In English: You are raising wolf cubs.
After yesterday's proverb about sheep, I thought a saying about wolves about be in order!
As with the other proverbs from this week, today's saying echoes an Aesop's fable with the same motif. Today's proverb is actually linked with a series of Aesop's fables about the foolishness of the shepherd faced with the wolf cub. These fables are attested in the Greek tradition, but no in Latin, so I will just supply you with the English translations (with a link to the Greek text for those of you who are interested!).
Chambry 313: A shepherd found some wolf cubs and he brought them up, thinking that the fully grown wolves would both guard his flock and steal other people's sheep to bring back to his sheepfold. But when the cubs grew up, the first thing they did was to destroy the man's own flock. The man groaned and said, 'It serves me right! Why didn't I kill them when they were little?'
Chambry 314: A shepherd found a new-born wolf cub. Taking it home, he raised it with his dogs. After the cub had grown up, he would join the dogs in the chase if a prowling wolf ever stole one of the sheep. When the dogs were no longer able to keep up with the other wolf and turned back for home (as sometimes happened), the wolf would continue the chase until he caught the other wolf and received an equal share of the prey, true to his wolf's nature. Then he too would go back home. If, however, no wolves came to seize the sheep, he would secretly slaughter one of the sheep and eat it together with the dogs. When the shepherd finally guessed what was happening, he hanged the wolf from a tree and killed him.
Chambry 315: A shepherd found a little wolf cub and raised it. Then, when the cub was bigger he taught it to steal from his neighbours' flocks. Once he had learned how to do this, the wolf said to the shepherd, 'Now that you have shown me how to steal, take care that many of your own sheep don't go missing!'
Each of these three fables imagines a different variation on the plot suggested by today's proverb, raising the cub of the wolf. In all three cases, as you can see, no good comes of doing that!
So, hoping you have not got a wolf in your sheepfold, wittingly or unwittingly, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1636. Alis luporum catulos.
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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August 31, 2007
August 30, 2007
Unus lanius non timet multas oves
In English: One butcher does not fear the many sheep.
I've been posting proverbs related to Aesop's fables this week, and I thought this would be a good one to include, since it resonates with a really profound Aesop's fable - the story of the butcher and the sheep - which is surprisingly little known. Here is the story in Steinhowel's version:
As today's proverb tells us, the butcher can indeed face many sheep without fear, exactly because the sheep will do nothing to help themselves, or each other.
This fable has always reminded me of the 'first they came' parable of Pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984): 'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.'
So, hoping we can recognize the butcher when we see him coming (or, better yet, hoping he does not come at all), here is today's proverb read out loud:
1441. Unus lanius non timet multas oves.
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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I've been posting proverbs related to Aesop's fables this week, and I thought this would be a good one to include, since it resonates with a really profound Aesop's fable - the story of the butcher and the sheep - which is surprisingly little known. Here is the story in Steinhowel's version:
Verveces in collecto cum essent una cum arietibus, lanium videntes inter se intrare dissimulaverunt. Cum autem unum ex se cernerent mortifera manu lanii teneri, trahi et interfici, etiam nec sic timuerunt, sed inter se incaute dicebant: Hunc tetigit et te [non]; dimittamus, trahat quem trahat. Novissime remansit unus, cum et ipse similiter se trahi videret, se dixisse lanio fertur: Digne sumus laniati singillatim ab uno, qui hoc non prospeximus, dum essemus simul et te in medio nostro positum aspeximus et capitinis impulsionibus quassatum, confractumque non occidimus.Here also is Caxton's English version of 1484: "A bocher entryd within a stable full of whethers / And after as the whethers sawe hym / none of them sayd one word / And the bocher toke the fyrst that he fonde / Thenne the whethers spake al to gyder and sayd / lete hym doo what he wylle / And thus the bocher tooke hem all one after another sauf one onely / And as he wold haue taken the last / the poure whether sayd to hym / Iustly I am worthy to be take / by cause I haue not holpen my felawes." The spelling may give you a headache, but you can still see the powerful point of this story, even in the old-fashioned orthography.
When the wethers were gathered together in a flock with the rams, they saw a butcher enter among them, but they pretended not to see him. Even when they saw one of their number seized by the death-dealing hand of the butcher, dragged off and slaughtered, they even so did not fear but recklessly said to one another: He took that one, and not you; we concede, let him take whom he takes. Finally one was left and when he himself likewise saw that he was being dragged off, he reportedly said to the butcher: Rightly we are butchered one after another, because we did not pay attention; when we were together and we saw you placed in our midst we should have killed you by grinding you with blows from our heads and smashing you to bits.
As today's proverb tells us, the butcher can indeed face many sheep without fear, exactly because the sheep will do nothing to help themselves, or each other.
This fable has always reminded me of the 'first they came' parable of Pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984): 'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.'
So, hoping we can recognize the butcher when we see him coming (or, better yet, hoping he does not come at all), here is today's proverb read out loud:
1441. Unus lanius non timet multas oves.
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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August 28, 2007
Aliorum medicus ipse ulceribus scates
In English: You, a doctor to others, are covered all over with sores.
This is a variation on the famous "physician, heal thyself" type of proverb. I decided to include this proverb today (from Erasmus's Adagia, 2.5.38) because it is related to an Aesop's fable about a frog, just like the fable from yesterday about the puffed-up frog.
The story goes that the frog had decided to set up shop as a doctor. Here is the version in Barlow's Aesop:
So, hoping your day has been entirely free of quacks - aquatic or otherwise - here is today's proverb read out loud:
1521. Aliorum medicus ipse ulceribus scates.
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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This is a variation on the famous "physician, heal thyself" type of proverb. I decided to include this proverb today (from Erasmus's Adagia, 2.5.38) because it is related to an Aesop's fable about a frog, just like the fable from yesterday about the puffed-up frog.
The story goes that the frog had decided to set up shop as a doctor. Here is the version in Barlow's Aesop:
Rana paludibus valedicens, et novo vivendi genere acquisito, in silvam gloriabunda sese tulit, et bestiarum coronis circumstipata, medicinae artem publice profitebatur, et in herbis quae ad corpora curanda pertinent, nobiliorem se vel Galeno vel Hippocrate esse clamitabat. Credula bestiarum gens fidem facile adhibebant, vulpe solummodo excepta, quae sic glorianti irridebat. "Insulsum vagumque animal! Quid tam vana blatteras? Quid artem nobilem prae te fers quam minime calles? Livida pallidaque - illa tua labra respice: quin domi abi, et teipsum cura, medice! Deinde ad nos redeas meliora forsan de te speraturos. Nihil respondente rana, sed tacitis secum gemente suspiriis, tota bestiarum cachinnis resonabat silva.You can see a great illustration for this story by Francis Barlow, featuring all kinds of animals looking on at the dialogue between the fox and the frog - you can even see a squirrel and a monkey up in the tree observing!
