Latin Via Proverbs

Lupus pilum mutat, non mentem

2009-10-31T14:42:00.003-04:00

In English: A wolf can change his coat but not his character.

In that last post, the wolf was the hero of the story, but that is not always the case, as you can see in today's saying, which warns us instead to beware of the wolf! It may not always look like a wolf, but it will certainly act like a wolf, which could put us in serious danger.

In a literal sense, the wolf might try to change his coat by replacing it with that of a sheep, as in the proverbial "wolf in sheep's clothing," as we saw earlier with the saying that warned us: Pelle sub agnina latitat mens saepe lupina, "Beneath the lamb's skin often lurks a wolf's mind."

The wolf is also famous for trying to change in other ways, such as deciding to become a monk, or deciding to become a vegetarian, or offering to be a midwife to the sow, or making an alliance with the sheep, or even pretending to be a shepherd himself. In all of these situations, the wolf may not look like the typical wolf, but we should always watch out, as these outward changes do not mean that there is any change in the inward wolf, as you can see in Odo of Cheriton's story about the wolf here called Isengrimus here, his name in the medieval beast epic tradition:

Contigit quod quidam Paterfamilias habuit XII Oues. Voluit peregrinari et commendavit Oves suas Ysemgrino, id est Lupo, compatri suo. Et compater iuravit quod bene conservaret eas. Profectus est statim. Ysemgrinus interim cogitavit de Ovibus et uno die comedit de una, altera die de alia, ita quod vix tres invenit Paterfamilias, quando reversus est. Quaerebat a compatre quid factum fuerit de aliis Ovibus. Respondit Ysemgrimus quod mors ex temperalitate venit super eas. Et dixit Paterfamilias: Da mihi pelles; et inventa sunt vestigia dentium Lupi. Et ait Paterfamilias: Reus es mortis; et fecit Lupum suspendi.

It happened that a certain man had twelve sheep. He wanted to go on a journey, and he entrusted the sheep to Isengrimus, that is, to the wolf, his associate. And his associate swore that he would take good care of them. The man departed immediately. Isengrimus meanwhile got to thinking about the sheep and one day he ate one sheep, and the next day he ate another sheep, and so on until the man found scarcely three sheep when he returned home. He asked his associate what had happened to the other sheep. Isengrimus answered that death had come upon them unseasonably. And the man said: Give me their skins, and the traces of the Wolf's teeth could be seen there. And the man said: You are guilty of a capital crime, and he had the wolf hanged.

So, the wolf pays the price in the end for his misdeeds, but it is the man who is the biggest loser: he foolishly trusted his sheep to the care of the wolf and lost his flock as result, when he really should have known better. If only he had paid attention to today's saying!

So, hoping you have managed to avoid all wolves, real and metaphorical, in your vicinity, here is today's proverb read out loud:

Lupus pilum mutat, non mentem.

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

Infra tuam pelliculam te contine

2009-10-31T11:18:00.002-04:00

In English: Keep yourself within your own skin.

I thought that since yesterday's saying was about a diminutive (edentulus), I would choose another saying with a diminutive today: pellicula, which means "skin" or "hide," which is a diminutive form of the noun pellis.

Using the metaphor of skin, the proverb advises you to stick to your limits, to be yourself, to not overreach yourself. Of course, when it comes to your skin, this is easy: there is nothing you can do that will take you out of your own skin; literally speaking, going beyond your own skin is a physical impossibility. Metaphorically, of course, we are tempted to go beyond our own skin all the time - living beyond our means, pretending to be something we are not, striving for some goal which is far beyond our reach. This proverb instead urges us to be content with our limits, and stick to who we are.

You can find this saying stated in two different ways: intra tuam pelliculuam, and infra tuam pelliculam. The word intra means "within, inside" while the word infra means "underneath, on the under side." Of course, they both convey the same idea, albeit from different metaphorical vantage points, and you can also find the preposition in used also, as in this similar proverb: p. In propria pelle quiesce, "Be at peace in your own skin." Ovid has an interesting variant where he replaces the word "skin" with "Fortune" - intra Fortunam debet quisque manere suam, "each person should remain within his own Fortune."

The word pellicula, meanwhile, might be familiar to those of you who are Spanish speakers, as película, the word for "film," in the sense of moving film, or a movie. In Italian, pellicola refers to photographic film. In English, however, the word "film" comes via the Germanic filminjan, meaning "skin, membrane," from Germanic fell, meaning "hide" - a word that is cognate with Latin pellis, but not derived from it.

So, hoping that you are feeling happy within, beneath or in your own skin at the moment, here are today's proverbs read out loud:

2379. Infra tuam pelliculam te contine.

2463. In propria pelle quiesce.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Proverbs in the Aesop's Fables book

2009-07-17T16:27:00.030-04:00

I'm in the process of providing audio and, eventually, little essays for all the proverbs used in Aesop's Fables in Latin, which is now available at Amazon.com. Please use this reference list to see if an essay is available for a proverb you have questions about - and if that proverb doesn't have an essay yet, then let a comment here with your question, and I'll be sure to do that essay next! :-)

