In English: Overcome your parents with patience.
I think anybody who has had troubles with family members can appreciate the wisdom of this saying! I thought I would post this for all of us who are treading the waters of making plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, trying hard not to offend our parents or other family members, while also keeping our sanity intact.
The saying goes back to the collection of monostich proverbs attributed to Cato. You can also find it in the singular form with an adverb in place of the ablative noun, Parentem patienter vince, as well as in this form with a so-called "gerundive of necessity," i.e. Parentes patientia esse ferendos, "Parents are to be endured in patience."
Elsewhere, in a distich proverb, Cato lauds the power of patience as follows: Quem superare potes, interdum vince ferendo, / Maxima enim morum semper patientia virtus.’, "Sometimes the person whom you are able to overpower, you should conquer by endurance, for patience is always the greatest virtue of all the character traits."
In the monstichs, Cato also urges simply, Parentes ama, "Love your parents." Of course, for those of us who are not always up to the saintly task of loving others, being able to suffer other people in patience is a good second choice!
There is a lovely sundial with the parentes patientia vince motto in Puy St. Vincent which I found at this website, where the saying has been badly mistranslated as "patience of man will win." Definitely not a correct rendering of the Latin, but I am very grateful for the lovely photo, which you can see here and also here.
So, all is well as your family contemplates holiday plans, here is today's proverb read out loud:
2450. Parentes patientia vince.
The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.
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For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
October 07, 2008
October 05, 2008
Maluisses cloacas Augeae purgare
In English: You would have preferred to clean the sewers of Augeas.
As you might have noticed, this blog has been on hiatus for a while - the Aesop book got me sidetracked over the summer, and then school started, which always gets me sidetracked! I decided to spring back into action with this proverb about the hero Hercules, since Hercules is always a favorite topic among my students and this semester, as in every semester, several students have chosen Hercules as their Myth-Folklore topic for the semester.
This saying (which you can find in the Apocolocyntosis of Seneca) refers to one of the mythical labors of Hercules which is less famous than his slaying of monsters like the Nemean Lion of the Lernean Hydra. For this particular task, Hercules was condemned to clean out the sewer drains of the stables of King Augeas, who was famous for his horses, and who also owned more cattle than anyone in Greece, along with thousand of sheep and goats and other livestock, and the story goes that the stables had not been cleaned out in thirty years. As you can imagine, his stables were a mess! Moreover, Hercules was given only one day in which to clean them out. This was clearly a dirty job, and its inclusion in the list of heroic labors shows that the motivation behind these labors was not to give Hercules an opportunity to show off his strength in facing deadly challenges, but rather to condemn him to doing the ugly work of a slave.
Instead of using brute force to accomplish the task, Hercules used his wits instead. He made a large hole in the wall at one end of the enormous stables, and another hole at the other end. Then, Hercules dug a trench and diverted the two rivers Alpheus and Peneus so that they flowed through the stables and cleaned them out!
You can read about this labor in the fables of Hyginus, where it is explain here in Fable 30: Augeae regis stercus bobile uno die purgavit, maiorem partem Iove adiutore; flumine ammisso totum stercus abluit, "He cleaned in one day the cow manure of King Augeas, largely with Zeus helping him; when he had let in the river, it washed away all the manure." Just how Zeus helped his son here is not stated explicitly by Hyginus: perhaps his father gave him the idea to use the rivers to do the work, rather than trying to rely on his own strength.
The proverb cited here cites a comparison: maluisses, "you would have preferred," which is part of an implied contrary-to-fact past conditional, "(if you had had a choice - but you did not), you would have preferred to clean the stables of Augeas." In other words, there is some task even worse than the cleaning out of the stinking stables of Augeas - a task so onerous that cleaning the stables of Augeas would have looked easy by comparison.
I think they were talking about what it will take for me to clean out the garage! Ha ha.
So, hoping you don't face such arduous household cleaning tasks, here is today's proverb read out loud:
3446. Maluisses cloacas Augeae purgare.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
As you might have noticed, this blog has been on hiatus for a while - the Aesop book got me sidetracked over the summer, and then school started, which always gets me sidetracked! I decided to spring back into action with this proverb about the hero Hercules, since Hercules is always a favorite topic among my students and this semester, as in every semester, several students have chosen Hercules as their Myth-Folklore topic for the semester.
This saying (which you can find in the Apocolocyntosis of Seneca) refers to one of the mythical labors of Hercules which is less famous than his slaying of monsters like the Nemean Lion of the Lernean Hydra. For this particular task, Hercules was condemned to clean out the sewer drains of the stables of King Augeas, who was famous for his horses, and who also owned more cattle than anyone in Greece, along with thousand of sheep and goats and other livestock, and the story goes that the stables had not been cleaned out in thirty years. As you can imagine, his stables were a mess! Moreover, Hercules was given only one day in which to clean them out. This was clearly a dirty job, and its inclusion in the list of heroic labors shows that the motivation behind these labors was not to give Hercules an opportunity to show off his strength in facing deadly challenges, but rather to condemn him to doing the ugly work of a slave.