The frog said goodbye to her swamp and adopted a new mode of life, and quite puffed up with pride she went into the forest. Girded round with the beasts' wreaths of honor, she professed publicly the art of medicine, declaring which herbs which are useful in curing the body's diseases, shouting that she was more worthy of honor than Galen or Hippocrates. The gullible animal kingdom easily put their trust in the frog - except only for the fox, who laughed at the boasting frog. "You witless and giddy creature! Why do you babble such foolish things? Why do you assume this worthy art which you know absolutely nothing about? Sickly green and pale - look at your own lips: why don't you just go home and cure yourself, doctor! And then you might come back to us, when we may perhaps expect something more useful from you." The frog said nothing in response, but groaned with quiet sighs, and all the woods resounded with the laughter of the beasts.
So, hoping your day has been entirely free of quacks - aquatic or otherwise - here is today's proverb read out loud:
1521. Aliorum medicus ipse ulceribus scates.
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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August 27, 2007
Inflat se tamquam rana
In English: He's puffing himself up like a frog.
I've been working on Aesop's fables for another project lately (an edition of Barlow's Aesop for Latin students - Bolchazy-Carducci has agreed to take it on!), so I thought I would indulge myself by doing some proverbs here in the blog that go hand-in-hand with some Aesop's fables.
This saying about the frog can stand on its own, of course. Everyone knows how funny a frog looks when it puffs itself up, which provides a fine metaphor for a person puffed up with his own sense of self-importance.
Thanks to Aesop, there is also a great little fable that tells a story about a frog who puffed herself up to extremes! Here's the version in Steinhowel's Aesop, and you can see some great Renaissance illustrations from several different editions online:
As a huge over-grown Oxe was grazing in a Meadow, an old envious Frog that stood gaping at him hard by, call’d out to her little ones, to take Notice of the Bulk of that monstrous Beast; and see, says she, if I don’t make myself now the bigger of the two. So she strain’d once, and twice, and went still swelling on and on, till in the Conclusion she forc’d herself, and burst.
THE MORAL. Betwixt Pride, Envy, and Ambition, Men fansy themselves to be bigger than they are, and other People to be less: And this Tumour swells itself at last till it makes all fly.
So, hoping your day has been free of puffed-up frogs, literal or metaphorical, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1278. Inflat se tamquam rana.
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.
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.
I've been working on Aesop's fables for another project lately (an edition of Barlow's Aesop for Latin students - Bolchazy-Carducci has agreed to take it on!), so I thought I would indulge myself by doing some proverbs here in the blog that go hand-in-hand with some Aesop's fables.
This saying about the frog can stand on its own, of course. Everyone knows how funny a frog looks when it puffs itself up, which provides a fine metaphor for a person puffed up with his own sense of self-importance.
Thanks to Aesop, there is also a great little fable that tells a story about a frog who puffed herself up to extremes! Here's the version in Steinhowel's Aesop, and you can see some great Renaissance illustrations from several different editions online:
In prato quaedam rana vidit pascentem bovem, putabat se posse fieri talem, si rugosam pellem inflaret. At natos suos interrogavit: Sum ne ipsa quantus est bos? Dixerunt: None. Iterum inflavit se potius et dixit suis: Quid modo? Responderunt: Nihil simile. Tertio cum se inflaret rupta pelle mortua est, ideo vulgo dicitur: Noli te inflare, ne crepes.There are many versions of this story in both the ancient Latin and Greek traditions. As always, the wonderful 17th-century writer Sir Roger L'Estrange provides a lively English version:
In a meadow a certain frog saw a bull who was feeding there. She thought she could be like the bull, if she pulled up her wrinkly skin. She asked her children: Am I not as big as the bull? They said: No. She puffed herself up again even more and said to her children: What about this way? They said: Nothing like him. The third time when she puffed herself up, her skin burst open and she died, hence the common saying: Don't puff yourself up; you might burst.
As a huge over-grown Oxe was grazing in a Meadow, an old envious Frog that stood gaping at him hard by, call’d out to her little ones, to take Notice of the Bulk of that monstrous Beast; and see, says she, if I don’t make myself now the bigger of the two. So she strain’d once, and twice, and went still swelling on and on, till in the Conclusion she forc’d herself, and burst.
THE MORAL. Betwixt Pride, Envy, and Ambition, Men fansy themselves to be bigger than they are, and other People to be less: And this Tumour swells itself at last till it makes all fly.
So, hoping your day has been free of puffed-up frogs, literal or metaphorical, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1278. Inflat se tamquam rana.
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.
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.
August 24, 2007
Felix alterius cui sunt documenta flagella
In English: Happy is the man for whom another man's lashings are a lesson.
As you can see, today's proverb is a much more visceral variation on yesterday's saying: Alienis malis discimus, "We learn from others' mistakes."
In today's saying, it is not so much that we learn from other people's mistakes, but rather from the brutal punishment that someone else suffers as a consequence of the mistake that he made. The flagella are "whippings" or "lashings," as you can see in the English word "flagellation."
Students of Latin will recognize the -ellum suffix here as a Latin diminutive form. A word like flagellum shows that diminutives were not always something sweet or endearing. The word flagellum is a diminutive of the word flagrum, meaning a "whip, scourge, lash."
The same root flag- shows up in the verb affligere, "to damage, crush, beat down," as in the English verb "afflict" and the noun "affliction."
The more you ponder today's saying, the more grim it becomes, because you realize that the punishment being meted out derives its power from being public. The Roman master who whipped his slave was not doing that simply in order to punish the slave, but in order to terrorize the other slaves who witnessed the event, so that the flagella, the "strokes of the whip" applied to one slave would serve as "lessons," documenta for the other slaves.
Of course, if you take this metaphorically, and don't think about actual lashings and whippings, today's proverb becomes more palatable. When you see that someone has not benefited from some kind of action and instead has suffered from it, you can learn to avoid that action yourself. Good enough. But when you reflect on the scene, no doubt repeated millions of times in the history of mankind, when a master whipped his slave publicly in order to terrorize the other slaves and "teach them a lesson," you realize what a harsh reality is reflected in the visceral language of today's saying.
