Asinus in tegulis

In English: A donkey on the roof-tiles.

Following up on the previous animal proverb, I thought I would choose this saying about a donkey. Simply based on what we know about donkeys and what we know about the roof of a house, we can assume that a situation involving a donkey on the roof-tiles would be a ridiculous situation at best, and probably an outright disaster!

In the Greek fables of Babrius, there is a story about a donkey on the roof. He has ended up there as a result of foolishly imitating a monkey who did the same thing:

A donkey went up on the top of a house and while he was frisking about he broke some of the roof tiles. A man came running up and dragged the donkey back down to the ground, beating him with a club. The donkey, his back aching from the blows, said to the man, 'But just yesterday and the day before you were so amused when the monkey did the very same thing!'

This story closely resembles the better-known fable of the donkey who decided to imitate his master's pet dog by jumping up on his master and licking his face. Things did not turn out well for that donkey either, as you can read in Barlow's version of that fable.

For the Latin phrase asinus in tegulis, there is a tantalizing citation in Petronius's Satyricon. After the narrator has finished telling the famous werewolf tale, Trimalchio declares that he also has a story to tell: Nam et ipse vobis rem horribilem narrabo. Asinus in tegulis, "For I myself will tell you all a dreadful thing. A donkey on the roof-tiles." From this usage by Trimalchio, it seems that the donkey on the roof-tiles might have had some kind of sinister element, in addition to being something comical. It is, by implication, a res horribilis, something to make you shudder, something more sinister than "a bull in a china shop," as we say in English.

Within the context of that novel, it is worth pointing out that just previously there had been a strange commotion on the roof indeed, when Trimalchio amazed his guests by lowering the elaborate party favors down from the roof! Here is how the narrator describes that event: repente lacunaria sonare coeperunt totumque triclinium intremuit. Consternatus ego exsurrexi, et timui ne per tectum petauristarius aliquis descenderet. Nec minus reliqui convivae mirantes erexere vultus expectantes quid novi de caelo nuntiaretur. Ecce autem diductis lacunaribus subito circulus ingens, de cupa videlicet grandi excussus, demittitur, "All of a sudden the paneled ceiling began to creak and the whole room shook. Baffled, I raised myself up, and I was afraid that some sort of trapeze performer was going to come down through the roof. The rest of the party-goers were no less amazed, and lifted up their faces, expecting that this was a prelude to something weird from the sky. But look: the paneled ceiling drew back and suddenly a huge hoop, clearly loosened from a large cask, came down." The narrator goes on to explain how there were party favors dangling from the hoop which Trimalchio presented to all the guests at the party.

What I would like to contribute to the collection of stories about unexpected things on the roof is this delightful Islamic legend about the Sufi holy man Ebrahim ibn Adham who lived in the 8th century. He was a wealthy and powerful king, but was called by God to a life of poverty. Here is how that happens, as told by the great Sufi author, Attar:

Ebrahim ibn Adham’s saintly career began in the following manner. He was king of Balkh, and a whole world was under his command; forty gold swords and forty gold maces were carried before and behind him. One night he was asleep on his royal couch. At midnight the roof of the apartment vibrated, as if someone was walking on the roof. “Who is there?” he shouted. “A friend,” came the reply. “I have lost a camel, and am searching for it on this roof.” “Fool, do you look for the camel on the roof?” cried Ebrahim. “Heedless one,” answered the voice, “do you seek for God in silken clothes, asleep on a golden couch?” These words filled his heart with terror. A fire blazed within him, and he could not sleep any more.

In this case, the story is not about an actual camel on the roof, but instead about the absurdity of it. You should not expect to find a camel on the roof any more than you should expect to find salvation in a world of material comfort.

So, hoping that you have no large quadrupeds - donkeys OR camels - clattering about on your roof-tiles,here is today's proverb read out loud:

142. Asinus in tegulis.

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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Cicada cicadae cara, formicae formica

In English: Cricket is dear to cricket, ant to ant.