p. 4. Noli irritare leones. (essay + audio) - Don't annoy the lions.
p. 5. Multum, non multa. (essay + audio) - Much, not many.
p. 8. Invidus a propria roditur invidia. (essay + audio) - The envious man is gnawed by his own envy.
p. 9. Invidia dolor animi est ex alienis commodis. (essay + audio) - Envy is a sickness of the soul from other people's advantages.
p. 10. Parva leves capiunt animos. (audio) - Unimportant things capture frivolous minds.
p. 10. Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. (essay + audio) - The mountains give birth; a silly mouse will be born.
p. 12. Ad omnia trepidat, licet vel mus movet. (essay + audio) - He shudders at everything, even if so much as a mouse moves.
p. 13. Mons parturibat, deinde murem prodidit. (essay + audio) - The mountain was giving birth; it finally brought forth a mouse.
p. 14. Ex parvo satis. (audio) - From little, plenty.
p. 14. Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam. (essay + audio) - Worry follows growing wealth.
p. 20. Ex granis acervus. (essay + audio) - From grains, a heap.
p. 21. Omnium rerum principia parva sunt. (audio) - The beginnings of all things are small.
p. 22. Avis a cantu dignoscitur. (audio) - A bird is known by its song.
p. 22. Est avis in dextra melior quam quattuor extra. (essay + audio) - A bird inside the hand is better than four outside.
p. 24. Nutrit et accipiter pullos suos. (essay + audio) - Even a hawk nourishes its chicks.
p. 25. Ne ad pugnam vocet aquilam luscinia. (essay + audio) - The nightingale should not challenge the eagle to a fight.
p. 26. Sine pennis volare haud facile est. (audio) - Without wings, flying is not easy.
p. 26. Homo ad laborem natus est et avis ad volatum. (essay + audio) - A man is born to work and a bird born to fly.
p. 34. Pardus maculas non deponit. (essay+ audio) - The leopard does not set aside his spots.
p. 34. Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulixes. (essay + audio) - Ulysses was not handsome, but he was good with words.
p. 36. Forma bonum fragile est. (audio) - Beauty is a fragile thing.
p. 37. Quaelibet vulpes caudam suam laudat. (essay + audio) - Every fox praises its tail.
p. 38. Parva securi prosternitur quercus. (audio) - The oak is laid low by the little axe.
p. 38. Qui leviter credit, deceptus saepe redit. (essay + audio) - He who is quick to believe often ends up deceived.
p. 40. Nihil inimicius quam sibi ipse. (audio) - There is no more harmful thing to a person than himself.
p. 41. Serum est cavendi tempus in mediis malis. (audio) - In the midst of troubles, it's too late to be cautious.
p. 44. Sine labore non erit panis in ore. (essay + audio) - Without work there will be no bread in your mouth.
p. 45. Ora et labora, deus adest sine mora. (essay + audio) - Work and pray; god will aid you without delay.
p. 48. Lupus in fabula. (essay + audio) - The wolf in the conversation.
p. 49. Lupus non curat numerum ovium. (essay + audio) - The wolf does not care about the counting of the sheep.
p. 50. Ovium nullus usus, si pastor absit. (audio) - It's not good having sheep if the shepherd is absent.
p. 50. Vae miseris ovibus, iudex lupus est. (audio) - Alas for the poor sheep: the judge is a wolf.
p. 54. Fuge magna. (audio) - Flee from great things.
p. 54. Suam quisque pellem portat. (essay + audio) - Each person carries his own skin.
p. 56. Infra tuam pelliculam te contine. (essay + audio) - Keep yourself within your own skin.
p. 60. Latet anguis in herba. (audio) - A snake is lurking in the grass.
p. 61. Sibi parat malum, qui alteri parat. (audio) - The person who prepares evil for someone else is preparing it for himself.
p. 64. Ignavis semper feriae sunt. (audio) - Lazy people are always on holiday.
p. 65. Cicada cicadae cara, formicae formica. (essay + audio) - One grasshopper is dear to another, and ant to ant.
p. 72. Suo ipsius laqueo captus est. (audio) - He's been caught by his own snare.
p. 73. Adiuvat accipitrem impetus, columbam fuga. (audio) - Attack works for the hawk, retreat for the dove.
p. 82. Asinus stramen mavult quam aurum. (essay + audio) - A donkey prefers straw to gold.
p. 82. Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni. (essay + audio) - Golden reins don't make a better horse.
p. 84. In quo nascetur asinus corio morietur. (essay + audio) - The donkey will die in the skin in which he's born.
p. 86. Alter alterius auxilio eget. (audio) - One person needs the help of another.
p. 86. Facta plus valent quam dicta. (audio) - Deeds are worth more than words.
p. 88. Auxilium peto, non consilium. (audio) - I'm looking for help, not advice.
p. 92. Mors lupi, agnis vita. (audio) - The death of the wolf is life for the lambs.
p. 97. Bos iugo ducendo natus. (audio) - The ox is born for guiding the yoke.
p. 98. Grave est fidem fallere. (audio) - It is a serious business to break faith.
p. 98. Simulans amicum inimicus inimicissimus. (audio) - The enemy who pretends to be a friend is the most inimical.
p. 100. Semel malus, semper malus. (essay + audio) - Once wicked, always wicked.
p. 101. Falsum in uno, falsum in toto. (essay + audio) - False in one thing, false in the whole thing.
p. 102. Nulli nimium credite. (audio) - Don't trust anyone too much.
p. 102. Lupus pilum mutat, non mentem. (essay + audio) - A wolf can change his coat but not his character.
p. 104. Homo homini lupus. (essay + audio) - Man is a wolf to man.
p. 105. Furem fur cognoscit, et lupum lupus. (audio) - A thief knows a thief, and a wolf knows a wolf.
p. 108. A deo est omnis medela. (essay + audio) - All healing is from god.
p. 109. Homo proponit, sed deus disponit. (audio) - Man proposes, but god disposes.
p. 112. Canis mordens non latrat. (audio) - A dog who bites does not bark.
p. 113. Cave tibi a cane muto et aqua silenti. (audio) - You need to watch out for a silent dog and quiet water.
p. 117. Edentulus vescentium dentibus invidet. (essay + audio) - The poor toothless person envies the teeth of the diners.
p. 120. Bonis nocet qui malis parcet. (audio) - He who spares the bad people is hurting the good people.
p. 122. Hodie mihi, cras tibi. (audio) - Today it's me; tomorrow, it's you.
p. 122. Ex amico fit inimicus, hostis ex socio. (audio) - A friend becomes an enemy, an ally becomes a foe.
p. 125. Ut tibi, sic alteri. (audio) - As for yourself, so for another.
p. 126. Estote simplices sicut columbae. (audio) - Be simple as doves.
p. 126. Sub nomine pacis bellum latet. (audio) - War is hiding under the name of peace.
p. 128. Novus rex, nova lex. (audio) - New king, new law.
p. 132. Timor mortis morte peior. (audio) - Fear of death is worse than death.
p. 133. Nemo est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere. (audio) - No one is so old that he doesn't think he could live a year longer.
p. 134. Absente domino, res male geritur. (audio) - When the boss is gone, business goes badly.
p. 134. Stercus optimum vestigium domini. (essay + audio) - The master's footstep is the best fertilizer.
p. 138. Serpens eiiciendus e domo. (audio) - A snake should be cast out of the house.
p. 138. Nihil homine ingrato peius. (audio) - Nothing is worse than an ungrateful man.
p. 141. In sinu colubrum habet. (audio) - He's got a snake in his bosom.
p. 150. Neminem pecunia divitem fecit. (essay + audio) - Money has never made anyone wealthy.
p. 150. Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest. (essay + audio) - The rooster can do plenty in his own dungheap.
p. 154. Iam testudo volat. (audio) - Now the turtle's flying.
p. 154. Aquilam testudo vincit. (audio) - The turtle's beating the eagle.
p. 161. In propria pelle quiesce. (essay + audio) - Be at peace in your own skin.
p. 173. Gratia gratiam parit. (essay + audio) - One kindness gives birth to another.
p. 182. Leo fortissimus bestiarum. (audio) - The lion is the strongest of the beasts.
p. 182. Leonina societas periculorum plena. (audio) - Being in the company of the lion is full of danger.
p. 184. Alienis malis discimus. (essay + audio) - We learn from other people's problems.
p. 185. Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. (audio) - Happy is the man who learns caution from other people's risks.
p. 186. Dolo illuditur dolus. (audio) - Fraud is tricked by fraud.
p. 186. Oportet vulpinari cum vulpibus. (audio) - You've got to play the fox with the foxes.
p. 194. Cavendo tutus eris. (audio) - By being cautious you will be safe.
p. 194. Est sapientis providere. (audio) - A wise man looks ahead.
p. 196. Sapiens a se ipso pendet. (audio) - A wise man depends on his own self.
p. 198. Si satis est, multum est. (essay + audio) - If it's enough, it's a lot.
p. 198. Vivis piscibus aqua, mortuis vinum. (essay + audio) - Water for the living fish, wine for the dead ones.
p. 206. Fortuna belli fluxa. (audio) - War's fortunes fluctuate.
p. 206. Malo ad campanam quam ad tubae surgere clangorem. (audio) - I prefer to rise to the clanging of the church-bell rather than the war-trumpet.
p. 210. Agnos lupi vorant. (essay + audio) - Wolves gobble the lambs.
p. 210. Regnant qualibet urbe lupi. (essay + audio) - Wolves reign in every city.
p. 218. Dives est qui nihil cupit. (audio) - Rich is the man who desires nothing.
p. 218. Avarus ipse miseriae causa est suae. (audio) - The greedy man is the cause of his own misery.
p. 222. Cupiditati nihil satis est. (audio) - Nothing is enough for desire.
p. 222. Avarus aurum deum habet. (audio) - The greedy man has gold as a god.
p. 230. Flecti, non frangi. (audio) - To bend, not to break.
p. 230. Nec invideamus altius stantibus. (audio) - Let us not envy our higher-ups.
p. 234. Sciens cavebo. (audio) - Being aware, I will take care.
p. 234. Sero in periculis est consilium quaerere. (audio) - It's too late to get advice in the midst of dangers.
p. 250. Cum vulpe habens commercium, dolos cave. (audio) - If you are doing business with a fox, watch out for tricks.
p. 250. Quod est venturum, sapiens quasi praesens cavet. (audio) - The wise man is wary of what is to come as if it were already here.
p. 254. Personam, non faciem, gerit. (audio) - He's wearing a mask, not a face.
p. 254. Calidum et frigidum ex eodem ore efflat. (essay + audio) - He's blowing hot and cold from the same mouth.
p. 262. Vis unita fortior. (audio) - Strength, united, is stronger.
p. 262. Si vis regnare, divide. (audio) - If you want to rule, divide.
p. 266. Quid leoni cum mure? (audio) - What's lion got to do with a mouse?
p. 266. Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur. (audio) - A sure friend is seen in an unsure situation.
p. 274. Semper metuendo sapiens evitat malum. (audio) - By always being afraid, the wise man avoids evil.
p. 274. Dum stertit cattus, nunquam sibi currit in os mus. (essay + audio) - When the cat's snring, no mouse ever runs into its mouth.
p. 278. Lupus hiat. (audio) - The wolf is gaping.
p. 278. Quae volumus, et credimus libenter. (audio) - What we gladly want, we gladly believe as well.
p. 286. Ars varia vulpi. (essay + audio) - The fox has many a trick.
p. 286. Scit multa vulpes, magnum echinus unicum. (audio) - The fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one big thing.
p. 290. Quid leone fortius? (audio) - What thing is stronger than a lion?
p. 290. Nunquam est fidelis cum potente societas. (essay + audio) - The company of the powerful man is never to be trusted.
p. 302. Hospitium verendum. (audio) - Hospitality is a sacred duty.
p. 302. Post tres dies piscis vilescit et hospes. (essay + audio) - After three days the fish stinks, as does the houseguest.
p. 306. Quid libertate pretiosius? (audio) - What thing is more valuable than freedom?
p. 306. Nemo nisi sapiens liber est. (essay + audio) - No man is free, except the wise man.
p. 314. Medice, cura te ipsum! (audio) - Physician, cure yourself!
p. 315. Medico male est, si nemini male est. (audio) - It's bad news for the doctor if no one's feeling bad.
p. 315. Morborum medicus omnium mors ultimus. (audio) - Death is the lst doctor of all diseases.
p. 320. Libertas optima rerum. (audio) - Freedom is the best of things.
p. 320. Liber inops servo divite felicior. (audio) - A free man without wealth is happier than a rich servant.
p. 324. Omnes homines aut liberi sunt aut servi. (audio) - All men are either free, or slaves.

