Monday, December 20, 2010

Round-Up: December 20

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. I'm Twittering again now at Aesopus and AesopusEnglish.

HODIE: ante diem tertium decimum Kalendas Ianuarias, as the Festival of Saturnalia continues (and yes, you can have your own Roman Google Calendar).

HOLIDAY SONGS: The Latin holiday songs for today are: Lapsi Caelo Super Gentes, a Latin version of "Angels We Have Heard on High," along with Jesu, dulcis memoria and also Laetissimam famam, a Latin version of the Polish carol, "Wesołą nowinę."

VERBUM HODIERNUM: Today's word is SIGNUM - read a brief essay about the word at the Verbosum blog. Here's one of the sayings you can find in the essay: Signum scientis est posse docere, "A sign of those who know is that they can teach" (a nice motto for us teachers!)

FABULAE FACILES: The new easy-to-read fable is Asinus et Viatores Duo, an extremely simple story but none the less funny for it!

BESTIARIA PROVERBS: There are some new animal proverbs today for FELES, the cat, and URSUS, the bear.

MILLE FABULAE: FABLE OF THE DAY: The fable for today is Corvus Asinum Feriens, the story of a wicked crow observed by a wolf. (You can also a free PDF copy of the Mille Fabulae et Una book - and there's an English fable of the day, too.)

AESOP SLIDESHOW: Today's Aesop slideshows are Delphinus et Simius, the famous story of the monkey who pretends to be a man, and Camelus et Simia, a story in which it is not the monkey but the camel who behaves foolishly. (For all the Aesop images, visit Flickr.)

GOOGLE BOOKS: Today's Google Books are Bovillus's Proverbia Vulgares and Boothby's two volumes of Aesopic verse.

TODAY'S MOTTOES & PROVERBS: Widgets available at SchoolhouseWidgets.com.

Tiny Proverbs: Today's tiny proverb is: Hylam vocat (English: You're shouting for Hylas - but as we know from the myth of Hercules and Hylas, he cannot ever answer your call since the nymphs have taken him!).

3-Word Mottoes Verb-less: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Citius, altius, fortius (English: Faster, higher, and stronger - famous as the motto of the Olympics).

Latin Animal Proverb: Today's animal proverb is Pullus de nido avolat (English: The chick flies away from the nest).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Nolite iudicare secundum faciem (English: Don't judge based on appearances).

Proper Name Proverb from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Sero sapiunt Phryges (English: The Phrygians get wise too late - the Phrygians here are the Trojans, who let the wooden horse into their city and didn't realize their mistake until it was too late; from Adagia 1.1.28).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Λύκος ποιμήν (English: The wolf as shepherd... which is to say, not a very good shepherd at all).

For an image today, in honor of the proverb Hylam vocat, here's the famous painting of Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse: