Thursday, September 1, 2011

Round-Up: September 1

Here is a round-up of today's blog posts - and for previous posts, check out the Bestiaria Latina Blog archives.

HODIE: Kalendae Septembres, the Kalends of September!

ANECDOTE OF THE DAY: Today's anecdote is Sophocles, a wonderful story about Socrates in his old age.

VERBUM WIDGET: I don't have a new word today (I have just got to find some time for Latin this weekend!), but I can offer two words from the daily widget: ET - a word every Latin students knows probably from Day One, which has a brief essay at the Verbosum blog. Here's one of the sayings you can find in that essay: Sit pax et veritas in diebus meis, "Let there be peace and truth in my days." The second word is REDIMO - which also has a brief essay. Here's one of the sayings you can find in that essay: Sicut ager colitur, sic fructibus hic redimitur, "As the field is cultivated, so it makes itself good by its fruits" (one of those rhyming medieval proverbs).

FABULAE FACILES: The new easy-to-read fable is Cervus et Amici Eius, the sad story of the deer and his hungry friends.

FABULAE FACILES WIDGET: The fable from the Fabulae Faciles widget is Ciconia et Uxor Eius, a story of domestic violence in the stork household (you see here the problem Latin poses with gendered animal names: the ciconia here is feminine in gender, but "he" has a wife... a wife whom he does not treat very well!).

MILLE FABULAE: ILLUSTRATIONS: The latest fables with images are Scarabaei et Apes, Prandentes, the story of the bees who invited the beetles to dinner, and vice versa, and Culex et Passer, a great story of the chain of being, all the way from a gnat to a man. I have been looking for a source for this story; I found it in an old Latin reader - if anyone knows where I can find out more about this wonderful story, please let me know!

MILLE FABULAE: ILLUSTRATIONS: The fable from the Mille Fabulae et Una widget is Simius et Speculum, a story about a monkey who doesn't recognize himself in the mirror.

GOOGLE BOOKS: Today's Google Books are Levins' Manipulus Vocabulorum and Arnold's Latin Word-Building .

TODAY'S MOTTOES & PROVERBS: Widgets available at Schoolhouse Widgets.

3-Word Mottoes: Today's 3-word motto is Laboranti numen adest (English: Divine power attends the man who works hard).

3-Word Proverbs: Today's 3-word proverb is Quae legeris, memento (English: What you read, remember).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb with rhyme is: Multo deliro, si cuique placere requiro (English: I've got to be completely crazy if I seek to please everyone).

Vulgate Verse: Today's verse is Si diligitis eos qui vos diligunt, quae vobis est gratia? (Luke 6:32). For a translation, check out the polyglot Bible, in English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the Sacred Texts Archive online.

Elizabethan Proverb Commentary: Here is today's proverb commentary, this time by Conybeare: Equinae caudae pilos vellere: To plucke the heares of an horsse tayle. A proverbe spoken of hem that by litle and litle atchieveth that he coulde not doe immediatly altogeather.

Today's image is for that story of the monkey and the mirror: 128. Simius et Speculum. Simius, qui nesciebat qualis esset et se putabat bellulum, effigiem suam vidit a speculo fideli redditam. Ratus simulacrum tale nihil ad se attinere, gaudet videndo; subamarus ridet, et iocos acres in bestiam inficetam iacit, et artificis manum industriam laudat. Sed aliquis dixit, “Heus, te ignoras? Tua est ipsa haec imago.” Simius hic asperam vim veritatis porro sentit et iam speculum damnare incipit, quod prius laudaverat. (source)

Simius et Speculum