In medio stat veritas

In English: The truth stands in the middle.

I thought this saying would make a good companion to the other proverbs in praise of "the middle" which I've posted previously. I know this saying is quite well-known in English even today, as it is one of my husband's favorites. "The truth lies somewhere in the middle." In other words - when there are two extreme contesting points of view, you would do well to look for the truth somewhere in between their extreme accounts.

I've been having a great time searching for Latin proverbs using the amazing Google Books in order to locate collections of Latin sayings that Google has digitized and other interesting materials that turn up when you search for Latin things. When I searched for today's saying, I was led to an old Latin textbook from the year 1818: Liber primus, or, A first book of Latin exercises, by Joseph Dana. Here is an excerpt from the preface explaining the book's goals: "Its object is to present, in a genuine Latin style, sentiments worthy of a place in the minds of youth, as adapted to cultivate the moral sense; to excite, and, in some small measure, to gratify a laudable desire to knowledge."

The book begins with very short sentences, and then builds up to paragraph-long discourses, such as this little discourse on Truth, Veritas:

Nihil veritate sanctius et pretiosius haberi debet. Turpe est aliud loqui, aliud sentire; quod sentimus loquamur, quod loquimur sentiamus: concordet sermo cum vita. Non amat veritas angulos; in medio stat: licet nullum patronum aut defensorem obtineat, tamen per se ipsa defenditur. Non solum proditor est veritatis, qui mendacium pro veritate loquitur, sed qui non libere veritatem pronuntiat quam pronuntiare oportet; aut non libere defendit libertatem quam defendere oportet.

Nothing should be considered more holy or more precious than truth. It is despicable to say one thing and to think another; let us speak what we think; let us think what we speak: speech should accord with life. Truth does not love the corners; it stands in the middle: even if it might not have a patron or protector, truth itself is nevertheless her own defender. The betrayer of truth is not only the person who speaks a lie in place of truth, but he who does not freely speak the truth which he should speak, or who does not freely defend the freedom which he should defend.

As you can see, this writer has taken today's saying in a slightly unusual metaphorical direction. Here, it is not that truth lies somewhere in the middle between two extremes; rather, this is truth who stands boldly and proudly in the open middle and does not hide in the corners! This is not the usual way in today's proverb is taken, but it is metaphorically sound.

I'm not sure, but I think Dana's thought here might be inspired by something from one of Bernard of Clairvaux's sermons: Non amat veritas angulos; non ei diversoria placent, "Truth does not love corners; it does not like diversions from the way." The Latin diversorium usually meant a waystation or lodging house along the road - but truth keeps marching on straight ahead, turning no corners, not pausing at stops along the way. For yet a similar metaphorical expression, consider this saying from Dante's De Monarchia: recta via non amat angulos, "The right way does not like corners." Here again it is a matter of keeping on going straight ahead, without ducking aside or deviating from what is right.

So, you can think about something standing in the middle between two extremes, or you can think of something standing in the middle, stalwartly refusing to turn aside: in either case, the middle is a laudable place to be!

So, hoping you find yourself on middle ground at the moment, here is this week's proverb read out loud:



1108. In medio stat veritas.

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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Intacta invidia media sunt

In English: Middle things are untouched by envy.

Note: As those of you who read the daily round-up for the Bestiaria Latina blogs already know, I'm shifting from daily updates at the various blogs to weekly updates until I claw my way out from under the pile of book obligations I have heaped upon myself! So, there is something new at the Bestiaria Latina blogs every day, but there will only be one new Audio Latin Proverb post per week for a while. Thank you for your patience... and wish me luck with the Vulgate Verses book (almost done!) and the Barlow's Aesop (barely begun!).

Today's saying is a good follow-up to the previous proverb about the golden mean, aurea mediocitas. Today's saying also advocates moderation, "middle things," Latin media. The idea here is that if you are not a person with extravagant wealth, you will not provoke the envy of those around you. You can find the saying in Livy's History of Rome.

In our modern way of thinking, envy is an emotional state, a feeling that someone might experience when they want something that someone else has and which they do not. When envy is an emotional state, the only real victim is the person who suffers from envy. For that reason, this proverb does not really make a lot of sense in the modern context. Honestly, who cares if someone envies you? That is their problem, not yours. You might worry about a thief trying to break into your house and steal your wealth - but we do not associate thieves with envy; that is an altogether different cycle of vice.

