Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: October 10

Here is a round-up of today's proverbs and fables - and for previous posts, check out the Bestiaria Latina Blog archives. If you have not downloaded a free PDF copy of Brevissima: 1001 Tiny Latin Poems, it's ready and waiting (my project from summer of 2012); this is the source for the Brevissima poster item below.

HODIE (Roman Calendar): ante diem sextum Idus Octobres.

MYTHS and LEGENDS: The art image for today's legend shows Heracles and the Cattle of Geryon; you can also see the legends for the current week listed together here.

TODAY'S MOTTOES and PROVERBS:

TINY PROVERBS: Today's tiny proverb is: Teipsum inspice (English: Examine yourself).

3-WORD MOTTOES: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Recte faciendo securus (English: By acting rightly, no worries).

ANIMAL PROVERBS: Today's animal proverb is Equi donati dentes non inspiciuntur (English: The teeth of a donated horse are not inspected, i.e. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth).

POLYDORUS: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Oportet mendacem esse memorem (English: A liar must have a good memory).

PROPER NAME PROVERBS: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is In antro Trophonii vaticinatus est (English: He's made prophecies in the cave of Trophonius; from Adagia 1.7.77 - this refers to a man who is grim and unsmiling, like someone who has emerged from the cave of Trophonius, famous for its oracular cult).

GREEK PROVERBS: Today's proverb is Ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεὸς (English: The god from the machine, Latin deus ex machina).

BREVISSIMA: The distich poster for today is Ubi Dolemus. Click here for a full-sized view.

And here are today's proverbial LOLcats:

TODAY'S FABLES:

MILLE FABULAE: The fable from the Mille Fabulae et Una widget is Canis et Umbra, the famous story of the dog fooled by his own shadow.

FABULAE FACILES: The fable from the Fabulae Faciles widget is Ursus et Apes, a story of a bear with a temper (this fable has a vocabulary list).

GreekLOLz - and Latin and English, too. Below is one of my GreekLOLz; for the individual Greek, Latin and English versions of the graphic, see the blog post: Ἅλας καὶ τράπεζαν μὴ παραβαίνειν. Salem et mensam ne praetereas. Never pass up salt and a supper table.

Myth and Folklore Books. I'm accumulating some book recommendations for the classes I teach and wanted to share them here. Today's book is Philippine Folk-Tales by Clara Kern Bayliss; you can see the table of contents here. This is a free Amazon Kindle eBook, and you don't need a Kindle to read it - you can read Kindle books on any computer or mobile device, or you can use the Amazon Cloud Reader in your browser.