So, hoping that no flagella of any kind, literal or metaphorical, are threatening you in any way, here is today's proverb read out loud:
925. Felix alterius cui sunt documenta flagella.
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.
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.
As you can see, today's proverb is a much more visceral variation on yesterday's saying: Alienis malis discimus, "We learn from others' mistakes."
In today's saying, it is not so much that we learn from other people's mistakes, but rather from the brutal punishment that someone else suffers as a consequence of the mistake that he made. The flagella are "whippings" or "lashings," as you can see in the English word "flagellation."
Students of Latin will recognize the -ellum suffix here as a Latin diminutive form. A word like flagellum shows that diminutives were not always something sweet or endearing. The word flagellum is a diminutive of the word flagrum, meaning a "whip, scourge, lash."
The same root flag- shows up in the verb affligere, "to damage, crush, beat down," as in the English verb "afflict" and the noun "affliction."
The more you ponder today's saying, the more grim it becomes, because you realize that the punishment being meted out derives its power from being public. The Roman master who whipped his slave was not doing that simply in order to punish the slave, but in order to terrorize the other slaves who witnessed the event, so that the flagella, the "strokes of the whip" applied to one slave would serve as "lessons," documenta for the other slaves.
Of course, if you take this metaphorically, and don't think about actual lashings and whippings, today's proverb becomes more palatable. When you see that someone has not benefited from some kind of action and instead has suffered from it, you can learn to avoid that action yourself. Good enough. But when you reflect on the scene, no doubt repeated millions of times in the history of mankind, when a master whipped his slave publicly in order to terrorize the other slaves and "teach them a lesson," you realize what a harsh reality is reflected in the visceral language of today's saying.
So, hoping that no flagella of any kind, literal or metaphorical, are threatening you in any way, here is today's proverb read out loud:
925. Felix alterius cui sunt documenta flagella.
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.
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.
August 23, 2007
Alienis malis discimus
In English: We learn from others' mistakes.
I thought this saying would make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, Discipulus est prioris posterior dies, "The following day is the student of the previous day." In yesterday's saying, the idea was that you learn from your own mistakes. If something did not work out on one day, you can do better the next day.
Today's saying is a bit more opportunistic! It is better to learn from others' mistakes, rather than from your own mistakes. If you can learn from the mistakes that other people make, you can perhaps completely avoid making that same mistake yourself.
This is the notion of the "negative exemplum," as you can see illustrated in hundreds of Aesop's fables. Typically, an Aesop's fable is not about some positive hero who gives you a good example to imitate. Instead, an Aesop's fable is usually about some foolish creature who makes a mistake, often a fatal mistake! The idea is that you learn from that creature's mistake in order to avoid making the same mistake yourself, according to the theory of learning espoused in today's saying.
If you approach the fables of Aesop with this idea in mind, it often gives you a new perspective on the inner dynamics of the story. Take the tortoise and the hare, for example, a very famous and still very popular fable. Many people today assume that the tortoise is the hero of the story, and they derive a positive moral from the tortoise's victory over the hare: slow and steady wins the race.
In fact, the traditional version of the fable is not so much about the positive example set by the tortoise but the negative example set by the hare. The tortoise beat the hare in the race because the hare was lazy. Moral of the story: don't be lazy! Learn from the mistake of the hare, and don't snooze. You snooze, you lose.
No matter how virtuous the tortoise might be, he is not likely to beat a hare in a race, unless the hare makes some serious mistake, after all.
Of course, the tortoise could also cheat! (So much for the morally virtuous tortoise!) If you have never read a version of the story based on the tortoise cheating, you should take a look at this fine Cherokee version of the story, or this version in the Brothers Grimm, with a hedgehog instead of a tortoise.
Meanwhile, hoping your day today has not been a negative exemplum either for yourself or for others, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1645. Alienis malis discimus.
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.
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.
I thought this saying would make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, Discipulus est prioris posterior dies, "The following day is the student of the previous day." In yesterday's saying, the idea was that you learn from your own mistakes. If something did not work out on one day, you can do better the next day.
Today's saying is a bit more opportunistic! It is better to learn from others' mistakes, rather than from your own mistakes. If you can learn from the mistakes that other people make, you can perhaps completely avoid making that same mistake yourself.
This is the notion of the "negative exemplum," as you can see illustrated in hundreds of Aesop's fables. Typically, an Aesop's fable is not about some positive hero who gives you a good example to imitate. Instead, an Aesop's fable is usually about some foolish creature who makes a mistake, often a fatal mistake! The idea is that you learn from that creature's mistake in order to avoid making the same mistake yourself, according to the theory of learning espoused in today's saying.
If you approach the fables of Aesop with this idea in mind, it often gives you a new perspective on the inner dynamics of the story. Take the tortoise and the hare, for example, a very famous and still very popular fable. Many people today assume that the tortoise is the hero of the story, and they derive a positive moral from the tortoise's victory over the hare: slow and steady wins the race.
In fact, the traditional version of the fable is not so much about the positive example set by the tortoise but the negative example set by the hare. The tortoise beat the hare in the race because the hare was lazy. Moral of the story: don't be lazy! Learn from the mistake of the hare, and don't snooze. You snooze, you lose.
No matter how virtuous the tortoise might be, he is not likely to beat a hare in a race, unless the hare makes some serious mistake, after all.
Of course, the tortoise could also cheat! (So much for the morally virtuous tortoise!) If you have never read a version of the story based on the tortoise cheating, you should take a look at this fine Cherokee version of the story, or this version in the Brothers Grimm, with a hedgehog instead of a tortoise.
Meanwhile, hoping your day today has not been a negative exemplum either for yourself or for others, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1645. Alienis malis discimus.
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.
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.
August 21, 2007
Discipulus est prioris posterior dies
In English: The following day is the student of the previous day.
Like yesterday's proverb about school and learning, I thought this would be a good selection for those of you who are embarking on a new school year this week, as I am. You could call today's proverb the motto of lifelong learning in Latin!
You can see this motto accompanied by a very cute bunny rabbit from an unusual pack of Tarot cards, the The Fairy Tarots by Antonio Lupatelli.
The person commenting on the card at that webpage makes a bit of a muddle of the Latin: "Prioris refers to the first of two things - but it is the genitive case (belonging to the first of two things). Posterior is the later of two things and is an adjective modifying Dies = day. So I think it means something like - discipline is the first priority at the end of the day. But I am not secure in that."
