Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Round-Up: September 9

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 quintum Idus Septembres. 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. It's an example of rhyming Leonine verse collected by Wegeler, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com. The word list oddly did not recognize responsio or mollificat (= mollis + facere), but both words are easy to recognize from their English derivates, "response" and "mollify," respectively. Note also that the word list gives only the meaning "raise on high" for sustollere, but what we need here is the secondary meaning, "lift up, bear away, remove" (see Lewis & Short):
Iras sustollis, si sit responsio mollis.
Mollificat diram responsum mollius iram.
In English: "You alleviate angry feelings, if your response is soft; the softer response softens awful anger" - but of course the English loses the rhyme of sustollis-mollis and diram-iram. The sentiment is the same found in the first part of Proverbs 15:1, Responsio mollis frangit iram;
sermo durus suscitat furorem (King James: A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger).

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 explains the strictly female character of the Bona Dea's rituals: Cum ea sacra peraguntur, verum accedere aut iisdem in aedibus esse nefas ducitur; ipsae inter se mulieres multa cum Orphicis convenientia obire feruntur.

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 when I woke up with a headache! Cum caput aegrotat, corpus simul omne laborat (English: When the head hurts, the whold body suffers with it - although that does catch the charm of the Latin rhyme).

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 Multitudo canum, mors leporis (English: Plenty of dogs is the rabbit's death). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Spem sequimur (English: We follow hope... although that does not catch the nice alliteration of the Latin).

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Ingenium industria alitur (English: Ingenuity is nourished by industriousness: in other words, if you want your talents to flourish, get to work!)

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is Nudus egressus sum de utero matris meae et nudus revertar illuc (Job 1:21). 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 Ex frixis ovis pullus numquam venit ullus (English: No chicken ever came from fried eggs... in other words: you cannot have your egg, and eat it too! Notice that that the Latin is a Leonine verse with rhyme).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day: Today's proper name proverb is Non est spoliandus Petrus ut vestiatur Paulus (English: Peter should not be stripped to clothe Paul - much like the English saying, "robbing Peter to pay Paul").

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Μηδὲ δίκην δικάσῃς, πρὶν ἀμφοῖν μῦθον ἀκούσῃς (English: Don't pass judgment until you've heard both sides of the story - and note that the Greek word for story here is μῦθος - reminding us that the word "myth" in Greek meant a "story").

TODAY'S FABLES:

Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Leo et Socii Eius, the famous story of the lion's share.

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE CANE ET UMBRA, the story of the greedy dog crossing a stream.

Aesopus Elegiacus: Today's elegiac fable is Lupus et Bubulcus, a wonderful version of the story of the treacherous cowherd and a fugitive wolf. There is also a word list, courtesy of NoDictionaries.com. Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) from a Renaissance edition of Aesop:




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