Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: October 22

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 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: Fiat lux (English: Let there be light).

3-WORD MOTTOES: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Spe et fortuna (English: By means of hope and luck).

ANIMAL PROVERBS: Today's animal proverb is Serpens nisi serpentem edat, draco non fiet (English: Unless a snake eats a snake, it won't become a dragon).

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 Pomarius Hercules (English: Hercules the apple-man; from Adagia 2.7.1 - This refers to a legend that when there was no animal to offer to Hercules, some children took an apple, stuck straws in it to represent the legs and horns of the missing animal, and sacrificed that instead. Hercules accepted the offering; hence, Hercules the apple-eater).

GREEK PROVERBS: Today's proverb is Ἅμαξα τὸν βουν ἕλκει (English: The cart is pulling the ox... which is absurd, of course - just like putting your cart before your horse!).

BREVISSIMA: The distich poster for today is Velle Tuum Meum Est. 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, a story about how foolish it is to complain about your life - because there is surely someone worse off than you are.

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).

apes et Iuppiter

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: Ἁ δὲ χεὶρ την χεῖρα νίζει. Manus manum lavat. One hand washes the other.


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 Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians by Woislav Petrovitch; 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.