Bestiaria Latina Blog: Round-Up: April 5

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.

HODIE: Nonae Apriles, the Nones of April! 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:

Canis et Ovis, the story of the sheep, falsely condemned by a rogues' gallery of false witnesses.
Opilio, Lupus et Canis, the story of a dog who sees through the wolf's hypocrisy.
Puer et Scorpio, a story about the need to pay attention!
Monedula Liberata, the sad story of a bird who thought she had escaped to freedom.
Capra et Lupus, the story of a wise goat who knows to keep her distance from the wolf.

I've picked out my favorite one, the story of the bird's escape, Monedula Liberata, to share with you here in the blog - it gives you a sense of how Aesop's fables were used over time both to protest against slavery, but also to justify it. It all depends on who is telling the story and for what purpose!

Quīdam homo monēdulam captat; avis pedem fīlō alligat, et avem fīliō trādit. Vīta inter hominēs avī nōn grāta est; tandem illa vinculum rumpit, et lībertātem recuperat. Tum lībera in suum nīdum volat. Ēheu! vinculum rāmīs haeret, nec avis nōdum solvere valet. Inde sub mortem ita suum fātum lūget. Mē miseram! lībertas mē necāvit, ex servitūte in mortem volāvī.

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: Attamen tranquillus (English: Tranquil, no matter what - the Latin shows a very elegant use of adverb and adjective).

3-Word Proverbs Verb-less: Today's 3-word verb-less proverb is Acti iucundi labores (English: Hard work, once completed, is pleasant - I need to keep this one in mind as I am about to embark on a biweekly bout of housecleaning!)

Audio Latin Proverb: Today's audio Latin proverb is Si rota defuerit, tu pede carpe viam (English: If your wheel is broken, you better make your way on foot). 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: Amicum an nomen habeas, aperit calamitas (English: Disaster reveals whether you have a friend, or just a friend so-called).

Animal Proverb from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb from Erasmus is Ut canis e Nilo (English: Like a dog drinking from the Nile - which is to say, very very carefully, as the dogs must be on the alert and drink quickly to escape being caught by crocodiles, as you can read about in this Aesop's fable; from Adagia 1.9.80).

For today's image, here is an illustration for the story of the wise she-goat, Capra et Lupus - although, as you can see, the goat has some pretty serious horns, and in the other scene in the image the goat and the wolf are confronting each other at the stream, meaning that this image was probably originally intended for the story of the goat who boasted of his own reflection (Perry 695):