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

Ad omnia trepidat, licet vel mus movet

2009-03-30T11:19:00.000-04:00

In English: He trembles at everything, even if so much as a mouse moves.

Today's saying describes someone who is scared of absolutely everything, even something as small as a mouse. It's something like the English saying about somebody "being scared of his own shadow," which is to say, someone who is scared of something insubstantial that cannot do him any harm at all. The scurrying of mouse makes a perceptible sound so that it is something you would notice - but only somebody who is really trembling with fear is going to shudder at the movement of that mouse.

The idea behind this proverb is a very simple one, and easy for us to grasp. Yet the Latin here can really trip students up, since we are in the realm here of "little" Latin words, words like licet and vel, which do not have a simple formulaic English translation that can be applied in all cases. These little words are, indeed, like the mouse of today's proverb: it is the scurrying of these little Latin words that can strike fear into the heart of the Latin student. But no need: the words are here to convey meaning, not to do you any harm. So, let's take a look at both of these little words, licet and vel.

The word licet can be a real conundrum for Latin students. Sometimes licet can be a verb which is used impersonally to express permission or license to do something, as in one of my favorite Latin proverbs, Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi, "What is permitted to Jupiter is not permitted to the ox." Here licet is being used as the main verb in each clause, with a dative complement.

Sometimes, however, licet is used, not as a verb, but as an adverb. In particular, it can be used as a conjunction, expressing the idea that (even if) something is permitted, (nevertheless) something else. For a specific example, here's a line from Seneca: Vita brevis est, licet supra mille annos exeat, "Life is short, even if it were to extend more than a thousand years." Notice that in English we render this licet with the conjunctive adverbial phrase "even if." You can tell that licet is not really functioning as a verb in this sentence, because there is another finite verb right there in the same clause: exeat. So, exeat is the verb, and licet is serving as an adverb. That is the same case in today's proverb: Ad omnia trepidat, licet vel mus movet, where movet is the verb, and licet is playing the role of an adverb (the fact that the verb used here is indicative, rather than subjunctive, shows that the saying is probably post-classical in origin).

What then about the vel? This is a word that students are often taught to automatically render with the English word "or" - a word which obviously will not work here: the sentence, "He trembles at everything, even if or a mouse moves," simply does not make sense.

If you think about the etymology of Latin vel, you can find a good clue for how to proceed here. Like licet, the adverbial vel also comes from a verbal root: volo. The word vel is, in fact, an old imperative form of the verb volo: "want!" So, historically, the way to understand the meaning of the Latin word vel is something very much like our English idiom, "if you please," where some kind of alternative is expressed in terms of the subjective wishes of the recipient of the message: "(or if) you like."

The problem, of course, is that the use of the English idiom "if you like" is a bit heavy-handed for translating the Latin vel. So, what you have to do whenever you face a Latin vel, is to try a range of English translations - the simple "or" might suffice, but if it does not, as in the case of today's proverb, you need to be prepared to search through a wider range of English idioms. I opted for "so much as a mouse" in today's translation, hoping to capture some more of the charm of the Latin alliteration in mus movet. As always, translation is an art - imperfect at best - where being able to convey the "spirit" of the original sometimes requires a bit of creativity with the "letter" of the original - if you please! :-)

So, hoping you will not tremble at the mouse-like little words of Latin that you find scurrying about in today's proverb, here it is read out loud:

1537. Ad omnia trepidat, licet vel mus movet.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

March 26: Aesop's Fables at Amazon SALE

2009-03-26T10:11:00.001-04:00

Hi everybody, I hope it is okay to send this note around about my Aesop's Fables in Latin book at Amazon - somehow it has become part of an Amazon promotion, and I don't know how long it will last, but it is 40% off at the moment, listed for just $20: Aesop's Fables in Latin - Amazon Promotion.

To learn about the contents of the book, sample pages, supplementary materials (including audio), you can find lots of material at the Aesopus Ning.

Agnos lupi vorant

2009-03-17T12:09:00.005-04:00

In English: The wolves devour the lambs.

This proverb is based on the metaphorical opposition between the wolf and the lamb: the (rapacious, powerful, ruthless) wolves devour the (innocent, meek, powerless) lambs. Because the image of the wolf and the image of the lamb are so powerfully expressive and unambiguous, the proverb is able to speak to us in code, giving us a maxim we can apply to the human world at large. The word "wolf" has even given us a verb of its own in English: to "wolf" your food means to eat it in haste, to gobble or devour it.

What is worth nothing about the Latin phrase Agnos lupi vorant is not so much the words themselves (which are used in a very familiar metaphor), but the word order. In particular, we should note that the the word agnos is in the first position. This gives the word a special emphasis in the sentence. The other emphatic position in the sentence is the final word, vorant. So, by means of the word order, the Latin chooses to give special emphasis to the words agnos and vorant, with the least emphasis being given to the word lupi.

When it comes to the English translation, we are really in trouble as a result, since in English word order is not a matter of style, but a matter of grammar. The subject comes first in an English sentence, and is then followed by the verb which is followed by the object: S-V-O. So, in English we translate the statement, "The wolves eat the lambs," giving the first position the wolves, the word which was least emphatic in the Latin word order.

So, as always in translating, you are faced with a real dilemma. Do you just stick to the grammar? There is no grammar of Latin word order (only style), but in English there is a strict grammar of word order, and the only grammaticaly sentence you can make with these words is, "The wolves devour the lambs." If you wanted to convey the style of the Latin word order, you'd have to use a round-about expression, something like: "It's the lambs whom the wolves devour." Such a long and complicated sentence puts the lambs before the subject and the verb, but the length and complexity of the resulting sentence has not created a stylistic difference that is far removed from the simplicity of the Latin.

As always, then, my recommendation is just not to translate into English. Enjoy the Latin on its own terms for its own sake! Latin puts the word agnos first, as if to say in English, "Oh my gosh: the LAMBS...! The wolves are devouring the lambs." Latin also puts some emphasis on vorant, being in the final position, as if to say in English: "Oh my gosh: the LAMBS...! The wolves are devouring the lambs - not just eating them, DEVOURING them." This is a paraphrase which manages to suggest in English what the Latin is able to convey through the word order. Of course, it would not qualify as a translation for the purposes of an AP Latin exam - but it is what you need to have in mind if you want to have a sense in English of just what the Latin sentence is saying, and how it is choosing to say it.

So, thinking about those poor little lambs, being devoured in the emphatic first position, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1071. Agnos lupi vorant.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

A deo est omnis medela

2009-03-17T10:40:00.004-04:00

In English: All healing is from God.

Today's proverb comes from the book of the Bible which is called Ecclesiasticus in the Vulgate, not to be confused with the book of Ecclesiastes!

The word Ecclesiastes is a Greek noun adopted into Latin, meaning a member of the assembly (traditional Greek usage) or a member of the "church" (Christian usage gave the Greek word "ekklesia" a new sense related to the assembly of believers). When the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, was prepared, the book of the Hebrew Bible called Qohelet was rendered in Greek as Ecclesiastes. Then, in the Vulgate Bible, the Greek name of the book was transliterated into Roman characters, rather than being translated into an actual Latin word. Jerome had argued that the book should be called Concionator (a translation of the Latin word), but Jerome's suggestion met with no success and the word concionator failed to become part of the Christian Latin vocabulary.

What, then, about Ecclesiasticus? This is a non-canonical book of the Bible, but it has a special status among those non-canonical books, as reflected in the name itself. The Latin word ecclesiasticus is an adjective, meaning "belonging to the church (ecclesia)," and it was a name bestowed on this book of the Bible by the early Latin Fathers of the Church in acknowledgment of the fact that passages from this book were widely known and also used in church worship services. So, even though the book is not part of the Bible, it came to be called "the church book," Ecclesiasticus, among the Latin fathers, and was even included in the canon of Epiphanius.

Before it acquired the name Ecclesiasticus, however, this book was known by another name: The Wisdom of Ben-Sira, or The Wisdom of the Son of Sira. In Greek, it was called simply Sirach (the final "ch" being added to the name to indicate its Hebrew origin, even though the "ch" is not part of the Hebrew spelling of the name). The early Latin versions of the book followed this same convention, calling the book Sirach.

Yet who was the "Son of Sira"? In some versions of the title, his name is given as the Hebrew name Yeshua, which is Jesus in Latin, so the book has this title in the Vulgate: Liber Iesu filii Sirach, which is to say, The Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach.

