Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Round-Up: November 17

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 decimum Kalendas Decembres. 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. Today's lines are a bit of dactylic verse from Horace, with a word list at NoDictionaries.com as usual:
[...] Vitanda est inproba Siren
desidia, aut quidquid vita meliore parasti
ponendum aequo animo.
English: "You must avoid the wicked Siren that is sloth, or else set aside without regret whatever you have obtained in a better time of life." I love the idea of the Siren-song of sloth... I can always hear her calling loud and clear on Monday morning, luring me back to bed, ha ha. You can read the entire satire online in English here.

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 features Caesar's enmity with Cicero: Ad eum autem magistratum promotus est, ut Ciceronem euerteret; neque prius Caesar ad exercitum abiit, quam opera Clodii Ciceronem oppressisset eumque Italia expulisset.

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: Tres res sunt quae omnes homines sollicitent: metus, cupiditas, aegritudo (English: There are three things which trouble all people: fear, desire, pain - although that Latin word aegritudo is hard to translate, since it can refer to the physical pains of sickness but also anguish of the soul).

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 Regnant qualibet urbe lupi (English: Wolves reign in every city). To read a brief essay about this proverb and to listen to the audio, visit the Latin Via Proverbs blog.

Maxims of Publilius Syrus: Today's proverb from Publilius Syrus is: Cotidie multatur, qui semper timet (English: If you are always afraid, you pay the price of fear every day).

Rhyming Proverbs: Today's proverb in Leonine verse form is: Decipiuntur aves per cantus saepe suaves (English: The birds are often deceived by sweet songs).

Proverbs of Polydorus: Today's proverb from Polydorus is: Davus sum, non Oedipus (English: I am Davus, not Oedipus - a famous line from Terence's Andria where a character insists that he is not able to solve riddles, as Oedipus so notoriously did).

Proverbium Perbreve of the Day: Today's two-word proverb is: Minori parce (English: Be sparing to your subordinate - one of the items in Cato's monostichs).

Proverbium Breve of the Day: Today's three-word proverb is: Condit fercla fames (English: Hunger seasons the food - much like the English saying, "hunger is the best sauce").

Vulgate Verse of the Day: Today's verse is In igne probatur aurum et argentum, homines vero in camino humiliationis (Sirach 2:5). 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 A fronte praecipitium, a tergo lupi (English: A cliff in front and wolves behind - an animal version of "between a rock and a hard place").

Latin Animal Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's animal proverb is Lupus ante clamorem festinat (English: The wolf hurries away before a shout is raised; from Adagia 2.7.79).

Proper Name Proverb of the Day from Erasmus: Today's proper name proverb is Felix Corinthus, at ego sim Teneates (English: Corinth is a happy place, but I would rather be in Tenea; from Adagia 2.5.57 - Tenea was a village near Corinth, well-wooded and prosperous).

Greek Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is Πόρρω Διός τε καὶ κεραυνοῦ (English: Far both from Zeus and from his thunderbolt).

TODAY'S FABLES:

Fable of the Day: Today's fable of the day from Barlow is DE VULPE SINE CAUDA, the story of a fox who had lost its tail and tried to persuade its fellow foxes to do the same.

Ictibus Felicibus: Today's fable with macrons and accent marks is Lupus et Grus, the story of the crane who foolishly did a favor for a wolf… this is definitely the day for wolf proverbs and fables! Here is an illustration for the story by Walter Crane (image source) - the story of the wolf and the crane is the one on the left:




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