Monday, October 26, 2009

Round-Up: October 26

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 septimum Kalendas Novembres. 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 POEM: Here is today's little poem, from the Poetry Widget. Today's couplet is from Cato's Distichs, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com as usual
Sermones blandos blaesosque cavere memento:
Simplicitas veri forma est, laus ficta loquentis.
English: "Remember to watch out for sweet and simpering words: the guise of truth is straightforwardness, while praise is the guise of someone speaking falsehoods." You can see this advice put into practice by the goat in the fable of the goat and the wolf below! :-)

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 continues Caesar's alliance with Pompey and Crassus: Verum Caesar Crassi Pompeiique amicitia stipatus consulatum petiit. (And yes, that Latin participle stipatus is the same as the root you see in the English word "constipated"...!)

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 a rhyming proverb from today: Si lupus ēst agnum, non est mirabile magnum (English: If a wolf eats a lamb, it's no great surprise - note also the word play of ēst and est).

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 Numquam est fidelis cum potente societas (English: An alliance with someone powerful is never reliable). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.

Maxims of Publilius Syrus: Today's proverb from Publilius Syrus is: Semper plus metuit animus ignotum malum (English: The mind always fear more the evil that is unknown - something like our saying about "better the devil you know than the devil you don't").

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Mollificat diram responsum mollius iram (English: A very gentle response can soften cruel wrath).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Video ursam parientem (English: I see a she-bear giving birth - a saying meant to convey the idea of seeing something absolutely rare and hard to detect - as Pliny the Elder acknowledged).

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Lotum gustavit (English: He's tasted of the lotus... a Homeric allusion which has an eerie parallel in the modern saying "to drink the Kool-Aid").

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Laudatore nihil insidiosius (English: There is nothing more treacherous than a person who flatters you, as "Cato" also warns us in the couplet cited above!).

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Sapientia absconsa et thesaurus invisus: quae utilitas in utrisque? (Sirach 20:30). 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 Mali corvi malum ovum (English: The bad egg of a bad crow, a saying you can find in many languages).

Latin Animal Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb is Ranis vinum praeministras (English: You're serving wine to frogs; from Adagia 2.3.20 - this is a fool's errand, since you are giving something to someone who does not need it or want it!).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb is Pomarius Hercules (English: Hercules the apple-man; from Adagia 2.7.1 - Erasmus cites Suda for this saying, about how some poor men were going to sacrifice a bull to Hercules, but the bull broke free and escaped, and they had nothing else to offer, so they grabbed an apple from a tree, stuck four twigs in it as legs, and two more twigs as horns and offered this to Hercules; the proverb thus refers to something that pretends to be grand and illustrious, but which is really cheap and paltry; a for a different reading of the Suda, see the Suda Online Project).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Ἄλλοισι μὴν γλῶσσα, ἄλλοισι δὴ γόμφιοι (English: Some have a tongue, and others have molars - a saying that refers to dinner parties where some people come to talk, and others come to eat).

TODAY'S FABLES:

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE VULPE ET LUPO, the story of how the fox had to ask a wolf for help.

Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Capra et Lupus, the story of a goat who was able to see through the wolf's tricks.

In honor of all the wolves that appeared in today's items, I thought I would include this image that I saw in the delightful Latin Twitter feed for lrisatus, Ecce lupus ibericus in clausum pastoris introeuns:




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