Instead of using brute force to accomplish the task, Hercules used his wits instead. He made a large hole in the wall at one end of the enormous stables, and another hole at the other end. Then, Hercules dug a trench and diverted the two rivers Alpheus and Peneus so that they flowed through the stables and cleaned them out!
You can read about this labor in the fables of Hyginus, where it is explain here in Fable 30: Augeae regis stercus bobile uno die purgavit, maiorem partem Iove adiutore; flumine ammisso totum stercus abluit, "He cleaned in one day the cow manure of King Augeas, largely with Zeus helping him; when he had let in the river, it washed away all the manure." Just how Zeus helped his son here is not stated explicitly by Hyginus: perhaps his father gave him the idea to use the rivers to do the work, rather than trying to rely on his own strength.
The proverb cited here cites a comparison: maluisses, "you would have preferred," which is part of an implied contrary-to-fact past conditional, "(if you had had a choice - but you did not), you would have preferred to clean the stables of Augeas." In other words, there is some task even worse than the cleaning out of the stinking stables of Augeas - a task so onerous that cleaning the stables of Augeas would have looked easy by comparison.
I think they were talking about what it will take for me to clean out the garage! Ha ha.
So, hoping you don't face such arduous household cleaning tasks, here is today's proverb read out loud:
3446. Maluisses cloacas Augeae purgare.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
August 08, 2008
Perdimus anguillam dum manibus stringimus illam
In English: We lose the eel as we are squeezing it between our hands.
Here is the latest in what is turning into a nice long series of proverbs featuring animals. In today's proverb, the nice rhyme - anguillam... illam - betrays its medieval origins. There are some other nice medieval variants on the same idea: anguilla a digitis saepe est dilapsa peritis, "an eel often has slipped out of fingers that are skilled" (the word order of a digitis... peritis is very nice!), or non habet anguillam per caudam qui tenet illam, "someone who's grasped an eel by the tail doesn't hold it."
Obviously, all three proverbs depend on the slipperiness of the eel - and even in English today, "slippery as an eel" is still a familiar cliche. Yet each of these Latin proverbs casts a slightly different emphasis on the slipperiness of that eel. Something can get away even from the most skilled operator (someone with digiti periti). Alternatively, if you think you've grabbed hold of something, that doesn't mean you've really got it (habet versus tenet).
What I like best about the version I selected for today, however, is the way it uses first person plural to pull us all into the situation: this is not about a generic person, but about all of us. Just as we think we are seizing the objective, grasping it in our own hands, it's going to slip away from us. That could be health or wealth or happiness - any of those cosmically slippery things that might slide right out of our hands just as we are hanging on as tightly as we can.
The proverb is not prescriptive, of course - it does not tell us what to do. Instead, it is an enlightenment proverb. Just in case you had fooled yourself into thinking you really had got hold of that eel... think again! :-)
So, hoping you are not suffering too much from the slipperiness of life today, here is the proverb read out loud:
1933. Perdimus anguillam dum manibus stringimus illam.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
Here is the latest in what is turning into a nice long series of proverbs featuring animals. In today's proverb, the nice rhyme - anguillam... illam - betrays its medieval origins. There are some other nice medieval variants on the same idea: anguilla a digitis saepe est dilapsa peritis, "an eel often has slipped out of fingers that are skilled" (the word order of a digitis... peritis is very nice!), or non habet anguillam per caudam qui tenet illam, "someone who's grasped an eel by the tail doesn't hold it."
Obviously, all three proverbs depend on the slipperiness of the eel - and even in English today, "slippery as an eel" is still a familiar cliche. Yet each of these Latin proverbs casts a slightly different emphasis on the slipperiness of that eel. Something can get away even from the most skilled operator (someone with digiti periti). Alternatively, if you think you've grabbed hold of something, that doesn't mean you've really got it (habet versus tenet).
What I like best about the version I selected for today, however, is the way it uses first person plural to pull us all into the situation: this is not about a generic person, but about all of us. Just as we think we are seizing the objective, grasping it in our own hands, it's going to slip away from us. That could be health or wealth or happiness - any of those cosmically slippery things that might slide right out of our hands just as we are hanging on as tightly as we can.
The proverb is not prescriptive, of course - it does not tell us what to do. Instead, it is an enlightenment proverb. Just in case you had fooled yourself into thinking you really had got hold of that eel... think again! :-)
So, hoping you are not suffering too much from the slipperiness of life today, here is the proverb read out loud:
1933. Perdimus anguillam dum manibus stringimus illam.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
August 01, 2008
Dimittis pullos sub custodia vulpis
In English: You're leaving the chickens in the care of the fox.
This is the latest animal proverb, and it belongs to that venerable set of proverbs about foolish behaviors. Leaving the fox to guard the henhouse is obviously a bad idea, and even if you don't have a henhouse you are trying to protect, there are all kinds of way you can apply this saying to modern life. In particular, there are all kinds of public, political situations to which it can be applied, such as having pharmaceutical companies conduct their own clinical trials, eh?
