Round-Up: May 18

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: ante diem quintum decimum Kalendas Iunias. 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:

• Vulpes et Simia, the fox and the monkey debate their ancestry.
• Leo et Aquila, the story of a would-be friendship between the king of the beasts and the king of the birds.
• Eques et Equus, the story of the war-horse's shifting fortunes in war and peace.
• Lepus et Vulpes, the story of a rabbit trapped in a well.
• Homo et Vulpes, a story about the original "fire-fox"!

I've picked out my favorite one, the story of the boastful monkey, Vulpes et Simia, to share with you here in the blog:

Vulpes et sīmia eundem in locum faciēbant iter. Cum per sepulcra eās via dūceret, sīmia ad vulpem, "Omnēs (inquit) quōs hīc sepultōs vidēs, parentum meōrum lībertī erant." "Callidē," rēspondet vulpes, "mentīta es. Nec enim hōrum quisquam, quī humātī sunt, tē potest convincere."

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: Dei donum (English: A gift of God - the alliteration works in both the Latin and the English).

3-Word Proverbs Verb-less: Today's 3-word verb-less proverb is Tempus magistrorum optimus (English: Time is the best of teachers)

Audio Latin Proverb: Today's audio Latin proverb is In caput auctoris facinus plerumque redundat (English: A crime often comes back to hit the doer in the head). 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: Blanditia, non imperio fit dulcis Venus. Flattering words, not commands, make Venus sweet (English: Flattering words, not commands, make Venus sweet - with the Goddess of Love standing in for love itself).

Animal Proverb from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb from Erasmus is Equo senescenti minora admove (English: Load less on the old horse; from Adagia 2.8.52).

In honor of Publilius Syrus's proverb about Venus, here is a medallion of Aphrodite and Eros from Syria, circa the third century B.C.E.: