Monday, June 29, 2009

Round-Up: June 29

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 tertium Kalendas Iulias, which is also the festival of Hercules Musarum, "Hercules of the Muses." You can add a Roman calendar as a widget in your blog or webpage, or display it as a Google Calendar: here's how.

TODAY'S TWITTER:

Vita Caesaris: You can see my IVLIVS CAESAR feed with a sentence from Plutarch's Life of Caesar each day in Greek, Latin and English. Today's Latin portion is about Caesar's early career priorities: 3.3 primo autem renuntiavit, ut potentia et armis potius primus esset omnium, quandoquidem propter bellicarum et civilium rerum tractationem, quibus rempublicam in suam redegit potestatem, non eo pervenit eloquentiae, quo naturalis eum indoles perduxisset.

Proverbiis Pipilo: You can see my Proverbia feed of Latin proverbs which I "tweet" while I am online each day (in English, too). Here's one from today about acquiring wisdom with the passage of time: Tempus magistrorum optimus est (English: Time is the best of teachers).

TODAY'S PROVERBS:

You can get access to all the proverb of the day scripts (also available as random proverb scripts) at the SchoolhouseWidgets.com website.

Audio Latin Proverb of the Day: Today's audio Latin proverb is Alterum pedem in cymba Charontis habet (English: He's got one foot in Charon's boat). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Vivitur ingenio (English: You need to live by your wits - and luckily for you, in Latin, your wits are your birth-right, in-gen-ium).

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Mortui non mordent (English: The dead do not bite).

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Quid communicabit caccabus ad ollam? Quando enim conliserint, confringetur (Sirach 13:2). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.

Latin Animal Proverb of the Day: Today's animal proverb is Cauda de vulpe testatur (English: You can tell the fox by her tail - the fox is proverbially proud of her tail and does not hide it, even when she should).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day: Today's proper name proverb is Boeoticum ingenium (English: The genius of the Boeotians - an ironic saying, since the Boeotians were the proverbial dimwits of the Greek world... at least according to the Athenians).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Τῶν καλῶν καὶ τὸ μετόπωρον καλόν ἐστίν (English: Even the autumn of the beautiful is something beautiful... just look at Tina Turner, for example!). If you look at the Greek Proverb of the Day widget, you'll see it comes with a Latin translation, too.

TODAY'S FABLES:

Ictibus Felicibus: Based on the good response I've gotten to the use of accent marks at Tar Heel Reader, I'm collecting fables now with macrons AND accent marks in this blog. Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Leo et Tauri, a fable about the principle of "divide and conquer."

Aesopus Elegiacus: For my next book project, I'm collecting Aesop's fables told in the form of elegiac couplets, two per day so that I'll plenty piled up for next summer. Today's elegiac fables are Rusticus et Hercules, the wonderful story of how "God helps them that help themselves," and Capra et Lupus, the story of the poor she-goat who was forced to suckle a wolf cub. There are also word lists included, courtesy of NoDictionaries.com!

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow's Aesop is DE CANE VETULO ET MAGISTRO (the story of the man who no longer valued his faithful old hunting dog). You can use the Javascript to include the fable of the day automatically each day on your webpage or blog - meanwhile, to find out more about today's fable, visit the Ning Resource Page for this fable, where you will find links to the text, commentary, and a discussion board for questions and comments.

Florilegium Fabularum: I'm working my way, slowly but surely, through the amazing collection of fables by Irenaeus published in 1666. Today's fable is Piscatores, the story of a fishermen and their dependence on luck for their success.

Tar Heel Readers: Materials continue to accumulate at Tar Heel Reader (keep up with the latest items at the Libelli Latini blog). Since the story of Hercules showed up today in verse form, I thought I would feature here my simplified Hercules in prose: Hercules et Rusictus.




Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.