Summer has finally begun, so that gave me two good reasons for choosing today's proverb. First, since I will be working hard this summer on Aesop, finishing up my Aesop's fable book for Bolchazy-Carducci, I will be paying special attention to Latin animal fables and proverbs. So, this nice little proverb about crickets and ants falls into that category! Plus, in honor of summer, it seems only right to start off with one of the most famous Aesop's fables about how the ant and the cricket spend their summer time.

First, the proverb. The idea of one cricket being dear to another cricket while an ant is dear to another ant is a variation on the "birds of a feather flock together" type of proverb. The saying can be found in Erasmus's Adages, who cites a line from Theocritus: Τέττιξ μὲν τέττιγι φίλος, μύρμακι δὲ μύρμαξ, / ἴρακες δ᾽ ἴραξιν, which he then renders in Latin: Formicae grata est formica, cicada cicadae, / accipiter placet accipitri, "ant is pleasing to ant, cricket to cricket; a hawk pleases a hawk." Erasmus then adds a bit of natural history to go along with his Greek source: nota est formicarum politia, et cicadarum conventus, "the civic community (politia) of ants is well known, as is the gathering of crickets together." (I do have to point out, however, that hawks are not famous for flocking... although at least they do not prey on each other as they do on the lesser birds!)

What the proverb implies but does not state explicitly is that while ants get along famously with each other, or cickets with other crickets, there is no love lost between them, as the famous Aesop's fable about the ant and the cricket shows! Here is the version from Barlow's edition of Aesop:

Dum per aestatem Cicada cantat, Formica suam exercet messem, trahendo in antra grana et in hiemem reponendo. Saeviente autem bruma, famelica Cicada venit ad Formicam et mendicat victum; renuebat autem Formica, dictitans sese laborasse, dum illa cantabat.

For an English version, here is Caxton's marvelous 15th century rendering, where the cricket is referred to as the "sygall": It is good to purueye hym self in the somer season of suche thynges / wherof he shalle myster and haue nede in wynter season / As thow mayst see by this present fable / Of the sygalle / whiche in the wynter tyme went and demaunded of the ant somme of her Corne for to ete / And thenne the Ant sayd to the sygall / what hast thow done al the somer last passed / And the sygalle ansuerd / I haue songe / And after sayd the ante to her / Of my corne shalt not thou none haue / And yf thow hast songe alle the somer / daunse now in wynter /

So, hoping you have a summer worthy of both the cricket AND of the ant, with some forward-looking work but some fun times, too, here is today's proverb read out loud:

35. Cicada cicadae cara, formicae formica.

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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Sapit qui reputat.

In English: He is wise who thinks twice.

As those of you who are regular readers of this blog will notice, I've moved the address over to the Blogger.com hosting service at blogspot.com:

http://AudioLatinProverbs.blogspot.com

I've done this in order to take advantage of the many great new blogging features that are available only with the blogging software associated with Blogger's hosted space. I've tried to clean up any mess I left behind as a result of changing the address. My apologies for the inconvenience if you are having to change any of your bookmarks or RSS feeds.

Meanwhile, I chose today's proverb in order to bolster my decision! I was reluctant to change simply because it is a lot of trouble, and the old system was working well enough... but as today's saying advises us, it's always good to think things over, re-putare, "to think back, think again." So, that's what I did!

