Saturday, August 17, 2013

Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: August 17

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 sextum decimum Kalendas Septembres.

MYTHS and LEGENDS: The art image for today's legend shows Orestes and the Furies; 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: Fama volat (English: Rumor flies - and she flies even faster now that there is the Internet!).

3-WORD MOTTOES: Today's 3-word verb-less motto is Spe labor levis (English: With hope, hard work becomes easy).

ANIMAL PROVERBS: Today's animal proverb is Thesaurizate vobis thesauros in caelo, ubi neque erugo neque tinea demolitur (English: Lay up your treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moths destroy it).

POLYDORUS: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Granum frumenti mortuum multum affert fructum (English: The seed of grain, when it dies, brings forth a great harvest).

PROPER NAME PROVERBS: Today's proper name proverb from Erasmus is Mylus omnia audiens (English: Mylus listening to everything; from Adagia 2.7.52 - This refers to someone who pretends to be deaf or not listening, but who is actually listening to everything).

GREEK PROVERBS: Today's proverb is Ὁ δύο πτῶκας διώκων, οὐδέτερον καταλαμβάνει (English: He who chases two rabbits catches neither one).

BREVISSIMA: The distich poster for today is De Seipso. 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:

FABULAE FACILES: The fable from the Fabulae Faciles widget is Minerva et Naufragus, the story of Athena and the shipwrecked Athenian - one of my favorites! (This fable has a vocabulary list.)

MILLE FABULAE: The fable from the Mille Fabulae et Una widget is Hirundo et Iuvenis, the story of a young man who did not heed the proverb that "one swallow does not a summer make."

Iuvenis et Hirundo

Greek Bible Art - and Latin and English, too. Below is one of my Greek Bible Art graphics; for the individual Greek, Latin and English versions of the graphic, see the blog post: ἐξέτεινεν Αβρααμ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ λαβεῖν τὴν μάχαιραν. Extenditque manum, et arripuit gladium. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife.


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 A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine by Percy J. Billinghurst; 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.