The problem is that while the Latin word discipulus looks something like the English word "discipline," it is actually the Latin word for "student" (and also the origin of the English word "disciple"). So no, the motto does not mean that "discipline is the first priority at the end of the day." Instead, it means simply that the posterior dies, "the following day" discipulus est, "is the student" prioris "of the preceding day."
In other words, yesterday is the teacher of tomorrow!
There is an even more simple version of this saying, but one that is so simple as to be a bit enigmatic: Dies diem docet, "Day teaches day."
So, hoping that in the course of your day today you have learned a good lesson that you can put to use tomorrow, here is today's proverb read out loud:
581. Discipulus est prioris posterior dies.
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.
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.
Like yesterday's proverb about school and learning, I thought this would be a good selection for those of you who are embarking on a new school year this week, as I am. You could call today's proverb the motto of lifelong learning in Latin!
You can see this motto accompanied by a very cute bunny rabbit from an unusual pack of Tarot cards, the The Fairy Tarots by Antonio Lupatelli.
The person commenting on the card at that webpage makes a bit of a muddle of the Latin: "Prioris refers to the first of two things - but it is the genitive case (belonging to the first of two things). Posterior is the later of two things and is an adjective modifying Dies = day. So I think it means something like - discipline is the first priority at the end of the day. But I am not secure in that."
The problem is that while the Latin word discipulus looks something like the English word "discipline," it is actually the Latin word for "student" (and also the origin of the English word "disciple"). So no, the motto does not mean that "discipline is the first priority at the end of the day." Instead, it means simply that the posterior dies, "the following day" discipulus est, "is the student" prioris "of the preceding day."
In other words, yesterday is the teacher of tomorrow!
There is an even more simple version of this saying, but one that is so simple as to be a bit enigmatic: Dies diem docet, "Day teaches day."
So, hoping that in the course of your day today you have learned a good lesson that you can put to use tomorrow, here is today's proverb read out loud:
581. Discipulus est prioris posterior dies.
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.
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.
August 20, 2007
Non scholae sed vitae discimus
In English: We learn, not for school, but for life.
Given that today, August 20, is the first official day of classes for the new year at my school, I thought I would choose an appropriate proverb for the occasion. This is one of my favorite Latin sayings. In fact, I chose it as the epigraph for my Latin Via Proverbs book.
The saying is adapted from a passage in one of Seneca's Letters to Lucilius. At the end of the letter, which is occupied with a rather arcane discussion of whether "goodness" has a body or whether it is disembodied, Seneca warns Lucilius not to waste time in useless scholastic speculation - precisely the kinds of speculation Seneca has expounded in the letter. Such subtleties may make people learned, Seneca admits, but it does not make them good: non faciunt bonos ista sed doctos.
Wisdom, says, Seneca, is something far more clear and far more simple: apertior res est sapere, immo simplicior.
The golden rule of moderation applies to learning as to everything else. Excess is dangerous! It is enough to employ just a little learning to improve your mind: paucis satis est ad mentem bonam uti litteris. More than that is a waste of effort on pointless frivolity, of the sort that philosophers like Seneca too often indulge in: sed nos ut cetera in supervacuum diffundimus, ita philosophiam ipsam.
So, Seneca warns Lucilius: be careful not to do anything to excess, including studying to excess, because you don't want to waste your time studying simply for the sake of school; you need to study just enough for your life's purposes: quemadmodum omnium rerum, sic litterarum quoque intemperantia laboramus: non vitae sed scholae discimus.
The saying non scholae sed vitae discimus is the positive affirmation. Seneca, at the end of this letter, is warning Lucilius that the philosophical contents of the letter have committed the mistake of doing just the opposite, of learning for the sake of school rather than for life.
This is a saying that I take very much to heart as a teacher, and if you Google the phrase you will find many other like-minded educators online!
So, hoping your new school year is off to a wonderful start, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1594. Non scholae sed vitae discimus.
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.
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.
Given that today, August 20, is the first official day of classes for the new year at my school, I thought I would choose an appropriate proverb for the occasion. This is one of my favorite Latin sayings. In fact, I chose it as the epigraph for my Latin Via Proverbs book.
The saying is adapted from a passage in one of Seneca's Letters to Lucilius. At the end of the letter, which is occupied with a rather arcane discussion of whether "goodness" has a body or whether it is disembodied, Seneca warns Lucilius not to waste time in useless scholastic speculation - precisely the kinds of speculation Seneca has expounded in the letter. Such subtleties may make people learned, Seneca admits, but it does not make them good: non faciunt bonos ista sed doctos.
Wisdom, says, Seneca, is something far more clear and far more simple: apertior res est sapere, immo simplicior.
The golden rule of moderation applies to learning as to everything else. Excess is dangerous! It is enough to employ just a little learning to improve your mind: paucis satis est ad mentem bonam uti litteris. More than that is a waste of effort on pointless frivolity, of the sort that philosophers like Seneca too often indulge in: sed nos ut cetera in supervacuum diffundimus, ita philosophiam ipsam.
So, Seneca warns Lucilius: be careful not to do anything to excess, including studying to excess, because you don't want to waste your time studying simply for the sake of school; you need to study just enough for your life's purposes: quemadmodum omnium rerum, sic litterarum quoque intemperantia laboramus: non vitae sed scholae discimus.
The saying non scholae sed vitae discimus is the positive affirmation. Seneca, at the end of this letter, is warning Lucilius that the philosophical contents of the letter have committed the mistake of doing just the opposite, of learning for the sake of school rather than for life.
This is a saying that I take very much to heart as a teacher, and if you Google the phrase you will find many other like-minded educators online!
So, hoping your new school year is off to a wonderful start, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1594. Non scholae sed vitae discimus.
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.
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.
August 17, 2007
Asinus balneatoris numquam particeps balnei
In English: The bathhouse-keeper's donkey never gets to have a bath.
Here's another proverb about a donkey to add to the donkey proverbs of the past two days.
This is one of the proverbs included by Erasmus in his Adagia, and here are his comments: Dictum est in eos, qui ex suis laboribus ipsi nihil fructus caperent, "This is said about those who despite their own hard work are themselves not able to reap any of its benefits." In other words, the donkey works and works to make the bathhouse operate - carrying the wood, etc. - but the poor donkey himself does not get to enjoy the pleasure of taking a bath!
This is such a common situation, and the Latin proverb expresses it wonderfully. I am trying to think of some equivalent English proverbs, but I am not having a lot of luck. There is this abstract observation - Some shall reap that never sow, and some shall toil and not attain - but it lacks the vividness of the Latin. I'm thinking there should be something metaphorical in English - a cook who never gets to taste the soup?