Confusing enough? You will indeed find this book referred to by all manner of titles in English, sometimes based on the Hebrew or Greek or Latin. So: Ecclesiasticus, Ben Sira, Sira, Sirach, Ben Sirach (a rather bizarre amalgam of Hebrew and Greek!), Siracides (a Greek neologism meaning "son of Sirac"), Wisdom of Ben Sira, and Wisdom of Jesus son of Sira.

What is really important, of course, is what an AMAZING book this is. Given my own interest in proverbs and wisdom literature, this is one of my own favorite books of the Bible. If you have never read through this book of the Bible, it is definitely worth your attention. There is a parallel edition of Sirach at Sacred Texts with Greek, Latin, and English (the book was originally written in Hebrew, but a complete Hebrew text has not survived, although major portions of the Hebrew text have been recovered from the famous Cairo Geniza). You can also read more about the background of the book in this Wikipedia article, and also in this article from the Catholic Encyclopedia online.

So, as a sample of the "wisdom of the son of Sira," here is today's proverb read out loud:

505. A deo est omnis medela

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Calidum et frigidum ex eodem ore efflat

2009-03-17T00:30:00.002-04:00

In English: He blows hot and cold from the same mouth.

Yes, I'm back blogging here again. I finally figured out how to salvage the old posts from this blog and to start adding new ones again (details here if you are curious). To get back into the swing of things, I'm going to work my way through the proverbs that are included in the Aesop's Fables in Latin book that just came out - it's got around 130 proverbs interspersed with the fables (list of proverbs here).

The one I picked out for today about blowing hot and cold out of the same mouth can be found in Erasmus's Adagia (1.8.30) and goes with the Aesop's fable of the satyr who found a man frozen in the snow. Here's one version of that story in Latin:

Satyrus Viatorem, nive obrutum atque algore enectum, misertus ducit in antrum suum. Refocillantem manus anhelitu oris percontatur causam; “Ut calefiant,” inquit. Postea, cum accumberent, sufflat Viator in polentam. Quod cur ita faceret interrogatus “Ut frigescat,” inquit. Tunc continuo Satyrus Viatorem eiiciens: “Nolo (inquit) in meo ut sis antro, cui tam diversum est os.”

The Satyr took pity on a traveller who was overwhelmed by snow and laid low by ice, and led the man into his cave. As the man warmed his hands by blowing on them with his mouth, the satyr asked why he did this, and the man said, "To warm them." Then when they sat down to dinner, the traveller blew on his porridge. Asked why he did this, he said, "To cool it." Then straightaway the Satyr threw the traveller out, saying, "I don't want you to be in my cave, since your mouth goes this way and that way."

When the satyr thinks that the man can blow hot and cold from the same mouth, it terrifies him. Yet it is also worth noting a quite different use of the same metaphorical materials in the Bible, from the Book of Revelation. In Chapter 3, this is the message to be addressed to the church in Laodicea:

Scio opera tua: quia neque frigidus es, neque calidus: utinam frigidus esses, aut calidus: sed quia tepidus es, et nec frigidus, nec calidus, incipiam te evomere ex ore meo.

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

So, you can see there are perils in both directions - you need to beware of people who blow both hot and cold... and also to beware of people so tepid that they don't blow one way or the other.

1286. Calidum et frigidum ex eodem ore efflat.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest

2008-12-01T15:20:00.000-05:00

In English: The rooster can do plenty in his own dungheap.

Since there are so many sayings about the animals and their characteristics, I thought it would be good to include this saying which emphasizes not just the characteristics of an animal, but also the animal's environment. The rooster can do plenty in his own dungheap - but beyond that, he is just a rooster, nothing more. So, while on his own dungheap, the rooster can crow as loudly as he likes, but if you take him away from his precious dungheap, he won't have much to crow about!

The irony, of course, is that what is to the rooster a mighty kingdom is, in our estimation, a pile of dung, a sterquilinium in Latin (also spelled sterculinium and stercilinium), from the noun stercus, meaning "dung, manure." You can get a sense of importance of dung in the Roman vocabulary from the many compounds of this word: such as the verb stercoro, the noun stercoratio, and the adjectives stercorarius and stercorosus. When something was stercorosus, "full of manure," this could actually be a good thing - a field that was well manured was a fine thing, after all! Still, it's not somewhere you would probably want to live - even though that is the kind of place where the rooster of today's proverb proudly makes his home.

The saying is used famously by Seneca in his satire on the death of the Emperor Claudius, the Apocolocyntosis. When Claudius finds himself facing the mighty hero Hercules, he realizes that he is in big trouble:

Claudius ut vidit virum valentem, oblitus nugarum intellexit neminem Romae sibi parem fuisse, illic non habere se idem gratiae: gallum in suo sterquilino plurimum posse.

When Claudius saw the mighty hero, he forgot the silly words [he had just spoken] and realized that while no man had been a match for him at Rome, here in this place, he did not have the same influence: the rooster can do plenty in his own dungheap.

Mocking the Emperor Claudius as nothing more than a crowing rooster lately of the dungheap known as Rome fits in perfectly with Seneca's sharp and even vicious satirical agenda in this amazing work of literature. Intrigued? You can find the full text in Latin online, and in English, too!

Meanwhile, hoping that you are happily crowing in whatever environment you may find yourself in, here is today's proverb read out loud:

2157. Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Pardus maculas non deponit

2008-11-30T14:57:00.000-05:00

In English: The leopard does not set aside his spots.

Yesterday's saying warned us that even when the wolf changes his appearance, he is still a wolf inside (lupus pilum mutat, non mentem). Today's saying tackles the same dilemma from a different angle: Pardus maculas non deponit, which is to say that a leopard is always going to be a leopard, no matter what he claims or promises or swears to the contrary. So, if you are tempted to think that a leopard can change his spots, think otherwise! This is not a situation you are likely to encounter in a literal sense, but you might encounter it metaphorically, like when an alcoholic swears to you that he is going to get sober, or when a womanizer swears he will be faithful and true. You can be optimistic and hope for the best, or you can accept the more cynical advice of this proverb, which tells you not to expect any change.

This is the metaphorical sense of the saying as it appears in the text of the Bible, in the Book of Jeremiah 13: Si mutare potest Aethiops pellem suam, aut pardus varietates suas, et vos poteritis benefacere, cum didiceritis malum, "If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, you also will be able to do good, even though you have learned to do evil." Jeremiah is taunting his audience, of course - just as no one expects the Ethiopian to change the color of his skin or the leopard to change the color of its spots, so too the people who have learned to do evil will not begin to do good.

You might notice the different word used for the leopard's spots: maculas, in today's saying, and varietates in the Bible passage. This seems to be a case where the Latin text of the Bible, with its varietates, is following the Septuagint rather closely, ποικίλματα. The word macula, however, which means "spot" or "stain," is much better suited for the metaphorical implications of the saying, that the leopard's spots are a sign of something dangerous or bad, something that probably should be changed, even if the leopard himself is not going to do so. The macula that you see there is just what Mary was born without, thanks to the Im-maculate Conception, the conception that allowed her to be born without the stain of original sin. For a less lofty use of Latin macula, consider the "macchiato" you can buy at Starbucks: the Italian macchiato is from the Latin maculatum, spotted - just as the "macchiato" traditionally comes with a dollop or spot of milk.

So, hoping you have had yourself at least one good cup of coffee today, maculated or otherwise, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1661. Pardus maculas non deponit.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Liber inops servo divite felicior

2008-11-28T14:12:00.001-05:00

In English: A free man without wealth is happier than a rich servant.

I thought this saying about the dangerous attractions of wealth would make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb about the difference between money and true wealth: Neminem pecunia divitem fecit, "Money has never made anyone wealthy." Today's saying expresses the same paradoxical idea in slightly different terms: wealth, if it comes at the price of enslavement, is no wealth at all, and the only true wealth is freedom. Therefore, the man who is free, albeit poor, is more fortunate than a servant or a slave who is wealthy.

This is a sentiment that is near and dear to my heart, since many years ago I decided it was much better to abandon the career path I was on and to choose instead a greater freedom. The income I've ended up with is lower, indeed, but the freedom is priceless, and looking back on the choice now almost ten years later, I would not change a thing!

This saying is traditionally associated with one of the fables of Phaedrus, the story of the dog and the wolf. Although the words themselves are not part of the poem itself, they have often been adopted as a kind of "epigram" for the fable, as you can see in this edition of Phaedrus published in 1738 and in this schoolboys' edition of Phaedrus from 1808, in which there are numbers to the side of each line telling the reader in which order to construe the Latin in order to come up with a word order more like that of English!

