Sunday, April 20, 2014

Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: April 20

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.

HODIE (Roman Calendar): ante diem duodecimum Kalendas Maias.

MYTHS and LEGENDS: The art image for today's legend shows Apollo and Marsyas; 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: Optimum pati (English: To endure is best).

3-WORD MOTTOES: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Fides, spes, caritas (English: Faith, hope, charity).

ANIMAL PROVERBS: Today's animal proverb is Canis sine dentibus vehementius latrat (English: A dog without teeth barks the more fiercely).

POLYDORUS: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Offeras primum pacem (English: First you should offer peace).

PROPER NAME PROVERBS: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Amyris insanit (English: Amyris is raving; from Adagia 2.3.29 - Amyris is famous for pretending to be mad, in order to save his own life, much as the Roman Brutus would later do).

GREEK PROVERBS: Today's proverb is Ὤδινεν ὄρος, εἶτα μῦν ἀπέτεκεν (English: The mountain was in labor, then it gave birth to a mouse - a fable also told by Aesop).

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


And here are today's proverbial LOLcats:




TODAY'S FABLES:

FABULAE FACILES: The fable from the Fabulae Faciles widget is Avarus et Poma Marcescentia, a hilarious story about a greedy man, his generous son, and the rotten apples (this fable has a vocabulary list).

MILLE FABULAE: The fable from the Mille Fabulae et Una widget is Asinus, Lupi, et Canes, the story of an ailing donkey and some dangerous visitors.

Lupi et Asinus Aegrotus

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: Ἀφροδίτηι ὗν τέθυκεν. Veneri suem mactavit. He's sacrificed a pig to Aphrodite. (Which is a foolish thing to do, of course, since there is no love lost between Aphrodite and the pigs.)