If anyone has some thoughts on comparable English proverbs, please do post a comment here!
Meanwhile, we can add this saying to the larger collection of Latin sayings and proverbs in which the donkey is the embodiment of enslavement and exploitation. One of my favorite stories about the hard-working donkey is the one about the donkey who carries all the baggage of the traveling priests. Here is the version by Phaedrus:
So, hoping you have escaped the sad fate of the proverbial donkeys in your own labors today, here is the proverb read out loud:
313. Asinus balneatoris numquam particeps balnei.
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.
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.
Here's another proverb about a donkey to add to the donkey proverbs of the past two days.
This is one of the proverbs included by Erasmus in his Adagia, and here are his comments: Dictum est in eos, qui ex suis laboribus ipsi nihil fructus caperent, "This is said about those who despite their own hard work are themselves not able to reap any of its benefits." In other words, the donkey works and works to make the bathhouse operate - carrying the wood, etc. - but the poor donkey himself does not get to enjoy the pleasure of taking a bath!
This is such a common situation, and the Latin proverb expresses it wonderfully. I am trying to think of some equivalent English proverbs, but I am not having a lot of luck. There is this abstract observation - Some shall reap that never sow, and some shall toil and not attain - but it lacks the vividness of the Latin. I'm thinking there should be something metaphorical in English - a cook who never gets to taste the soup?
If anyone has some thoughts on comparable English proverbs, please do post a comment here!
Meanwhile, we can add this saying to the larger collection of Latin sayings and proverbs in which the donkey is the embodiment of enslavement and exploitation. One of my favorite stories about the hard-working donkey is the one about the donkey who carries all the baggage of the traveling priests. Here is the version by Phaedrus:
Galli Cybebes circum in questus ducereJust for fun, I thought I would include Christopher Smart's rhyming translation (as readers of this blog know, I'm endlessly enchanted by things that rhyme):
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!"
Cybele's priests, in quest of bread,Alas, the poor donkey! The bathhouse-keeper's donkey does not get to take a bath, and the donkey who belongs to the drum-playing priests is himself made into a drum!
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."
So, hoping you have escaped the sad fate of the proverbial donkeys in your own labors today, here is the proverb read out loud:
313. Asinus balneatoris numquam particeps balnei.
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.
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.
August 16, 2007
Asinus gestat mysteria
In English: The donkey is carrying divine mysteries.
After yesterday's proverb about the wool of the donkey, I could not resist doing another donkey proverb, and there are many to choose from in Latin!
This particular proverb is based on a famous story which you can find in various authors, including Alciato. So, here is the story as told by Alciato, and you can also see the illustration at this Alciato website:
So, keeping an eye out for the donkeys in our midst, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1043. Asinus gestat mysteria.
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.
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.
After yesterday's proverb about the wool of the donkey, I could not resist doing another donkey proverb, and there are many to choose from in Latin!
This particular proverb is based on a famous story which you can find in various authors, including Alciato. So, here is the story as told by Alciato, and you can also see the illustration at this Alciato website:
Isidis effigiem tardus gestabat asellus,What a great little story! It reminds me a bit of a discussion that I had with someone about how I refer to the President as "Bush" (and, more often than not, "that idiot Bush"), instead of referring to him as "President Bush," simply out of respect for the office. Well, to me, a donkey is a donkey - even if he does bear the office of the president. That's one way I might apply this very ancient saying in our more secular world.
Pando verenda dorso habens mysteria.
Obvius ergo Deam quisquis reverenter adorat,
Piasque genibus concipit flexis preces.
Ast asinus tantum praestari credit honorem
Sibi, et intumescit, admodum superbiens:
Donec eum flagris compescens, dixit agaso,
Non es Deus tu, aselle, sed Deum vehis.
Poetic word order is often a bit hard to follow, so here is the story written out with a more simple word order: Asellus tardus gestabatIsidis effigiemhabens pando dorsoverenda mysteria.Obvius ergo quisquisreverenter adorat Deam,et genibus flexisconcipit pias preces.Ast asinus tantum creditsibi honorem praestari,et intumescit, admodum superbiens:donec agaso,compescens eum flagris,dixit:Non es Deus tu, aselle,sed Deum vehis.
The slow donkey was carrying an image of Isis, bearing on his wide back the venerable divine mysteries. He ran into someone who reverently worhsipped the Goddess, falling to his knees and starting his pious prayers. But the donkey only thought that the man was making obeisance to him, and so the donkey swelled with pride, inordinately satisfied with himself until his driver, checking him by means of the whip, said: You are no god yourself, donkey! You are just the vehicle.
So, keeping an eye out for the donkeys in our midst, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1043. Asinus gestat mysteria.
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.
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.
August 13, 2007
Ab asino lanam quaeris
In English: You're looking to get wool from a donkey.
After yesterday's saying about the gods and their feet wrapped in wool, I thought it would be fun to do this proverb about wool, which is one of the many Latin proverbs describing a fool's errand. Getting wool from a donkey is like the English saying about trying to get blood from a stone or looking for hen's teeth. You can look... but you aren't going to find any!
An old collection of English proverbs supplies this amusing parallel: "you seek breeches of a bare-assed man." Ha!
The saying about the donkey and the wool is one of the proverbs included in Erasmus's Adagia, meaning that it became well-known throughout Europe as a result. He comments simply, De iis, qui stulte quaerunt ea, quae nusquam sunt, "about those who foolishly seek thinks, which are nowhere."
Erasmus cites as a source the Greek playwright, Aristophanes, in his comedy, The Frogs. The words are shouted out by Charon, the boatman to the underworld, who asks: τίς εἰς τοῦ λήθης πεδίον, τίς εἰς ὄνου πόκας; "Who's for the plain of Lethe? Who's for the donkey's wool?" That's a much more bleak take on the quest for the donkey's wool: it is not simply a quest that has nothing as its goal, but actual annihilation, the ultimate nothing invoked by Charon's passage. The person who's looking for donkey's wool is on a Sisyphean quest, to invoke another famous denizen of the classical underworld.
So, hoping that finding some donkey's wool is not on your to-do list, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1676. Ab asino lanam quaeris.
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.
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.
After yesterday's saying about the gods and their feet wrapped in wool, I thought it would be fun to do this proverb about wool, which is one of the many Latin proverbs describing a fool's errand. Getting wool from a donkey is like the English saying about trying to get blood from a stone or looking for hen's teeth. You can look... but you aren't going to find any!
An old collection of English proverbs supplies this amusing parallel: "you seek breeches of a bare-assed man." Ha!