As for the fable of the wolf and the dog, it is one of my favorites, and was the first Aesop's fable I created at the Tar Heel Reader site. So, you can read an illustrated version of the fable at Tar Heel (including a bilingual Latin-English version); here is the text of the fable as I told it there:

Ecce Lupus! Ecce silva! Lupus domum habet in silva. Lupus in silva cibum quaerit. Non multum cibum invenit. Lupus macer est. Quam macer Lupus est!
Ecce Canis! Canis domum habet in urbe. Canis Domino servit. Dominus cibum Cani dat. Dominus multum cibum Cani dat. Canis pinguis est. Quam pinguis Canis est!
Canis Lupo occurrit:
CANIS: Salve, amice!
LUPUS: Salve, amice! Miratus sum: quam pinguis es tu! Cibum semper quaero, sed saepe non invenio. Unde tantum cibum habes tu?
CANIS: Dominus meus cibum mihi dat. Cibum mihi dat de mensa sua!
LUPUS: Sed video in collo tuo cicatrices. Unde cicatrices in collo habes?
CANIS: Mi amice, hoc nihil est. Interdum me alligant catena. Catena cicatrices mihi in collo facit.
LUPUS: Quam miser es tu, Canis! Cibum habes. Sed cibus servitutis est. Vale, mi amice! Volo vivere in libertate, non in servitute.

As you can see, I've tried to make the story as simple as possible - in my opinion, this is a lesson that someone is never too young to learn!

So, hoping you are making the best use of your own freedom at this moment, here is today's proverb read out loud:

697. Liber inops servo divite felicior.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Neminem pecunia divitem fecit

2008-11-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

In English: Money has never made anyone wealthy.

After yesterday's proverb about straw and gold, I thought these wise words about wealth and money would make a good follow-up. The words are found in one of Seneca's letters to Lucilius (CXIX ), and there is much to be learned from Seneca's other observations in this same letter.

Seneca begins by insisting that the basic laws of nature are enough and that nature herself teaches us that a simple life is good enough: Esurio: edendum est; utrum hic panis sit plebeius an siligineus ad naturam nihil pertinet - illa ventrem non delectari vult sed impleri, "I hunger: something must be eaten; whether it coarse bread or fancy white bread makes no difference to nature - she does not want for the stomach to be delighted but for it to be filled." (That is a very nice echo of the donkey who prefers straw and gold.)

In short, if you are hungry, you eat whatever will fill your stomach: Nihil contemnit esuriens, "A hungry man scorns nothing."

Seneca then puts this question to Lucilius in general terms: Utrum mavis habere multum an satis?, "Would you prefer to have much, or to have enough?" Seneca then proceeds to show that the only logical response is to wish for satis. To wish for much is inevitably to wish for more, and so on in an endless cycle of dis-satis-faction: Qui multum habet plus cupit, quod est argumentum nondum illum satis habere; qui satis habet consecutus est quod numquam diviti contigit, finem, "He who has much desires more, which is a sign that he does not have enough yet; he who has enough has attained something that never happens to the rich man: the end." That is, someone who has enough has reached the end of wanting, while the man with much, who thinks it is not enough, keeps endlessly wanting more and more.

Seneca then invokes Alexander the Great as the emblem of the unnatural man, the one who keeps wanting and wanting without an end in sight. Alexander could never reach the limits of his quest, while nature knows how to stay within her boundaries: Quod naturae satis est homini non est, "What is enough for nature is not enough for man." The unnatural power of money then brings Seneca around to our saying for today: Neminem pecunia divitem fecit, immo contra nulli non maiorem sui cupidinem incussit, "Money has never made anyone wealthy; rather, on the contrary, money never instills other than a greater craving for itself."

If you'd like to read more (the letter is full of all kinds of wise and witty observations about getting and having), you can find the whole epistle online both in Latin and in English, too!

Meanwhile, hoping you are truly satis-fied with what you have already in your life, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3315. Neminem pecunia divitem fecit.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Asinus stramen mavult quam aurum

2008-11-26T13:22:00.002-05:00

In English: A donkey prefers straw to gold.

I thought I would carry on with the theme of donkeys as in the past several days, with this fascinating little proverb about how the donkey literally wants straw more than he wants (mavult = magis vult) gold. There are actually two quite different ways to interpret this saying. So, before you read any farther, asks yourself what you think is the meaning of such a saying: A donkey prefers straw to gold.

One way to take the saying is to assume that it is about the donkey's foolishness. The idea, then, is that the donkey is so foolish that he prefers straw, which is of little value, to gold, which is of great value. The poor donkey doesn't recognize the value of the gold, however, because of his limited experience and even more limited intelligence. The donkey knows that he can eat the straw which, in its immediacy, is all that matters to him. The fact that the gold is precious and can be used for many purposes, escapes his comprehension entirely.

Yet it also must be admitted than you cannot eat gold. So, the donkey can be looked upon as a positive and practical hero, who knows that having something to eat is of primary importance. Getting something to eat, even simple fare such as straw, must come first. Gold implies luxury and adornment and extravagance, all of which are things you don't need. You need to eat, so be satisfied with the straw that you have, and don't go wasting your time and effort on something like gold, literally understood as inedible metal, or gold as a symbol of wealth, and especially wealth in excess.

Personally, I like the interpretation that takes the side of the donkey and praises him for wisely rejecting riches and preferring a solid meal instead. For a fable that illustrates the same idea unambiguously - although with mules instead of donkeys - look at the different fates of the two animals, one of whom carries a load of humble barley, while the other carries a load of money (Phaedrus):

Muli gravati sarcinis ibant duo:
unus ferebat fiscos cum pecunia,
alter tumentis multo saccos hordeo.
ille onere dives celsa cervice eminens,
clarumque collo iactans tintinabulum;
comes quieto sequitur et placido gradu.
subito latrones ex insidiis advolant,
interque caedem ferro ditem sauciant:
diripiunt nummos, neglegunt vile hordeum.
spoliatus igitur casus cum fleret suos,
"Equidem" inquit alter "me contemptum gaudeo;
nam nil amisi, nec sum laesus vulnere".
Hoc argumento tuta est hominum tenuitas,
magnae periclo sunt opes obnoxiae.

For an English translation, here's Christopher Smart's version:

Two laden Mules were on the road-
A charge of money was bestowed
Upon the one, the other bore
Some sacks of barley. He before.
Proud of his freight, begun to swell,
Stretch'd out his neck, and shook his bell
The poor one, with an easy pace,
Came on behind a little space,
When on a sudden, from the wood
A gang of thieves before them stood;
And, while the muleteers engage,
Wound the poor creature in their rage
Eager they seize the golden prize,
But the vile barley-bags despise.
The plunder'd mule was all forlorn,
The other thank'd them for their scorn:
" 'Tis now my turn the head to toss,
Sustaining neither wound nor loss."
The low estate's from peril clear,
But wealthy men have much to fear.

As you can see, the fable comes down strongly on the side of the humble creature content with barley-bags, rather than with a golden prize!

So, hoping that today you are enjoying plenty of whatever you prefer, whether it be straw or gold (or some of both!), here is the proverb read out loud:

2268. Asinus stramen mavult quam aurum.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

In quo nascetur asinus corio morietur

2008-11-25T12:24:00.000-05:00

In English: The donkey will die in the skin in which he's born.

I thought this saying about the donkey and his skin would make a good follow-up to the fable yesterday about the donkeys who tried to improve their lot in life by wearing lion skins. That fable illustrated the general idea that suam quisque pellem portat, "each carries his own skin," while today's saying is more specific about the fate of the donkey in particular, who has no hope at all of changing his skin throughout his long life of toil and trouble. As often in the world of fables and proverbs, the donkey stands here for anyone who lives the life of a servant or a slave, working hard at someone else's command, bearing other people's burdens, and being whipped and cudgeled along the way.

As you can see from the rhyming form of the proverb, In quo nascetur asinus corio morietur, the saying is medieval in origin. Unlike the classical Latin authors, who rejected rhyme as a literary device, the medieval authors embraced rhyme whole-heartedly, which is one of the many things that I enjoy about medieval Latin literature. In the case of this saying, the desire to rhyme was so strong that it swept the word for "being born" into the future tense, nascetur, in order to rhyme with morietur, when you probably would have expected a present tense nascitur, or the perfect natus est. In classical Latin poetry, of course, many things happen metri causa, "for the sake of the meter," so we could say here that the verb form has been chosen rhythmi causa, "for the sake of the rhyme." There is also meter at work in this saying as well, since it is a Leonine verse, which features internal rhyme within a dactylic hexameter. This verse can be read as a dactylic hexameter provided you admit the license that lets the syllable before the caesura be taken as long (understandably, if you imagine a true pause at the caesura): In quō nascētur || asinus coriō moriētur.

For a fable about the donkey's skin in which he is born and dies and in which he suffers even after death, consider this sad little fable by Phaedrus:

Qui natus est infelix, non vitam modo
tristem decurrit, verum post obitum quoque
persequitur illum dura fati miseria.
Galli Cybebes circum in quaestus ducere
asinum solebant, baiulantem sarcinas.
Is cum labore et plagis esset mortuus,
detracta pelle sibi fecerunt tympana.
Rogati mox a quodam, delicio suo
quidnam fecissent, hoc locuti sunt modo:
"Putabat se post mortem securum fore:
ecce aliae plagae congeruntur mortuo!"

