem et sēnsum inquirentī Leōnī rēspondit Silvānus illud monumentum virtūtem et vim Hominis super bēluam triumphantis indicāsse. Cui lepidē Leo, Nē! Sī leōnēs etiam sculptōrēs ēvāsissent, contrārium hoc fore compertum crēdidissēs.

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 Antequam incipias, consulta (English: Deliberate before you begin).

3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Opes parit industria (English: Hard work begets wealth - and don't let the word order fool you there; it's O-V-S).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Qui miseros spernit, sibi callem ad tartara sternit (English: He who scorns the wretched is paving his own road to hell - note the late Latin callem, which yields Spanish "calle").

Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Cor hominis disponet viam suam sed Domini est dirigere gressus eius (Proverbs 16:9). 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: Sub omni lapide scorpius dormit: Under every stone sleepeth a Scorpion. This Proverbe admonisheth us, that wee speake not rashely and unadvisedlie amonges captiouse and calumnious persons. For what so ever wee touch, it is to be feared that they will bite it. Now certaine it is, that the Scorpions be wonte in diverse countreyes beyond the sea, to lye lurkinge under stones, whiche stones, so sone as a man uniware, take up, forthwith he receyveth a wounde of the Scorpion.

Today's Poem: Today's poem is one of the elegant little epigrams of Owen (4.218), with a word list at NoDictionaries.com:

Gaudia post luctus veniunt, post gaudia luctus.
Semper in ambiguo, || speve metuve, sumus.

English: "Joys come after griefs, and after joys come griefs; we are always in a doubtful state, either hoping, or fearing." I love the sound play of the final hemistich!

For an image today, here is Barlow's illustration of the debate between the man and the lion, Silvanus et Leo - and you will notice that the lion is giving the man a quite visceral proof of his superior strength as well!