Sunday, August 11, 2013

Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: August 11

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, as is Mille Fabulae et Una: 1001 Aesop's Fables in Latin. If you prefer the heft of a book in your hand, you can get the books in printed form from Lulu.com.

HODIE (Roman Calendar): ante diem tertium Idus Augustas .

MYTHS and LEGENDS: The art image for today's legend shows Odysseus and the Shades; 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: Fugit iuventas (English: Youth escapes).

3-WORD MOTTOES: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Copia ex industria (English: Abundance as a result of effort).

ANIMAL PROVERBS: Today's animal proverb is Gallo canente, spes reddit (English: When the cock crows, hope returns).

POLYDORUS: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Sero sapiunt Phryges (English: The Phrygians are wise too late - that is to say, the Trojans realized too late what a great mistake they had made by letting the wooden horse into their city).

PROPER NAME PROVERBS: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Caunius amor (English: A love of Caunus; from Adagia 3.2.44 - this refers to an illicit love, such as Byblis had for her brother Caunus).

GREEK PROVERBS: Today's proverb is Κακὰ κέρδεα ζημίαν ἀρετῆς φέρει (English: Wicked profit comes at the cost of virtue).

BREVISSIMA: The distich poster for today is Deum Dilige et Vicinum. Click here for a full-sized view; the poem has a vocabulary list and an English translation, too.


And here are today's proverbial LOLcats:




TODAY'S FABLES:

MILLE FABULAE: The fable from the Mille Fabulae et Una widget is Coclea et Iuppiter, a story of why the snail carries its shell around on its back.

FABULAE FACILES: The fable from the Fabulae Faciles widget is Mors et Pauper, the story of a poor man who discovered his desire to live (this fable has a vocabulary list).

Senex et Mors

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: Ἕμπροσθεν κρημνὸς, ὄπισθεν λύκοι. A fronte praecipitium, a tergo lupi. A cliff ahead, wolves behind.


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 Legends of Florence by Charles Godfrey Leland; 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.