As I was going through the rather tedious process of moving the blog and trying to make sure I left no broken links behind me, I definitely had plenty of time to think over what I was doing. Even though I was listening to a delightful book on tape (the wonderful science fiction novel Hominids, by Robert Sawyer), the process was time-consuming and a bit anxiety-producing as well, since I definitely have a horror of link rot. Yet as I went through my old directories file by file to redirect the old addresses I discovered to my horror two directories that I had never created, filled with hundreds of files: one called XANAX and the other called CIALIS. Yes, the evil hackers had somehow managed to create a directory in my webspace without my even knowing it. It's a bit like sweeeping out the garage and picking up an old newspaper or bag in order to throw it away, only to find a swarm of cockroaches underneath. Ugh! So while for several years I liked the idea of hosting the blog on my own server, I've thought it over (reputavi!) and decided that the advantages could not outweigh such the disadvantage of having to wage war against the forces of evil, the Xanax and Cialis spammers, and their ilk! I'll let Google and Blogger.com handle that for me from now on, thank you.

Given that the Latin word reputare obviously leads to the English word "reputation," I should probably quickly say something about that etymology here as well. Latin did have a noun, reputatio, which meant "thinking over." Yet by the time "reputation" entered in the English language in the Middle Ages, it already had the sense in which we use it today of the public estimate of a person's character. Chaucer uses it already with this meaning in the late 14th century. Moreover, the form "repute" is already in use in the 16th century, as in several examples from Shakespeare, e.g., "Let them be men of good repute and carriage." This English noun, "repute," is derived from the verb "to repute." (Compare the similar use of "dispute" as both noun and verb in English.)

So, hoping your day has been one of good repute (in both the Latin and the English senses of the word!), here is today's proverb read out loud:

2014. Sapit qui reputat.

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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NEW BLOG ADDRESS

Hello, everybody! To take advantage of the new features at blogspot.com, I'm relocating this blog to a new address:

http://AudioLatinProverbs.blogspot.com/

Please visit the blog there, and update your RSS feed as necessary. Thank you!

Ne Hercules quidem adversus duos

In English: Not even Hercules (fights) against two.

I haven't blogged here for a while because I've been working on a book manuscript - Aesop's fables in Latin, which should be out in August with Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers - and finally I've gotten the manuscript done so I can start blogging again. Yeah!

In that book manuscript I was working on some Latin grammar topics which will also be the focus of my blogging here. One of my main topics of interest is the use of postpositive particles in Latin. Yesterday, I blogged about the use of the particles quidem and vero in a Vulgate Bible verse, and I chose today's saying because of its nice demonstration of how quidem is negated with the word ne, but with quidem still coming in second position after the word that is being emphasized, just as you would expect from a positive positive particle.

So, in this saying, the words ne and quidem form an "emphatic negative sandwich" around the word that is being emphasized in order to make a negative point: Hercules. Hence the English translation "not even Hercules."

Just to make this saying even more interesting is that it has an implied verb. You can guess what the meaning of the verb must be from the prepositional phrase which is part of the predicate also: adversus duos, "against two (men)." So whatever verb you want to supply in English (and in English we really cannot leave verbs implied the same way that Latin can), the verb needs to be compatible with the idea of "against two." For example: Even Hercules does not fight against two men. Even Hercules doesn't march out against two men. Even Hercules does not stand in opposition against two men. And so on. An alternate form of the Latin phrase supplies one possibility: Hercules adversus noluit ire duos, "Hercules refused to go against two." (In an even fuller form: Natura ipsa docet cedendum pluribus esse: Hercules adversus noluit ire duos, "Nature herself teaches that one must yield to the many: Hercules refused to go against two.")

This ne...quidem construction can cause some problems for beginning Latin students, since it is possible to develop a kind of hyperawareness for the way that ne introduces a negative clause with the subjunctive. Yet ne also performs other negative functions in Latin, as for example here where it negates the particle quidem. You can also see ne used to create compound words and expressions in Latin, such as neuter (=ne+uter), nefas (=ne+fas), and so on.

As for the saying itself, Hollywood would probably prefer for Hercules to battle the lion and hydra both at the same time, but the wiser course is definitely to take on one enemy at a time. Of course, poor Hercules did have to face the many heads of the hydra at once: that surely was bad enough in itself!

