October 31, 2009

Lupus pilum mutat, non mentem

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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Infra tuam pelliculam te contine

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 pelĂ­cula, 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.