For the ancient Romans, though, the problem of envy, invidia, was something altogether more serious, and more threatening. Envy was able to manifest itself as the power of the evil eye, hence in-vidia. Someone who is envious of you could cast the evil eye upon you, with disastrous consequences! So, being "touched by envy," i.e. being touched by the evil eye, was a real danger in the ancient Roman way of thinking. The moderation praised in today's proverb is laudable precisely because it does not provoke envy, and does not leave you exposed to the terrible peril of the evil eye!

It's also worth saying something here about the Latin grammar of this saying, since it is something that can be useful for even beginning Latin students. Even though intacta, invidia and media end in the letter "a" they are not the same forms by any means. The word invidia ends in a long "a" and is a feminine ablative singular form. The words intacta and media end in short "a" and are neuter nominative plural, agreeing with one another as subject and predicate. Notice also that the Latin word media has itself become a modern English word, as in the "mass media." Do you regard "media" as a singular or a plural word in English? While we use both the words "medium" and "media" in English, I'm guessing most native English speakers do not think of "media" as the plural of "medium" (my random inquiry of the people I was talking with today found only one person who made that connection, even with a bit of prompting!).

So, hoping you are enjoying a "happy medium" that is envy-free, here is this week's proverb read out loud:

120. Intacta invidia media sunt.

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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Auream mediocritatem diligo

In English: I cherish the golden mean.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to the theme of "gold" in the proverbs of the past couple days. In today's proverb, "golden" is used in the positive sense of the "golden" mean, not too much and not too little, something that is definitely to be prized. Moderation in all things.

Yet as soon as you read the Latin, you realize what a dreadful fate has befallen the Latin word mediocritas, the "mean" or "middle-ness" of moderation. In English, the word "mediocrity" has nothing but negative connotations. We are living in the world of Garrison Keelor's Lake Wobegon, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." You can even read an entry about the Lake Wobegon Effect in wikipedia, where it is defined as "the tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others."

In other words, it's not good enough to be "good enough" anymore; instead, everybody has to be better than average. No more golden mean.

The Latin form of today's phrase is adapted from one of Horace's odes, which reads: Auream quisquis mediocritatem / diligit, tutus caret obsoleti / sordibus tecti, caret inuidenda / sobrius aula.. You can see three different English verse translations of this famous ode at Laudator Temporis Acti; my favorite of the three is this one by John Conington, who translates this stanza as follows:

Who makes the golden mean his guide,
Shuns miser's cabin, foul and dark,
Shuns gilded roofs, where pomp and pride
Are envy's mark.

So, in the end, today's proverb has much in common with the theme of yesterday's proverb: better the golden mean of moderate prosperity than the golden shackles of wealth ... or the iron shackles of abject poverty!

So, hoping you have had a "mediocre" day in the good old Latin sense of that word, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1855. Auream mediocritatem diligo.

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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Stulti est compedes, licet aureas, amare

In English: It is for a fool to love fetters, even though they be golden.

After the previous proverb about the golden reins and the horse, I thought this would be a good follow-up. The idea here, of course, is that the rich man is really foolish, having given up all kinds of freedom in exchange for that golden prosperity - a golden prosperity that for all its opulence is less valuable than an unfettered life of freedom. As someone who walked away from a much more lucrative and "respectable" line of work some years ago (resigning my tenure-track research job in order to teach courses of my own choosing), I have to say that this is a proverb which really resonates with me personally!

Under the heading compedes aureae, "golden shackles," in Erasmus's Adagia, this saying made its way into the emblematic tradition. You can see it illustrated here online in Whitney's English emblems, and I thought I would transcribe here a bit of the poem that goes with it in English:

It better is (wee say) a cotage poore to houlde,
Then for to lye in prison stronge, with fetters made of goulde.
Which shewes, that bondage is the prison of the minde:
And libertie the happie life, that is to man assign'de,
And thoughe that some preferre their bondage, for their gaines:
And richely are adorn'd in silkes, and preste with massie chaines.

You can also find the motif in Alciato's emblems, with am image of the poor courtier, his feet bound in stocks, with this little verse: Vana Palatinos quos educat aula clientes, / Dicitur auratis nectere compedibus., "It is said that the false court binds with gilded fetters those high officials whom it trains as vassals."