So, hoping your own metaphorical hydra is not of the many-headed variety, here is today's proverb read out loud:

901. Ne Hercules quidem adversus duos.

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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Te de aliis quam alios de te suavius est fieri doctos

In English: It is a sweeter thing for you to become wise from others' mistakes than for others to become wise from your mistakes.

I'm working on the final draft of the manuscript of my new Aesop's fables book for Bolchazy-Carducci (based on Barlow's Aesop of 1687), so of course I've got Aesop's fables even more on the brain than usual. That is what prompted me to choose this saying for today, which expresses the basic principle of the negative exemplum, learning from the mistakes made by others. The idea is that if you can look at the mistakes the foolish characters make the in the fables, you might be able to avoid making the same mistakes in your own life.

The alternative, of course, is that you could make mistakes which could prove to be instructive for others! That is the less desirable option: far better that others make mistakes which you can learn from, rather than vice versa.

Today's saying manages to express that very nicely, with the elegance of a Latin parallel construction and some implied words: Te de aliis (fieri doctum/doctam) quam alios de te suavius est fieri doctos. The Latin does not actually contain the word "mistakes" but simply says de te, "from you," and de aliis, "from others." That seemed so very strange in English that I added in the word "mistakes," although that does detract from the elegance of the Latin, with its beautifully paralleled pronouns, te de aliis quam alios de te....

The saying itself is a very old one, and can be found in the Persa, that delightful comedy by Plautus, where it is none other than the doomed pimp, Dordalus, who utters the words: sed te de aliis, quam alios de te suaviust fieri doctos. The pimp is speaking with the tricky slave Toxilus, the one who will, in fact, lead Dordalus to commit a series of terrible mistakes by the end of the play, so that he is eventually tricked out of his own money by Toxilus, who then uses the money to buy the freedom of his own girlfriend from the pimp.

So, hoping you find yourself in the role of Toxilus rather than Dordalus in the theater of life, here is today's proverb read out loud:

2200. Te de aliis quam alios de te suavius est fieri doctos.

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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Tranquillo quilibet gubernator est

In English: When it's calm, anybody can be the helmsman.

I thought I would post this proverb à propos of what might be the last big primary elections on Tuesday. In particular, I was thinking about a campaign ad being run by the Clinton campaign, and being made directly rebutted by the Obama campaign, about just who is most qualified to pick up that emergency phone when it rings in the White House at 3 a.m. to announce some urgent crisis. As the Latin saying tells us here, when you are sailing on a calm sea, tranquillo, anybody can steer the ship - and what the proverb thus implies, of course, is that when the sea is not calm, not just anybody is going to be qualified to pilot the ship.

The reason I was prompted to choose this proverb in particular is because it features the Latin word gubernator, the helmsman or pilot of the ship. Of course, there is where we get our words for governance; the English word "governor" and all the related words (govern, government, and so on) are direct descendants of the Latin gubernator - so of course, I had to laugh when they were calling Schwarzenegger the "governator" of California - that sounded very Latin indeed!

The Latin itself comes from a Greek word, κυβερνήτης (kubernetes), which morphed into Latin, the unvoiced K being replaced by a voiced G (perhaps through Etruscan), and the Greek -etes suffix replaced by Latin -ator. The English derivatives have gov- instead of the Latin gub-, except for the later addition to the English language, "gubernatorial," which comes more directly from the Latin.

Through another route, the Greek word κυβερνήτης reaches English in the word "cybernetics," where the Greek KUB remains intact, as English cyb-. Cybernetics is an abstract field of control and system theory, meaning the "study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles" (wikipedia). The term "cybernetics" was coined by Norbert Wiener, who studied communication and control processes in both animals and machines, although the word in Greek was already used by Plato; κυβερνητικός (kubernetikos = cybernetic) meant someone good at steering, guiding, governing - steering that proverbial ship of state!

So, happy voting to those of you who live in this Tuesday's primary states! And here is today's proverb read out loud:

951. Tranquillo quilibet gubernator est.

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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