The saying about the donkey and the wool is one of the proverbs included in Erasmus's Adagia, meaning that it became well-known throughout Europe as a result. He comments simply, De iis, qui stulte quaerunt ea, quae nusquam sunt, "about those who foolishly seek thinks, which are nowhere."
Erasmus cites as a source the Greek playwright, Aristophanes, in his comedy, The Frogs. The words are shouted out by Charon, the boatman to the underworld, who asks: τίς εἰς τοῦ λήθης πεδίον, τίς εἰς ὄνου πόκας; "Who's for the plain of Lethe? Who's for the donkey's wool?" That's a much more bleak take on the quest for the donkey's wool: it is not simply a quest that has nothing as its goal, but actual annihilation, the ultimate nothing invoked by Charon's passage. The person who's looking for donkey's wool is on a Sisyphean quest, to invoke another famous denizen of the classical underworld.
So, hoping that finding some donkey's wool is not on your to-do list, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1676. Ab asino lanam quaeris.
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.
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.
Di lanatos pedes habent
In English: The gods have woollen feet.
Here is one more proverb about feet in Latin, pedes, following up on the proverbs about feet from last week.
This proverb, which you can find in Petronius, expresses with a striking adjective, lanatos, "woollen, covered with wool," a profound truth about the gods and their actions: they creep up on you quietly, and you do not hear them coming!
The idea, of course, is that the gods come after you when they are exacting divine vengeance; it's not just a friendly visit! This version of the saying makes the purpose of the gods' visit very clear: Di irati laneos pedes habent, "The gods, when they are angry, have feet of wool."
There's a nice variant on this saying which tells us a bit more about the gods, giving us even more reason to worry: Deus habet laneos pedes, plumbeas manus, "the god has feet of wool, hands of lead." So, divine justice can sneak up on you quiet, but then once it grips you, it does so with a heavy hand indeed!
Now, even if you are not prepared to give credence to this anthropomorphic form of divine justice, there is still a message in these proverbs for us mere mortals. If you are out to get somebody, don't go rumbling all in a rage. Put on your woollen socks, and then begin your approach...
So, here is today's proverb read out loud... but not too loud! Quietly now...
1464. Di lanatos pedes habent.
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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Here is one more proverb about feet in Latin, pedes, following up on the proverbs about feet from last week.
This proverb, which you can find in Petronius, expresses with a striking adjective, lanatos, "woollen, covered with wool," a profound truth about the gods and their actions: they creep up on you quietly, and you do not hear them coming!
The idea, of course, is that the gods come after you when they are exacting divine vengeance; it's not just a friendly visit! This version of the saying makes the purpose of the gods' visit very clear: Di irati laneos pedes habent, "The gods, when they are angry, have feet of wool."
There's a nice variant on this saying which tells us a bit more about the gods, giving us even more reason to worry: Deus habet laneos pedes, plumbeas manus, "the god has feet of wool, hands of lead." So, divine justice can sneak up on you quiet, but then once it grips you, it does so with a heavy hand indeed!
Now, even if you are not prepared to give credence to this anthropomorphic form of divine justice, there is still a message in these proverbs for us mere mortals. If you are out to get somebody, don't go rumbling all in a rage. Put on your woollen socks, and then begin your approach...
So, here is today's proverb read out loud... but not too loud! Quietly now...
1464. Di lanatos pedes habent.
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.
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.
August 09, 2007
Nec caput nec pedes habet
In English: It hasn't got a head or feet.
This is a follow-up to yesterday's proverb, which was also about the head and the feet. Today's proverb is the Latin equivalent of "I can't make heads or tails out of it."
In other words, you can't tell where something starts (caput) or where it stops (pedes), you can't tell which way is up and which way is down. Bascially, the thing just doesn't make any sense at all; you can't make heads or tails out of it!
You can find this phrase used in Roman authors such as Cicero and also in Plautus (nec caput nec pes sermoni apparet). The phrase also makes a famous appearance in Horace's Ars Poetica: velut aegri somnia, vanae fingentur species, ut nec pes nec caput uni reddatur formae, "like the dreams of a sick person, senseless images are fashioned in such a way that neither head nor foot can be associated in a single shape."
I thought it would be fun to reflect here on the way that the metaphor of the caput and the pes have become important metaphors for how we organize words on the written page.
From the Latin caput, we get the word "chapter," which was originally a "heading," a word which is itself based on the same metaphor. The "chapter" was the heading, and then, by metonymical extension, everything contained under that particular heading. It was the diminutive Latin capitulum, "little head," which gave rise to the French chapitle, which had the alternate form chapitre, hence English "chapter." The word went through many variant spellings in English before it stabilized, as is the case for so many English words taken from French. For "chapter," the Oxford English Dictionary lists the following variant spellings: cheapitre, chapitre, chapitere, chaptire, chaptour, chapiter, chapyture, chappytre, chapiltre, chaptur, chapytre, chapyter, chapytour, chapitour, chapiture, chapit, and cheptour.
So, at the top of the page is the "heading" and at the bottom of the page is the footnote! This, however, is a much later term, dating to the nineteenth century. In Italian, they are called "nota a piè di pagina," "notes at the foot of the page."
Of course, the Internet and "web" pages have provoked a need for new metaphors to keep up with the new technology. The idea of headings is still immensely important in the world of the web and is enshrined in the language of HTML itself (H1, H2, H3...), but the poor footnotes are really struggling to survive. Webpages have not lost their heads, but their feet are a bit harder to find!
So, hoping you are able to make heads and tails out of whatever is going on in your life at the moment, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1430. Nec caput nec pedes habet.
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.
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.
This is a follow-up to yesterday's proverb, which was also about the head and the feet. Today's proverb is the Latin equivalent of "I can't make heads or tails out of it."
In other words, you can't tell where something starts (caput) or where it stops (pedes), you can't tell which way is up and which way is down. Bascially, the thing just doesn't make any sense at all; you can't make heads or tails out of it!
You can find this phrase used in Roman authors such as Cicero and also in Plautus (nec caput nec pes sermoni apparet). The phrase also makes a famous appearance in Horace's Ars Poetica: velut aegri somnia, vanae fingentur species, ut nec pes nec caput uni reddatur formae, "like the dreams of a sick person, senseless images are fashioned in such a way that neither head nor foot can be associated in a single shape."
I thought it would be fun to reflect here on the way that the metaphor of the caput and the pes have become important metaphors for how we organize words on the written page.