I like Whitney's little English poem better, I think, but Alciato's metaphor of the royal court and its constraints could definitely be adapted to the modern workplace or academic department!

So, hoping you have had a happily unshackled day, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1247. Stulti est compedes, licet aureas, amare.

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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Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni

In English: Golden reins do not make a better horse.

After posting about donkeys, I thought I would do a saying with a horse in it! This saying also has the motif of "gold" which we saw in yesterday's proverb about the gold ring in the pig's snout.

Unlike pigs and donkeys, of course, the horse is not immediately an object of ridicule. A horse has virtues, but golden reins are not what bring out the virtues of the horse. As Seneca observes, the golden reins are just decoration - and decoration is nothing to be praised!

Quis est ergo hic animus? qui nullo bono nisi suo nitet. Quid enim est stultius quam in homine aliena laudare? quid eo dementius qui ea miratur quae ad alium transferri protinus possunt? Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni.

And what is this soul? It is something which shines with no good unless its own good. What then could be more foolish than to praise in a man things which are not his own? What could be more crazy than someone being admired for things which can immediately be transferred to another person? Golden reins do not make a better horse.

Well said! This proverb always reminds me of the Aesop's fable about the boastful horse and his fine adornments. Here is the version in Barlow's Aesop:

Equus phaleris sellaque ornatus cum ingenti hinnitu per viam currebat. Currenti onustus Asellus forte obstabat, cui Equus fremebundus, Quid, inquit, Ignave, obsistis Equo? Cede, inquam, aut te proculcabo pedibus! Asellus rudere non ausus cedit tacitus. Equo provolanti crepat inguen. Tum cursui inutilis ornamentis spoliatur. Postea cum carro venientem Asinus affatur. Heus, mi Amice, quis ille ornatus est? Ubi aurea sella? Ubi splendidum frenum? Sic, Amice, necesse fuit evenire superbienti.

A horse, adorned with trappings and a saddle, with a loud whinny ran through the street. As he was running along, a donkey bearing burdens ran into him by chance. The horse roared at the donkey: How dare you, lazy brute, stand in the way of a horse? Get out of my way, I say, or I will trample you with my hooves! The donkey did not dare to bray and silently gave way. As the horse ran along, he pulled his groin muscle. Then, useless for racing, he was stripped of his fine ornaments. Later on, when he came by pulling a wagon, the donkey addressed him: Ho there, my friend, what adornment is this? Where is your golden saddle? Where is your elegant bridle? That's how it goes, my Friend: it had to turn out this way for someone so boastful.

Oh, how the mighty are fallen!So, in honor of the wise donkey in the fable, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1875. Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni.

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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Anulus aureus in naribus suis

In English: A gold ring in a pig's nose.

I thought after the previous proverb about the ugly but contented pig that this would be a good follow-up. The idea here, of course, is that a gold ring does not belong in a pig's nose, and the incongruity of proverbial loveliness and proverbial ugliness provides a pointed commentary for any similar situation, where something elegant and lovely appears in a setting that is completely inappropriate.

This item appears in Erasmus's Adagia, who comments: Ubi res quaepiam per se praeclara illic adhibetur, ubi minime addecet. Ut, si stulto contingant opes, fatuae forma, genus ignavo, eloquentia viro improbo, magistratus imperito. His enim rebus non modo non ornantur, verum etiam magis ridiculi fiunt. This proverb is used "when something which in and of itself is quite splendid is put in some place where it is least appropriate, as when wealth is given to a man who is a fool, or beauty to a silly woman, or noble birth to a lazy man, or skill in speaking to a wicked man, or public office to a man with no experience. In fact, not only are these things not adorned as a result; they actually become more ridiculous."

Erasmus's inclusion of the fatua, the "silly woman," is probably a conscious allusion to the version of this saying in the Biblical Book of Proverbs: Circulus aureus in naribus suis mulier pulchra et fatua, "A gold ring in the snout of a pig (is like) a woman who is beautiful and silly."

Of course, the Latin word for pig (swine, hog, sow), sus, is usually not at the top of everybody's vocabulary list, which makes it easy for people to mistake the suis in this proverb as meaning "his own," as if in naribus suis meant "in his own nose." Definitely not: in naribus suis here means in the snout of a pig. The word suis here is the genitive singular of the noun, sus.

