Bestiaria Latina Blog: Round-Up: May 14

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: pridie Idus 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:

Puer et Exta, a funny little story about a greedy little boy.
Mustela et Venus, the story of the weasel in love, needing the goddess's help.
Taurus, Leaena et Aper, the boar's wise rebuke to the hypocritical lioness.
Serpens Calcata, the story of the serpent who was trodden underfoot.
Mercurius et Canis, which shows the god rejecting the dog's unwanted attentions.

I've picked out my favorite one, the story of the weasel who turned into a woman, Mustela et Venus, to share with you here in the blog - it's a Latin version of a poem by Babrius so the language is a bit elaborate, but the story is a great one!

Ōlim mustēlae, pulchrum quae amābat virum, Cȳpris augusta dedit, Cupīdinum māter, formam mūtāre et fēmineam assūmere, fēminaeque venustae, quam quī nōn habēbat ardēbat. Cōnspectam vir ille (nam captus est quī cēperat) uxōrem dūcere dēstinābat. Mēnsā autem positā, mūs praetercurrit, quem altē strātō dēscendēns lectō spōnsa persecūta fuit; sīcque solūtum est nuptiāle convīvium. Ac bellē cum rīsisset, Amor abiit. Nātūrā enim mulier victa fuit.

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).

3-Word Proverbs Verb-less: Today's 3-word verb-less proverb is Aurora Musis amica (English: Dawn is a friend to the Muses - let the rising sun inspire your creative powers!)

Audio Latin Proverb: Today's audio Latin proverb is Nocumentum documentum (English: A loss, a lesson). 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: Eripere telum, non dare irato decet (English: You should deprive an angry man of weapons, not donate them).

Animal Proverb from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb from Erasmus is Camelus vel scabiosa complurium asinorum gestat onera (English: Even a mangy camel can bear the loads of many donkeys; from Adagia 1.9.58).

I've done another proverb slideshow - Familia in Proverbiis - and here's a picture of one of the slides; I like this one!