Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Round-Up: November 3

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 Nonas 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 is one of the emblems of Alciato, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com as usual:
Milvus edax, nimiae quem nausea torserat escae,
Hei mihi, mater, ait, viscera ab ore fluunt.
Illa autem, Quid fles? Cur haec tua viscera credas,
Qui rapto vivens sola aliena vomis?
English: "The greedy kite, tortured by sickness from eating too much, said: Oh mother, my guts are flowing out of my mouth! But his mother replied: What are you crying about? How can you imagine those are your guts, when you make your living as a thief - you are vomiting up some other creature's guts, not your own!" For the emblem that illustrates this weird little fable (Perry 47), see 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 is about Pompey's extravagant support of Caesar… and you can tell Plutarch does not approve! Quod dictum pergratum populo, optimates offendit, insano scilicet adolescenti potius conueniens, quam tantae uiro existimationis et a uerecundia senatui debita alienissimum..

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 that you could call a proverb about lobbyists in Washington! Auro quaeque ianua panditur (English: Every door opens wide to gold).

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 Qui primus venerit, primus molet. (English: He who arrives first, will grind first). 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: Sapiens locum dat requiescendi iniuriae (English: The wise man allows space for an outrage to settle down… in other words: don't send that angry email! wait at least a day… and THEN see if you still want to send it!).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Non facile manibus vacuis occiditur ursus (English: The bear is not easily killed with empty hands - admittedly, it's not the most dazzling rhyme - manibus-ursus - but I like the saying anyway: don't go out empty-handed to take care of a bear).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Ubi amici ibi opes (English: Where there are friends, there are resources… even if they didn't call it "networking" in the ancient world, Rome knew all about friendship and how to make use of it!).

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Asinum tondes (English: You're trying to shear the donkey… which, of course, is a BIG mistake - and the donkey probably doesn't like it, either!).

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Mors amoris disiunctio (English: Death breaks the bonds of love - and just look at that lovely wordplay in Latin: mors amoris - almost as if the "a" were an alpha-privative, which it is not, of course… but that doesn't take away from the elegance of the saying!).

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Qui tetigerit picem, inquinabitur ab illa (Sirach 13:1). 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 Ruinis imminentibus, musculi praemigrant (English: When destruction is looming, the little mice emigrate - which is the Latin equivalent of our "rats deserting a sinking ship," although in this case it is mice deserting a house bout to fall down! and yes, musculus, "little mouse," is the origin of our word "muscle" in English, from the way a muscle can ripple under the skin like a mouse running along).

Latin Animal Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb is Bove venari leporem (English: To hunt a rabbit with an ox; from Adagia 4.4.44 - and needless to say, of course, this is about as foolish as going empty-handed to hunt the bear in the proverb cited above! if you are going to go hunting, you've got to have the right equipment to succeed!).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb is Bacchae more (English: In the manner of a Bacchant; from Adagia 1.6.45 - which is to say, in a wild and crazy way; just look at Euripides's play if you want examples of what the Bacchae do!).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Πλίνθον πλύνεις (English: You're washing a brick, which is about as crazy as shearing the donkey, as in the saying above - and yes, this Greek word is the origin of the English word "plinth" comes from, cognate with "flint").

TODAY'S FABLES:

Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Canis et Boves, the famous story of the dog in the manger.

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE LUPO ET GRUE, the story of the crane who was foolish enough to do a favor for a wolf.

For an image today, I wanted to include the emblem to go with the Alciato poem above! This is from the marvelous online edition of Alciato at Memorial University:




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