Of course, we have our own problems with the word "sow" in English, similar as it is to that tangle of words in English for "sewing" with needle and thread, along with "sowing" seeds in the garden. The pig, "sow," in English rhymes with "cow," fortunately, while to "sow" in your garden unfortunately sounds exactly like what you do with needle and thread.

So (another homynym with "sew" - eegad!), before you get too distressed about the ambiguity of Latin suis, just remember what an awful mess of homonyms the English language has become over time!

I've never heard this saying about the sow and the gold ring in English, but of course we have many similar sayings about the poor pig, such as "You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig."

Meanwhile, feeling a bit sorry for the poor pig, here is today's proverb read out loud:

391. Anulus aureus in naribus suis.

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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Asinus asino et sus sui pulcher

In English: One donkey is beautiful to another, one pig is beautiful to another.

And now... back to the world of animal sayings! Since I had done a saying about a donkey last time, I thought I would do another donkey saying today. This saying is very charming because it depends on the fact that a donkey is a singularly unattractive creature - although the donkey remains happily oblivious to this fact, so long as he remains lovely in the eye of another donkey. So too for the much-reviled pig.

I like the fact that this saying takes us all down a peg. There's no accounting for taste, so you might as well live and let live. Let the donkeys be donkeys... even if the non-donkeys find their mutual attraction a bit laughable. It reminds me of all the great humor in the film Planet of the Apes, where the apes try very hard not to think that Charlton Heston and his fellow humans are so terribly ugly! It's all relative and depends, profoundly, on where you stand and what your particular species might be.

There are a number of fables about beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and the one I like best is a medieval fable by Odo of Cheriton about the toad and his son. I've cited this fable in a previous post some months ago, but it is so charming, I think I will cite it again today:

Contigit quod animalia celebraverunt concilium. Bufo misit illuc filium suum. Sed oblitus sotulares suos novos, quaesiuit Bufo aliquod animal velox, qui posset ad concilium accelerare; videbatur sibi quod Lepus bene curreret. Vocavit eum et, mercede constituta, dixit ei quod deferret sotulares novos filio suo. Respondit Lepus: Quomodo potero discernere filium tuum in tali concilio? Dixit Bufo: Ille qui pulcherrimus est inter omnia animalia est filius meus. Dixit Lepus: Numquid Columba uel Pavo est filius tuus? Respondit: Nequaquam, quoniam Columba habet nigras carnes, Pavo turpes pedes. Dixit Lepus: Qualis est igitur filius tuus? Et dixit Bufo: Qui tale habet caput quale est meum, talem ventrem, tales tibias, tales pedes, ille pulcher filius meus. Illi deferas sotulares. Venit Lepus cum sotularibus et narravit Leoni et ceteris bestiis qualiter Bufo pre ceteris filium suum commendavit. Et ait Leo: Si quis amat Ranam, Ranam putat esse Dianam.

It once happened that the animals were holding a council. The toad sent his son there, but his son forgot his new shoes, so the toad sought some fast animal who could hurry to the council. It seemed to the toad that the rabbit could run quickly so he summoned the rabbit and, having a reward had been agreed upon, he told the rabbit to take the new shoes to his son. The rabbit replied, "How will I be able to recognize your son in such a council?" The toad said, "The one who is the most beautiful among all the animals is my son." The rabbit said, "So is the dove or the peacock your son?" The toad replied, "Not at all! The dove has black flesh and the peacock has ugly feet." The rabbit said, "What is your son like then?" And the toad said, "The one who has a head like mine and a belly like mine, and legs and feet like mine, that good-looking creature is my son. You should take the shoes to him." The rabbit came with the shoes and told the lion and the other beasts that the toad had praised his son more highly than all the others. And the lion said, "If someone loves a frog, he thinks that frog is the goddess of love."

The lion, of course, is making fun of that toad and his love for his son, just as in today's proverb the donkey and the pig are objects of ridicule. I'm all for the toad and the donkey and the pig, though, because they seem quite well-adjusted and happy, if you ask me!So, hoping you are feeling beautiful in the eyes of your fellow creatures (no matter what the world at large might think), here is today's proverb read out loud:

331. Asinus asino et sus sui pulcher.

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

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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Dicunt enim et non faciunt

In English: For they speak, and do not do it.