For an English version, here is one by Christopher Smart:

The luckless wretch that's born to woe
Must all his life affliction know-
And harder still, his cruel fate
Will on his very ashes wait,
Cybele's priests, in quest of bread,
An Ass about the village led,
With things for sale from door to door;
Till work'd and beaten more and more,
At length, when the poor creature died,
They made them drums out of his hide.
Then question'd "how it came to pass
They thus could serve ther darling Ass?"
The answer was, " He thought of peace
In death, and that his toils would cease;
But see his mis'ry knows no bounds,
Still with our blows his back resounds."

The fable tells us that not only will the donkey die in the skin in which he is born, even after death he will no know peace.

So, hoping that the skin in which you find yourself is a more fortunate skin than that of the donkey, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3253. In quo nascetur asinus corio morietur.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Suam quisque pellem portat

2008-11-24T11:58:00.000-05:00

In English: Each carries his own skin.

Following up on yesterday's sayings about staying inside your own skin (in propria pelle quiesce), I thought this would be a good follow-up saying. The idea is basically the same: each person carries his own skin and, by implication, you will get into big trouble if you try to carry someone else's skin instead!

Aesop's fables abound in examples of animals who try to act like some other animal and get into trouble as a result. For a literal example of an animal who gets in trouble by wearing the skin of another animal, the most famous example is surely that of the donkey who wore a lion's skin. There are many variations on this story - so much so that Perry, in his index of the Aesopic fables, grouped the variations under two different numbers: Perry 188 and Perry 358.

My own personal favorite of the many versions of the donkey in the lion's skin is the one by Odo of Cheriton which I find especially charming because it features a mass action by the donkeys! Here you see not just one donkey, but many donkeys who have decided to improve their situation in life by donning the skins of lions:

Asini viderunt quod homines male et dure tractaverunt eos, stimulando, onera imponendo. Viderunt etiam quod timuerunt Leones. Condixerunt ad invicem quod acciperent pelles leoninas et sic homines timerent illos. Fecerunt sic. Asini igitur, induti pellibus leoninis, saltabant, discurrebant. Homines fugerunt, credentes esse Leones. Tandem Asini inceperunt recanare. Homines diligenter auscultaverunt et dixerunt: Vox ista vox Asinorum est; accedamus proprius. Accesserunt tandem; viderunt caudas illorum et pedes et dixerunt: Certe isti sunt Asini, non Leones, et ceperunt Asinos et multum bene verberaverunt.

For a segmented version of the Latin making it easier to read, see the Latin Via Fables blog. Meanwhile, here is an English translation:

The donkeys saw that men treated them harshly and badly, whipping them and putting loads on their backs. In addition, they saw that men were afraid of lions. So they agreed among themselves that they would put on lion skins and then the men would be afraid of them. That is what the donkeys did. Having thus donned the lion skins, the donkeys leaped about and ran here and there. The men fled, thinking they were lions. Finally, the donkeys began to bray. The men listened carefully and said: That sound is the sound of donkeys; let's get closer! Eventually they got close enough to see their tails and their feet and they said: Surely these are donkeys, not lions! And They began to beat the donkeys, and they did beat them very badly indeed.

You have to feel sorry for the poor donkeys: it was a disaster when they wore the skins of the lions, but at the same time, it was no picnic wearing their own skin to begin with.

So, hoping you are not feeling as overburdened as one of the poor donkeys in the fable, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1279. Suam quisque pellem portat.

For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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

Edentulus vescentium dentibus invidet

2008-11-22T10:37:00.000-05:00

In English: The poor toothless person envies the teeth of the diners.

I thought this proverb about the poor little man without any teeth, edentulus, would make a good follow-up to yesterday's fable about the monkey who didn't have any tail to use to cover its bare behind. Just as the monkey was envious of the fox's long, bushy tail, in this saying, the poor man without any teeth envies the teeth of the people who are eating.

The word edentulus is a real Latin gem, and impossible to render in English. We do have the word "toothless," so that is a start, but the Latin word edentulus is, in addition to meaning "toothless," a diminutive noun, which is generally something impossible to render in English. I've added the word "poor" to the English translation above ("the poor toothless person"), but that is still not quite the same as the magic of the Latin diminutive, which is able to convey that subtle connotation within the very word edentulus itself.

The very term "diminutive" in English misleads us about the wide-ranging expressive power of the diminutive form in Latin. Sometimes, of course, it does refer to something small, in a physical sense of smallness. A corpusculum is a tiny corpus, a "tiny body," which is where we get the English word corpuscle. A musculus is a tiny mus, a "tiny mouse," which is where we get the English word muscle (since a muscle rippling beneath your skin reminded someone of a mouse running!).

Yet the more important uses of the diminutive are metaphorical, rather than simply literal. In a positive sense, the diminutive is a term of endearment. You can see it in the affectionate term for the mother's brother in Latin, the avunculus, which gives us the English word uncle (unlike the Latin word for the father's brother in Latin, the severe and strict uncle: patruus). You can see the diminutives of Latin mel, "honey," melliculum and melculum, used much like we use the word "honey" as a term of affection, but they are all the more endearing in Latin because of the diminutive form. It's not a "little honey" in terms of physical smallness or a small quantity, but instead in the sense of expressing affection.

Yet the diminutive can also be used in a negative sense, indicating something that is small in value, something that is paltry or trifling or deficient in some way. That is the case with the poor edentulus in today's saying: he is not a literally a small person, but metaphorically he is poor and paltry, someone who might deserve our pity although, the in the harshness of the Roman world, could also be someone who merits scorn for his defects.

So, whenever you encounter a Latin diminutive you have to decide just what sense it conveys in its context: does it refer literally to something small, or to something positive and endearing, or to something negative and paltry? If you are going to attempt to render the diminutive Latin word with an English word or phrase, you will need to know just what kind of diminutive you are dealing with to being with!

So, hoping you are happily "toothful" both literally and metaphorically, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3708. Edentulus vescentium dentibus invidet.

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Quaelibet vulpes caudam suam laudat

2008-11-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

In English: Every fox praises its own tail.

There are many Latin sayings about self-regard - cuique suum, "to each his own" - and so on, but of course what I like about this particular version of that idea is that it involves the fox and its tail. Not only is this an animal proverb, which of course is something that meets with my approval (being a fan of animal proverbs), but "the fox's tail," in particular, is a wonderful folklore motif. Foxes do have quite lovely, bushy tails, and given that foxes are notable for their fine tails, the tail of the fox appears as a motif in two very funny Aesop's fables: the story of the fox and the monkey, and the story of the fox who lost its tail. The story of the fox that lost its tail you can read elsewhere; what I wanted to share today here is the story of the fox and the monkey, which is not a very well-known fable - but it deserves to be better known, I think! As you will see, the prominent use of the word "butt" in the fable has led to it being cast out of the traditional children's canon of fables, alas.

The fable of the fox and the monkey makes its first appearance in the Phaedrus tradition as the first poem in the so-called Perotti Appendix, although it also appears in the medieval Phaedrus paraphrases, including this medieval rhyming version in Goliardic stanzas (you can read the rhyming lines to the tune of "Yankee Doodle," while the final line of each stanza is a dactylic hexamter):

Turpis quondam Simia Vulpi supplicavit
Pro caudae particula, dicens quod optavit
Nates nudas tegere, quas pudens portavit.
Sed Vulpes misere poscenti cuncta negavit.
Ait Vulpi Simia: Multum praegravaris
Caudae longitudine, dum currens vagaris.
Obsecro particulam mihi largiaris,
Vt velox factus currens citius movearis.
Cui Vulpes: Hoc utinam tanto longaretur,
Vt prae magnitudine vix sublevaretur,
Et iam grossa fieret quod vix portaretur!
Quamvis sic esset, tibi pars hic nulla daretur.
Here's an English translation: Once upon a time, the ugly monkey begged the fox for a tiny bit of the fox's tail, saying that she wanted to cover her bare behind which shamefully was her burden. But the fox completely refused the monkey's wretched request. The monkey said to the fox: "But you are badly weighed down by the length of a tail when you are wandering around on the run. I ask that you give me a tiny part of your tail, so that you would become more speedy, moving more quickly as you run about." The fox replied: "If only my tail could be even longer so that on account of its greatness it could barely be lifted off the ground, and so gigantic that it could scarcely be carried! Even if it were so, no part of it would thus be given to you!"

