Bestiaria Latina Blog: Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: October 22

I have some EXCITING NEWS to share: Justin Slocum Bailey has a new website, Indwelling Language, and you will find there some audio recordings of the fables that I had included in Mille Fabulae et Una. Justin is such a wonderful performer, and he offers the fables with both classical and ecclesiastical pronunciation. I am delighted that he wants to bring Aesop to life this way, and I'll be including links to his recordings as one of the features here at the Bestiaria. You'll find today's audio fable down at the bottom of the post.

HODIE (Roman Calendar): ante diem undecimum Kalendas Novembres.

MYTHS and LEGENDS: The art image for today's legend shows The Return of Persephone; 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: Grata brevitas (English: Brevity is welcome).

3-WORD MOTTOES: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Omni liber metu (English: Free from all fear).

ANIMAL PROVERBS: Today's animal proverb is Confidens animi canis est in stercore noto (English: A dog is very bold in spirit when he's standing on a familiar dung heap).

POLYDORUS: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Vive moribus praeteritis, loquere verbis praesentibus (English: Live by the habits of the past, speak with the words of the present).

PROPER NAME PROVERBS: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Atlas caelum (English: Atlas [holds up] the sky; from Adagia 1.1.67 - for more about this myth, see the Atlas article at Wikipedia).

GREEK PROVERBS: Today's proverb is Ἅμαξα τὸν βουν ἕλκει (English: The wagon is dragging the ox... which is like putting the cart before the horse!).

BREVISSIMA: The distich poster for today is Pauperis Sors. 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 Talpa, Asinus, et Simia, in which three animals lament their fates.

FABULAE FACILES: The fable from the Fabulae Faciles widget is Apicula et Iuppiter, the story of how the bee got its sting (this fable has a vocabulary list).