I'm taking a brief pause from the fable-based proverbs I've posted over the past few days (don't worry: I'll pick up that theme again tomorrow), because I just had to post a proverb about hypocrisy today, purely for self-therapy!

Normally, the work I do online brings me great pleasure, since I get all kinds of interesting emails from people about their Latin studies and experiences, with comments and questions where I feel like we are collaborating together online, using the Internet to promote the study of Latin in a positive, new way.

At the same time, I do receive the occasional rude email from someone, complaining about something, in particular about the audio. Some people seem to think that they have they have been given a mission to make everyone adhere to their own system for reading Latin, and they lose sight of the fact that Latin is a dead language now, so really, anyone making any noise at all in Latin is to be commended IMHO. Moreover, Latin was spoken for millennia by people with all kinds of accents all over Europe and the Americas (and taken by the Jesuits to Asia, for that matter), so even if you are a promoter of reconstructed Roman pronunciation, Roman pronunciation and Latin pronunciation are not one and the same.

When someone sends me an email about this thorny subject, I can write back to them, and we can attempt to engage in some kind of useful dialogue about our differing positions on the subject. Dialogue is always good.

Today, however, I was struck by a very rude, anonymous comment that someone left at this blog about the audio. That was a new low! When someone leaves a rude, anonymous comment, there is nothing really to be done: it's like having someone throw trash in your yard. For those of you who blog, you know the feeling. Yuck.

So, I picked today's proverb to point out that the RIGHT thing to do is not to complain about other people's pronunciation by leaving rude, anonymous comments at their blog. If you are going to be rude, at least sign your name. But really, the truly right thing to do is to put your own audio online! Using Audacity software, which is free for both Macintosh and Windows, anyone can create audio which can be shared online. Insulting other people's reading of Latin does nothing to further the cause of better Latin - but for those people out there who work harder on Latin pronunciation than I do, and there are many such people, I certainly wish they would devote at least part of their Latin effort to putting the audio online so everyone could listen and benefit. If you tag your Latin audio webpages or blog posts or podcasts with the del.icio.us tags latin+audio, it's easy to find what audio Latin resources are available online, if you are willing to ignore the occasional salsa music site that will also show up in that listing!

Meanwhile, for the people who complain about other people's audio online without publishing audio yourselves, today's proverb is for you. It comes from the Gospel of Matthew, and contains another wonderful proverbial turn of phrase. Jesus is describing the hypocritical scholars and Pharisees who tell others what to do but who themselves provide no model worthy of imitation: Dicunt enim, et non faciunt. Alligant enim onera gravia, et importabilia, et imponunt in humeros hominum: digito autem suo nolunt ea movere, "For they speak, but they do not do it. The fact is that they bind on weighty burdens, and burdens impossible to bear, and they place them on people's backs, but they refuse to move them with so much as a finger of their own."

So, here is today's proverb read out loud - with no apologies offered for the audio... and remember, nobody is forcing you to listen, if you don't want to... cuique suum, as another saying reminds us! :-)

1572. Dicunt enim et non faciunt.

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

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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De asini umbra disputant

In English: They're arguing about the donkey's shadow.

After yesterday's saying and the story about the donkey in the lion's skin, I thought I would do another saying that is associated with a fable about a donkey. Today's saying, in fact, does not really make much sense unless you know the story!

So, here is the story, as found in the Greek fable tradition and reported by pseudo-Plutarch in his "Life of Demosthenes":

They say that during an assembly in Athens, Demosthenes was prevented from making his speech, so he told the audience he wanted to say just a few words. When the audience had fallen silent, Demosthenes began his tale. 'It was summertime, and a young man had hired a donkey to take him from Athens to Megara. At midday, when the sun was blazing hot, the young man and the donkey's driver both wanted to sit in the donkey's shadow. They began to jostle one another, fighting for the spot in the shade. The driver maintained that the man had rented the donkey but not his shadow, while the young man claimed that he had rented both the donkey and all the rights thereto.' Having told this much of the story, Demosthenes then turned his back on the audience and began to walk away. The Athenians shouted at him to stop and begged him to finish the story. 'Indeed!' said Demosthenes. 'You want to hear all about the donkey's shadow, but you refuse to pay attention when someone talks to you about serious matters!'