From the Latin caput, we get the word "chapter," which was originally a "heading," a word which is itself based on the same metaphor. The "chapter" was the heading, and then, by metonymical extension, everything contained under that particular heading. It was the diminutive Latin capitulum, "little head," which gave rise to the French chapitle, which had the alternate form chapitre, hence English "chapter." The word went through many variant spellings in English before it stabilized, as is the case for so many English words taken from French. For "chapter," the Oxford English Dictionary lists the following variant spellings: cheapitre, chapitre, chapitere, chaptire, chaptour, chapiter, chapyture, chappytre, chapiltre, chaptur, chapytre, chapyter, chapytour, chapitour, chapiture, chapit, and cheptour.
So, at the top of the page is the "heading" and at the bottom of the page is the footnote! This, however, is a much later term, dating to the nineteenth century. In Italian, they are called "nota a piè di pagina," "notes at the foot of the page."
Of course, the Internet and "web" pages have provoked a need for new metaphors to keep up with the new technology. The idea of headings is still immensely important in the world of the web and is enshrined in the language of HTML itself (H1, H2, H3...), but the poor footnotes are really struggling to survive. Webpages have not lost their heads, but their feet are a bit harder to find!
So, hoping you are able to make heads and tails out of whatever is going on in your life at the moment, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1430. Nec caput nec pedes habet.
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.
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.
August 07, 2007
Caput imperat, non pedes
In English: The head rules, not the feet.
This is a follow-up to yesterday's proverb, which was also about feet. This time, however, the feet are being "put down," to speak. The head of the body is on top, in charge, etc., while the lowly feet are meant to be its servants. Latin, like English, uses the word caput, "head," to mean both the head of the body but also the metaphorical head of anything, the boss, the chief, etc. (the word "chief" itself derives from Latin caput via French).
There's a very funny Aesop's fable which plays on the interpretive parallel between the "head" of a body and the "head" of a household. There was a farmer, it seems, whose sheep were born with human heads! The poor fellow received quite different interpretations of the omen from the soothsayers and from Aesop. Here is Phaedrus's version of the story:
Meanwhile, hoping you have not mean any such dire omens today, here is the proverb read out loud:
1168. Caput imperat, non pedes.
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.
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.
This is a follow-up to yesterday's proverb, which was also about feet. This time, however, the feet are being "put down," to speak. The head of the body is on top, in charge, etc., while the lowly feet are meant to be its servants. Latin, like English, uses the word caput, "head," to mean both the head of the body but also the metaphorical head of anything, the boss, the chief, etc. (the word "chief" itself derives from Latin caput via French).
There's a very funny Aesop's fable which plays on the interpretive parallel between the "head" of a body and the "head" of a household. There was a farmer, it seems, whose sheep were born with human heads! The poor fellow received quite different interpretations of the omen from the soothsayers and from Aesop. Here is Phaedrus's version of the story:
Habenti cuidam pecora perpererunt ovesAdmittedly, the story of the human-headed sheep is not an Aesop's fable for children, but it still one of my favorite fables. Ha!
agnos humano capite. Monstro territus
ad consulendos currit maerens hariolos.
Hic pertinere ad domini respondet caput,
et avertendum victima periculum.
Ille autem adfirmat coniugem esse adulteram
et insitivos significari liberos,
sed expiari posse maiore hostia.
Quid multa? Variis dissident sententiis,
hominisque curam cura maiore adgravant.
Aesopus ibi stans, naris emunctae senex,
natura numquam verba cui potuit dare,
"Si procurare vis ostentum, rustice,
uxores" inquit "da tuis pastoribus."
There was a farmer who had a flock of sheep, and those sheep gave birth to lambs with human heads. Alarmed by this omen the farmer hurried off, deeply upset, to consult the soothsayers. One soothsayer told him that the birth of lambs with human heads indicated a matter of life and death for him as the 'head' of the household, and a sacrifice would be required to ward off the danger. Another soothsayer insisted that this was instead a sign that the man's wife had been unfaithful to him, and that she had passed off other men's sons as his own; this evil omen could only be averted by an even greater sacrifice. To make a long story short, the soothsayers argued about their interpretations with one another, heightening the man's anxiety with more and more causes for alarm. Aesop also happened to be there, that old man who was nobody's fool: there was no way that nature could play tricks on him! 'If you want to expiate this omen,' said Aesop, 'I suggest you supply your shepherds with wives!'
Meanwhile, hoping you have not mean any such dire omens today, here is the proverb read out loud:
1168. Caput imperat, non pedes.
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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August 06, 2007
Ex pede Herculem
In English: You know Hercules by his foot.
After doing proverbs about hands last week, I thought I would devote this week to proverbs about feet!
Today's proverb definitely requires careful attention to the Latin because of the crucial role played by the case of one of the words: Herculem, Hercules, who is in the accusative case. Given that Hercules is in the accusative case, he has to be the object of a verb, and given that there is no verb stated here, in the English translation a verb has to be supplied: "You recognize Hercules by his foot," "You know Hercules by his foot," etc. The Latin is much more elegant precisely because the verb does not have to be supplied. The use of the accusative case gives you all the grammatical information you need to know in order to understand the saying, even without a verb being supplied.
Just what, then, was so remarkable about Hercules's foot? Hercules's foot was the unit of measurement which gives the "foot" its name, at least according to legend.
In ancient Greece, a standard unit of measurement was the "stade" and the first Olympic "stadium" consisted of a race that was one stade in length. This stade was "600 feet" as measured by the foot of Hercules himself! Since the Olympic stadium course was 190 meters, or 633 feet as we measure it today, that would make Hercules's foot very large - a foot that was really a foot long, or a bit more. According to wikipedia, the foot of the average European is 9.4 inches in length.
So that's why you could recognize Hercules by his feet: they were BIG.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were actually interested in the mathematics of this. Would it be possible, they wondered, to figure out just how big and tall Hercules was, operating on the information provided by the Olympic stadium which Hercules himself had measured? Pythagoras, the ancient philosopher still famous today for his "Pythagorean theorem" about the dimensions of right triangles, decided this was a problem he could solve! Here is the Roman writer Aulus Gellius, who cites Plutarch as the source for the method Pythagoras applied:
363. Ex pede Herculem.
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.
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.
After doing proverbs about hands last week, I thought I would devote this week to proverbs about feet!