As you can find in the fable tradition, despite the grammatical gender of the fox as feminine, the fox in our fable here is case as masculine (velox factus), which also happens in some Latin versions of the fox who lost its tail in a trap (where the foxes address each other as fraterculi, brethren). The fable is thus not cast as a swipe at female vanity in particular, but at the vanity that afflicts us all: despite the feminine gender of the fox in Latin, the saying Quaelibet vulpes caudam suam laudat is not just an indictment of the ladies!

So, hoping you are enjoying healthy self-regard today without, however, going to extremes, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1300. Quaelibet vulpes caudam suam laudat.

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Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulixes

2008-11-20T23:55:00.000-05:00

In English: Ulysses was not handsome, but he was good with words.

Since yesterday's proverb was warning us about people to watch out for because of their occasional falsehoods, I figured Odysseus was a great character to look at as a case in point. Odysseus is famous as a teller of fabulous fictions and outright lies, and managed to save his life more than once as a result... thanks to the gullibility of his antagonists.

What this proverb focuses on is that while Odysseus was not good to look (not "shapely," formosus), he was a great talked, facundus, from the same root as the verb for, fari, "to speak" (as in fatum, the thing "spoken" in the sense of divine destiny, and in fama, "oral rumor, report"). Over and over again in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, we see Odysseus put his crafty speaking skills to good use, most famously when he spins his tales for Alcinous after being shipwrecked among the Phaeacians.

In fact, one of the funniest moments that I remember from graduate school is going to a symposium on Homer, and watching a graduate student presenting a paper be simply thunderstruck, completely stupefied and taken aback, by the idea that Odysseus was not telling the truth in the tales he told about the Cyclops and the Sirens and all his other outrageous adventures. Someone in the audience asked a casual question about Odysseus's "lies" at the court of Alcinous, and she had simply never even pondered the possibility that Odysseus was lying, telling tall tales for the benefit of his audience. So, even at a distance of thousands of years, we could see that Homer's Odysseus was still able to cast his spell, making this graduate student believe that insofar as Odysseus was a real character, he had really experienced all those adventures on his way to the court of Alcinous.

As for the Latin here, it comes from Ovid's Ars Amatoria; here is the complete couplet:

Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulixes,
Et tamen aequoreas torsit amore deas.

Ulysses was not handsome, but he was good with words, and he still set the watery goddesses afire with love.

Ah, those aequoreae deae, like fair Calypso... Odysseus was one of those fellows with a goddess in every port no doubt! So, in honor of those two great wordsmiths Odysseus and Ovid, here is today's proverb read out loud:

2314. Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulixes

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Falsum in uno, falsum in toto

2008-11-19T23:15:00.001-05:00

In English: False in one thing, false in the whole thing.

I thought this would be a good saying to follow up on yesterday's saying about faith and falsehood. You can find this saying in various versions. Sometimes, for example, you can find the masculine singular falsus instead of the neuter singular falsum, and instead of the in uno - in tuto contrast, you can also find in uno - in omnibus. In all cases, the basic idea is the same: if something or something is false in one thing, then it (or he) is false in the whole thing (or in every thing). A similar saying is not about what is falsum, but instead someone who is malus, and the question is not of amount, but about time: Semel malus, semper malus, "Once bad, always bad."

Both of these sayings provide good advice, warning you to be on your guard at the least sign of impropriety, it is also what is called a "logical fallacy" (and yes, English "fallacy" is from the same root as the word falsum which is at issue in the proverb - ironic, yes?). The saying asserts that something which is partly false is completely false, and that someone who is bad once is always bad, although of course you know in your own experience that this is not true. Just think of some little white lie that you have told, or when you have acted badly... well, you know that just because you told a white lie, you are still capable of telling the truth, and that if you acted badly once, that does not mean you act badly all the time. Hence the fallacy: something that is partially false is not a vote of endorsement for the whole, but it is not proof (yet) that the whole thing is false, and one misdeed is not a complete indictment of someone's bad character. You can read more about this and related logical fallacies in this Wikipedia article.

Of course, in the world of proverbs, logical rigor is usually not what is at stake. After all, proverbs are not philosophy in the academic sense of the word. Instead, the proverbs are wisdom that comes from the everyday situations of life. Sure, it's not always true that someone who tells one lie is always lying, or that someone who can be bad is always going to be bad... but at the same time, you know you might regret putting your trust in anything or anyone that is even slightly suspicious.

So, hoping you have avoided all falsehoods and all fallacies today, here are the proverbs read out loud:

833. Falsum in uno, falsum in toto.

44. Semel malus, semper malus.

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Qui leviter credit, deceptus saepe redit

2008-11-18T22:28:00.003-05:00

In English: He who is quick to believe often ends up deceived.

In the spirit of the rhyming proverbs of the past couple of days, I thought I would including another rhyming one for today: Qui leviter credit, deceptus saepe redit. Plus, I managed to find a more or less adequate rhyming version in English: "He who is quick to believe often ends up deceived." There's also a variant version in Latin, where this thing does not happen "often" but rather "soon" - Qui leviter credit, deceptus cito recedit, "He who is quick to believe, soon goes away, having been deceived."

In the marvelous wook by Heinrich Bebel, Proverbia Germanica, we can find some variants in the form of couplets. Here's one that says it is the young who are likely to make this mistake, while old men have learned better:

Qui cito crediderit, falletur saepe, levisque
Est cordis: raro fallitur ipse senex.

English: He who soon believes, will often be deceived, and is a mental lightweight: an old man, however, is rarely deceived.

In this variation, the key is to trust only a few - the trouble comes not so much from trusting too quickly but from trusting too many:

Nemo decipitur nisi qui confidit, et ergo
Paucis confidens hic sapienter agit.

English: No one is deceived unless he puts his trust in something, and therefore he acts wisely who puts his trust in few.

This idea of trusting only a few rather than many is also the focus of this couplet:

Nemo decipitur, nisi qui vult fidere multis:
Hinc penitus paucis fidere quisque velit.

English: No one is deceived, unless he is willing to put his trust in many people; henceforth, let each person agree to thoroughly trust only a few people.

This saying takes up the idea of trustly too quickly and combines it with the peril of believing everything:

Nusquam tuta fides; non omnibus omnia credas;
Falletur subito, qui cito crediderit.

English: Trust is never secure; you should not believe everything that everybody says; he who believes quickly will soon be deceived.

This variation warns that even your friends can be the problem:

Qui leviter notis nimium confidit amicis,
Fallitur, et cordis dicitur esse levis.

English: He who is quick to put too much faith in familiar friends gets fooled, and can be said to be a mental light-weight.

As all these versions attest, this is clearly a saying that has had a strong appeal to Latin rhymesters and versifiers over the ages! Meanwhile, if you have never explored Bebel's amazing book, you can browse through it in all its glory here at GoogleBooks, all 600+ pages of it!

So, hoping you have successfully navigated the dilemma of "to believe or not believe?" today, here is the proverb read out loud:

3524. Qui leviter credit, deceptus saepe redit.

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Ora et labora, deus adest sine mora

2008-11-17T21:30:00.000-05:00

In English: Work and pray; God will aid you without delay.

After yesterday's rhyming proverb, I thought it would be fun to do another rhyming proverb, especially since for this one, it's easy to make it rhyme in English, too! Ora et labora, deus adest sine mora, "Work and pray; God will aid you without delay."

Now, to be fair to people who worry about Latin vowel length, the rhyme is not exact, because mora has a short "o," and the "o" in labōra is long. In the Middle Ages, however, the distinctions between long and short vowels were not observed as they were in ancient Rome - so the rhymes of medieval Latin are not constrained by classical vowel length.

The rhyming phrase Ora et labora, "Pray and work," is also well-known on its own, and is especially associated with the monastic rule of Saint Benedict although it does not actually appear in the text of the rule. Interestingly, however, it appears that the motto only became associated with the Order of Saint Benedict in the 19th century, based on a book by Maurus Wolter.

If you're curious about the rule of Saint Benedict, you can find the text online at the Latin Library: Regula S. P. N. Benedicti (where S.P.N. stands for Sanctissimi Patris Nostri). Even if the saying ora et labora is not found here in the rule, the sentiments expressed are nevertheless very similar indeed, as in this declaration: Otiositas inimica est animae, et ideo certis temporibus occupari debent fratres in labore manuum, certis iterum horis in lectione divina, "Being unoccupied is a danger to the soul, and therefore at some times the brethren should be occupied in manual labor, while at other times in reading of scripture." Given the stress placed here on reading the scriptures, it is not surprising to find, in addition to the motto Ora et Labora, this variant: Ora et Labora et Lege, "Pray and Work and Read." Indeed, Pope Benedict XVI himself invoked this motto in a recent homily.

So, hoping you have have managed to escape the perils of otiositas today, here is the proverb read out loud:

2356. Ora et labora, deus adest sine mora.

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Sine labore non erit panis in ore

2008-11-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

In English: Without work there will be no bread in your mouth.