In the Latin tradition, the saying became famous thanks to its inclusion in Erasmus's Adagia, where Erasmus cites the saying under the heading de asini umbra and then provides his own account in Latin of this story about Demosthenes:

Cum aliquando Demosthenes quendam in causa capitali defenderet, ac iudices haberet parum attentos, sed dicenti obstreperent, ille, Paulisper, inquit, aures mihi praebete, si quidem rem narrabo novam, ac lepidam, atque auditu iucundam. Ad quae verba cum illi iam aures arrexissent, adolescens, inquit, quispiam asinum conduxerat, rerum quiddam Athenis Megaram deportaturus. Inter viam autem cum aestus meridianus ingravesceret, nec inveniret, quonam umbraculo solis ardorem defenderet, depositis clitellis, sub asino sedens, eius umbra semet obtegebat. Ceterum id agaso non sinebat, hominem inde depellens, clamansque asinum esse locatum, non asini umbram. Alter item ex adverso tendebat, asseverans etiam umbram asini sibi conductam esse. Atque ita inter eos acerrima rixa in longum producta est, ita, ut etiam ad manus venerint: hoc pertinaciter affirmante, non conductam esse asini umbram, illo pari contentione respondente, umbram etiam asini conductam esse. Demum in ius ambulant. Haec locutus Demosthenes, ubi sensisset iudices diligenter auscultantes, repente coepit a tribunalibus descedere. Porro revocatus a iudicibus, rogatusque, ut reliquum fabulae pergeret enarrare: De asini, inquit, umbra libet audire, viri causam de vita periclitantis audire gravamini.

Since I've given a translation of the Greek version into English, I'm not going to translate this version by Erasmus - the English translation of the Greek gives you a good guide for what to expect in Erasmus's version of the story, so just read through it, and see how it strikes you. I've been translating the Latin fables that I publish in this blog into English, but I always feel a bit bad about that. After all, the goal of learning Latin is to be able to read in Latin, and to enjoy the Latin, without straining all the time to translate into English. Erasmus's Latin is always a pleasure to read - so, enjoy!

So, hoping you found some kind of shade from the sun today without having to fight for it, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1094. De asini umbra disputant.

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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Induis me leonis exuvium

In English: You are dressing me in a lion's skin.

Just like last week, I thought I would carry on with sayings that have a connection to a specific Aesop's fable. Today's saying, with the "lion's skin," can be found in Erasmus's Adagia, and Erasmus there interprets the saying in two possible contents - one based on myth, and one based on fable.

The mythical context is, of course, Hercules. In the iconic representations of that great hero, he was shown wearing a lion skin (an iconographic tradition later associated with Alexander the Great, in imitation of Hercules). So, the person who should be wearing the lion's skin is Hercules. If you are trying to make ME wear a lion's skin, that is not appropriate - I am not ready for some kind of Herculean task. So please don't make me wear the lion's skin; I don't want to have to go out and perform the labors of Hercules! Was Hercules wearing the skin of the ferocious Nemean lion, whom he killed in one of his labors? Ancient authors debated about whether that was the case; you can read more about that and see a beautiful Greek vase painting of Hercules in his lion's skin at this Perseus web page.

In terms of fable, Erasmus also suggests that this saying could allude to the story of the donkey in the lion's skin. The idea is much the same: just as a mere mortal should not be dressed up in a lion's skin like Hercules, a mere donkey should also not go around trying to look like a lion! There are many versions of this fable; one of my favorites is this one by Odo of Cheriton:

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 verberauerunt.

The donkeys saw that the people treated them harshly and badly, whipping them, putting burdens on them. They also saw that the men feared the lions. The donkeys agreed amongst themselves that they would put on lion skins, and thus the people would be afraid of them. So they did that. As a result the donkeys, dressed in lion skins, leaped and ran around. The people ran away, thinking they were lions. Finally the donkeys began to bray. The people listened carefully and said: That is the voice of donkeys; let's get closer! They finally got close to the donkeys and saw their tails and their feet and said: For sure those are donkeys, not lions! And they grabbed the donkeys and beat them most thoroughly.

So, the next time around, the donkeys need to invoke today's saying in order to protest: it's not easy to be a donkey, but it's worse to be a donkey in lion's clothing!

So, hoping you have not been asked to play the lion's role against your will today, here is the proverb read out loud:

1829. Induis me leonis exuvium.

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

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.