Today's proverb definitely requires careful attention to the Latin because of the crucial role played by the case of one of the words: Herculem, Hercules, who is in the accusative case. Given that Hercules is in the accusative case, he has to be the object of a verb, and given that there is no verb stated here, in the English translation a verb has to be supplied: "You recognize Hercules by his foot," "You know Hercules by his foot," etc. The Latin is much more elegant precisely because the verb does not have to be supplied. The use of the accusative case gives you all the grammatical information you need to know in order to understand the saying, even without a verb being supplied.
Just what, then, was so remarkable about Hercules's foot? Hercules's foot was the unit of measurement which gives the "foot" its name, at least according to legend.
In ancient Greece, a standard unit of measurement was the "stade" and the first Olympic "stadium" consisted of a race that was one stade in length. This stade was "600 feet" as measured by the foot of Hercules himself! Since the Olympic stadium course was 190 meters, or 633 feet as we measure it today, that would make Hercules's foot very large - a foot that was really a foot long, or a bit more. According to wikipedia, the foot of the average European is 9.4 inches in length.
So that's why you could recognize Hercules by his feet: they were BIG.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were actually interested in the mathematics of this. Would it be possible, they wondered, to figure out just how big and tall Hercules was, operating on the information provided by the Olympic stadium which Hercules himself had measured? Pythagoras, the ancient philosopher still famous today for his "Pythagorean theorem" about the dimensions of right triangles, decided this was a problem he could solve! Here is the Roman writer Aulus Gellius, who cites Plutarch as the source for the method Pythagoras applied:
Plutarchus in libro, quem de Herculis, quamdiu inter homines fuit, animi corporisque ingenio atque virtutibus conscripsit, scite subtiliterque ratiocinatum Pythagoram philosophum dicit in reperienda modulandaque status longitudinisque eius praestantia. Nam cum fere constaret curriculum stadii, quod est Pisis apud Iovem Olympium, Herculem pedibus suis metatum idque fecisse longum pedes sescentos, cetera quoque stadia in terra Graecia ab aliis postea instituta pedum quidem esse numero sescentum, sed tamen esse aliquantulum breviora, facile intellexit modum spatiumque plantae Herculis ratione proportionis habita tanto fuisse quam aliorum procerius, quanto Olympicum stadium longius esset quam cetera. Comprehensa autem mensura Herculani pedis secundum naturalem membrorum omnium inter se competentiam modificatus est atque ita id collegit, quod erat consequens, tanto fuisse Herculem corpore excelsiorem quam alios, quanto Olympicum stadium ceteris pari numero factis anteiret.Notice that poor Pythagoras is hampered by the fact that there was not a standard unit of measurement he could apply to this problem, so he had to work it out in terms of propotions! Of course, even without the information supplied by Pythagoras, the point was clear in any case: Hercules had very big feet, and you could use that as a means of recognizing him, using information about a part (his feet) to identify the whole.So, in honor of both Hercules and Pythagoras, here is today's proverb read out loud:
Plutarch wrote about the mental and physical of talents and powers of Hercules while he lived here on earth. In that book, he says that the philosopher Pythagoras intelligently and inventively made calculations in ascertaining and measuring the exceptional aspect of Hercules's size and height. For it was generally agreed that Hercules with his own feet measured the course of the stadium which is in Pisa at the temple of Olympian Jupiter and that he made it 600 feet long. In addition, since the rest of the stadiums in the land of Greece constructed later by others were likewise 600 feet in length, but that they were somewhat shorter, Pythagoras readily concluded by the logic of proportions that the size and dimensions of Hercules's foot was greater in length than that of other men by the same amount that the Olympic stadium was longer than the other stadiums. Having determined the measure of Hercules's foot, he then calculated according to the natural proportion of the other parts of the body as they agree with other another, concluding that in height Hercules was taller than other men just as the Olympic stadium exceeded the other stadiums based on the equal number of other men's feet.
363. Ex pede Herculem.
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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August 02, 2007
Multae manus onus levant
In English: Many hands lighten the load.
Like yesterday's proverb about the five fingers of the hand, today's proverb is also a positive and optimistic one, in praise of cooperation.
There are actually a considerable number of variant expressions in Latin that convey the same idea. A comparative adjective can be used, making the load "lighter" rather than light: Multae manus onus levius faciunt, "Many hands make the load lighter." You can even use a superlative: Multae manus onus magnum levissime redducunt, "Many hands render a big load perfectly light."
Instead of "many hands" you can have "many people," as here: Multorum manibus alleviatur opus, "By the hands of many people, the load is raised up." You can also emphasize the weight of the load: multorum manibus grande levatur onus, "with the hands of many, a great load is lightened." Instead of grande, the burden can be grave, "heavy," as here: multorum manibus grave levatur onus. For even more alliteration, the load can be magnum, a big load: multorum manibus magnum levatur onus.
In any case, the point is that cooperation, the many hands at work, can make a difficult task easier to accomplish.
I was prompted to choose this proverb today both because it features "hands" but also because I read a very thought-provoking article in the New York Times yesterday about a scientist who uses computer models to study cooperation at all levels - between people but also on down to the microscopic level of cooperation between cells. It's a mind-bending article - definitely worth taking a look at! Here is the article online: In Games, an Insight Into the Rules of Evolution.
So, hoping that you have enough hands about you to lift any and all burdens, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1264. Multae manus onus levant.
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.
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.
Like yesterday's proverb about the five fingers of the hand, today's proverb is also a positive and optimistic one, in praise of cooperation.
There are actually a considerable number of variant expressions in Latin that convey the same idea. A comparative adjective can be used, making the load "lighter" rather than light: Multae manus onus levius faciunt, "Many hands make the load lighter." You can even use a superlative: Multae manus onus magnum levissime redducunt, "Many hands render a big load perfectly light."
Instead of "many hands" you can have "many people," as here: Multorum manibus alleviatur opus, "By the hands of many people, the load is raised up." You can also emphasize the weight of the load: multorum manibus grande levatur onus, "with the hands of many, a great load is lightened." Instead of grande, the burden can be grave, "heavy," as here: multorum manibus grave levatur onus. For even more alliteration, the load can be magnum, a big load: multorum manibus magnum levatur onus.
In any case, the point is that cooperation, the many hands at work, can make a difficult task easier to accomplish.
I was prompted to choose this proverb today both because it features "hands" but also because I read a very thought-provoking article in the New York Times yesterday about a scientist who uses computer models to study cooperation at all levels - between people but also on down to the microscopic level of cooperation between cells. It's a mind-bending article - definitely worth taking a look at! Here is the article online: In Games, an Insight Into the Rules of Evolution.
So, hoping that you have enough hands about you to lift any and all burdens, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1264. Multae manus onus levant.
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.
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.
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