I thought this proverb about man's life of labor would be a good follow-up to yesterday's saying from Job about how man is born to a life of labor, ad laborem. Today's saying explains that work is required if you want to have bread to eat and, even better, the saying rhymes: Sine labore non erit panis in ore.

Of course, there are other proverbs about how nothing can be accomplished sine labore - Nihil sine labore, "Nothing without labor," Nil sine labore paratur, "Nothing is produced without labor," Nulla res magna sine labore venit, "No great thing happens without labor" - but none of those others have the charm of the rhyme to sweeten the sad truth of the saying.

An Aesop's fable that illustrates the truth of this saying is the famous story of the ant and the grasshopper, and I used this saying as a moral for my Tar Heel version of that fable. You can see the illustrations at Tar Heel; meanwhile, here is the text of the fable as I told it in Latin:

Ecce Formica! Formica negotiosa est, et prudens. In aestate, Formica laborat, colligens frumentum. Collectum frumentum trahit in cavernam suam. Cibum reponit in aestate ut comedat in hieme.
Ecce Cicada! Cicada otiosa est, et imprudens. In aestate, Cicada cantat et non laborat.
Sed mox tempus hiemis advenit cum magno frigore. Formica in caverna sua manet, comedens cibum suum. Sed Cicada cibum non habet.
Auxilium quaerens, Cicada venit ad Formicae ianuam. Famelica Cicada clamat: "O Formica, te imploro da mihi cibum! Copiam habes tu, et ego nihil. Fame iam moritura sum!"
Sed Formica Cicadam interrogat: "Ego tota aestate laborabam colligens frumentum. Dum ego sic laborabam, quid agebas tu?"
Cicada respondet: "Per flores errabam et per gramina. Carmina cantabam omnibus, gratis. Hoc erat mihi opus aestivum."
Formica ridet et ianuam claudit: "Si aestate cantabas hieme nunc salta!" Fabula docet: Sine labore non erit panis in ore.

For an English translation, check out the bilingual version at Tar Heel.

Meanwhile, hoping your bread today has been sweet and your labors not too harsh, here is the proverb read out loud:

2646. Sine labore non erit panis in ore

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Homo ad laborem natus est et avis ad volatum

2008-11-15T20:26:00.001-05:00

In English: A man is born to work and a bird to fly.

Since the proverbs for the past few days have been about birds where the birds are metaphors for different kinds of people, I thought it would be good to move on to this saying where the fundamental difference between men and birds is highlighted: men labor by tilling the ground down here, while birds fly high up in the sky above.

The saying is Biblical, and comes from the Book of Job, which reads as following in the Vulgate: Homo nascitur ad laborem, et avis ad volatum. Yet when you look at the King James version, you find something quite different: "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." The Septugaint gives yet another rendering: ἀλλὰ ἄνθρωπος γεννᾶται κόπῳ νεοσσοὶ δὲ γυπὸς τὰ ὑψηλὰ πέτονται, "but man is born for trouble, and the chicks of the vulture seek the heights."

So, this little verse turns out to be a great example of the fascinating example of the questions and dilemmas that are part of the Biblical text tradition. The Hebrew Hebrew בְנֵי־רֶשֶׁף (bine reshef, “sons of the flame”), which is what accounts for the King James reading "sparks." Yet some Biblical scholars think that, from context, the verse must refer to some kind of bird, "sons of lightning," which could means eagles, given that the eagle was associated with the lightning in many ancient traditions. The eagle interpretation helps to explain the Septuagint rendering, since the eagle and the vulture were sometimes closely associated (even though nowadays we tend to have an entirely negative view of the vulture, based solely on the fact that it is a scavenger). The Latin takes a more neutral approach, adopting the interpretation that "sons of the flame" must mean some kind of bird, but it does not specify what kind of bird, rendering the phrase simply as avis, "bird."

As the variety of interpretations here in Greek, Latin and English show already, there is no easy answer to the problem posed by this passage! Still other solutions have been proposed, including the idea that "sons of the flame" might refer to angels, or - as the Job Targum suggests - the "sons of the flame" could refer to demons.

Luckily for us, though, the Vulgate reading makes a wonderful little saying which took on a life of its own in Latin. You can also find this Latin saying in other European languages, as in Italian, l'uomo fu creator per lavorare come l'uccello per volare, or Spanish el hombre ha sido creado para trabajar, como el pájaro para volar, or German der Mensch ist zur Arbeit, wie der Vogel zum Fliegen gemacht. So, even if the Hebrew itself is not clear, the Latin Vulgate - inspired by that bit of Hebrew - has given Europe a wonderful and well-known saying about man's lot in this world.

So, hoping your life is enjoying some flights of fancy in addition to your allotted labors, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3527. Homo ad laborem natus est et avis ad volatum

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Ne ad pugnam vocet aquilam luscinia

2008-11-14T20:04:00.000-05:00

In English: The nightingale should not challenge the eagle to a fight.

I figured after yesterday's proverb about hawk and the related story of the hawk and the nightingale, it would make sense to follow that up with this saying about the nightingale and the eagle. Although there is not an actual fable about a nightingale who challenged an eagle to a fight, the results are easy enough to imagine: the nightingale should not challenge the eagle to a fight, because the nightingale is sure to lose.

There's a similar saying about a nanny-goat and a lion: Ne capra contra leonem pugnet, "The nanny-goat should not go fight against the lion," or, in a more abbreviated Latin form, Ne capra contra leonem, where you can imagine any verb you like: whatever it is that a goat thinks it wants to do against lion, a goat should not do that!

Much of the proverb and fable tradition is based on the stereotypical oppositions between the animals. In today's proverb, for example, the nightingale is opposed to the eagle because the eagle is a big, war-like, predatory bird, while the nightingale is a small, sweet, good-tempered bird. You can find other birds playing this role in relation to the eagle, too, especially the quintessentially peaceful dove, as in the saying, Aquila non parit columbam, "An eagle doesn't give birth to a dove."

Yet in addition to being an opposite to the eagle, the nightingale can also be set in opposition to some other kind of bird. For example, consider the saying Pica cum luscinia certat, "The magpie is having a contest with the nightingale." In a singing contest, the mapgie is sure to lose to the tuneful nightingale. So, just as the nightingale should not go try to pick a fight with an eagle, the magpie should not challenge the nightingale to a singing contest!

So, hoping that all you nightingales out there have managed to stay clear of the world's eagles today, here is the proverb read out loud:

2686. Ne ad pugnam vocet aquilam luscinia

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Nutrit et accipiter pullos suos

2008-11-13T18:45:00.001-05:00

In English: Even a hawk nourishes its chicks.

This is a really fascinating little proverb which plays upon the fact that even though the hawk is a deadly predator, it nevertheless raises its own young with the tenderness that the chicks require. So, even though an animal - or a person - might have a strongly defined identity, you could still be surprised by the behavior of that animal in some other dimension of their life, such as in their loving attitude towards their own children.

This comes as a shock in the case of the hawk, of course, since it is notorious for preying on the chicks of other birds, as in the famous story of the hawk and the nightingale, where the hawk demands the the nightingale sing a pretty song in order to ransom her chicks. Here is the version in Steinhowel's Aesop (Perry 567) - you will see that the hawk does pay a price for his crime, with the lucky arrival of a hunter on the scene:

In nido lusciniae cum sederet accipiter, ut specularetur auras, parvos illic invenit pullos. Supervenit cito luscinia et rogavit parcere pullis suis. Faciam, quod vis, inquit, si bene mihi cantaveris. At illa, quamvis animus excederet, tanto metu coacta, pavens et dolore plena cantavit. Accipiter, qui praedam invenerat: Non bene cantasti, inquit. Et apprehendit unum de pullis ac devorare coepit. Tunc ex diverso quidam auceps venit et calamo silentio levato accipitrem visco contractum in terram deiecit.

When the hawk settled down into the nest of the nightingale in order to observe the winds, he found there the chicks of the nightingale. The nightingale arrived on the scene quickly and asked the hawk to spare her chicks. I will do what you want, said the hawk, if you can sing me a pretty song. But the nightingale, even though she tried with all her might, was so stricken by fear that she sang a fearful song, full of grief. The hawk, who had seized his prey, said: You did not sing very nicely! And he grabbed one of the chicks and began to gobble it up. Then from the opposite direction a certain bird-catcher came and having lifted up his reed stealthily he knocked the hawk to the ground, trapped by the bird lime.

Of course, as today's proverb points out, the hawk might act without pity towards the young of other birds, but it nevertheless cherishes its own chicks. It's all in that adverbial et - the hawk too, just like other birds, nourishes its young.

So, hoping that all you nightingales out there have managed to steer clear of the hawks today, here is today's proverb read out loud - reminding you that no matter how much you might fear those hawks, they have children to raise at home, too:

2087. Nutrit et accipiter pullos suos

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