Although there is not an Aesop's fable where the fox is put in charge of the hens, there are some fine fables in which the wolf becomes aspires to become a shepherd! Here is one of my favorite versions, as told by the medieval preacher, Odo of Cheriton - I love how the shepherd plays detective to determine the wolf's guilt!
Meanwhile, hoping all the hens in your henhouse are safe from the marauding fox or the wolf, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1846. Dimittis pullos sub custodia vulpis.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
This is the latest animal proverb, and it belongs to that venerable set of proverbs about foolish behaviors. Leaving the fox to guard the henhouse is obviously a bad idea, and even if you don't have a henhouse you are trying to protect, there are all kinds of way you can apply this saying to modern life. In particular, there are all kinds of public, political situations to which it can be applied, such as having pharmaceutical companies conduct their own clinical trials, eh?
Although there is not an Aesop's fable where the fox is put in charge of the hens, there are some fine fables in which the wolf becomes aspires to become a shepherd! Here is one of my favorite versions, as told by the medieval preacher, Odo of Cheriton - I love how the shepherd plays detective to determine the wolf's guilt!
Contigit quod quidam Paterfamilias habuit XII Oues. Voluit peregrinari et commendavit Oves suas Ysemgrino, id est Lupo, compatri suo. Et compater iuravit quod bene conservaret eas. Profectus est statim. Ysemgrinus interim cogitavit de Ovibus et uno die comedit de una, altera die de alia, ita quod vix tres invenit Paterfamilias, quando reversus est. Quaerebat a compatre quid factum fuerit de aliis Ovibus. Respondit Ysemgrimus quod mors ex temperalitate venit super eas. Et dixit Paterfamilias: Da mihi pelles; et inventa sunt vestigia dentium Lupi. Et ait Paterfamilias: Reus es mortis; et fecit Lupum suspendi.There are all kinds of fascinating medieval details here, such as Isengrimus (Ysengrimus), the name given to the wolf in the beast epic tradition (for some nice illustrations, here is the German wikipedia article about that). Odo of Cheriton's fables are one of my favorite medieval story collections, and if you are not familiar with them, they are well worth reading, believe me - there's even a delightful English translation of Odo available in paperback!
It happened that a certain man had twelve sheep. He wanted to go on a journey, and he entrusted the sheep to Isengrimus, that is, to the wolf, his associate. And his associate swore that he would take good care of them. The man departed immediately. Isengrimus meanwhile got to thinking about the sheep and one day he ate one sheep, and the next day he ate another sheep, and so on until the man found scarcely three sheep when he returned home. He asked his associate what had happened to the other sheep. Isengrimus answered that death had come upon them unseasonably. And the man said: Give me their skins, and the traces of the Wolf's teeth could be seen there. And the man said: You are guilty of a capital crime, and he had the wolf hanged.
Meanwhile, hoping all the hens in your henhouse are safe from the marauding fox or the wolf, here is today's proverb read out loud:
1846. Dimittis pullos sub custodia vulpis.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
July 25, 2008
Vade ad formicam, o piger!
In English: Turn to the ant, you lazy person!
Here's the latest in my ongoing series of animal proverbs in Latin, although this time the animal is not a furry creature, but instead a tiny insect - formica, the ant - and the source for this saying is not Roman, but rather the Vulgate Latin translation of the Bible. The verse in the Book of Proverbs reads as follows: Vade ad formicam, o piger, et considera vias eius, et disce sapientiam.
The King James version renders the saying in English as "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and consider her ways, and be wise." I especially appreciate how the King James Bible lets the ant keep her gender; in Latin, the ant, formica, is feminine, as she also is in Hebrew: nemâlâh. (Not so, however, in Greek: μύμηξ is masculine.)
Anyone who has watched ants working knows how busy they are, and the busy-ness of the ants provides the basis for one of the most famous of Aesop's fables - the story of the ant and grasshopper. Here is a simple Latin version of that story by the 13th-century scholar, Vincent of Beauvais:
So, hoping you are finding time for both singing this summer and preparing for winter (school starts in just a month - eee!), here is today's proverb read out loud:
2421. Vade ad formicam, o piger!
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
Here's the latest in my ongoing series of animal proverbs in Latin, although this time the animal is not a furry creature, but instead a tiny insect - formica, the ant - and the source for this saying is not Roman, but rather the Vulgate Latin translation of the Bible. The verse in the Book of Proverbs reads as follows: Vade ad formicam, o piger, et considera vias eius, et disce sapientiam.
The King James version renders the saying in English as "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and consider her ways, and be wise." I especially appreciate how the King James Bible lets the ant keep her gender; in Latin, the ant, formica, is feminine, as she also is in Hebrew: nemâlâh. (Not so, however, in Greek: μύμηξ is masculine.)
Anyone who has watched ants working knows how busy they are, and the busy-ness of the ants provides the basis for one of the most famous of Aesop's fables - the story of the ant and grasshopper. Here is a simple Latin version of that story by the 13th-century scholar, Vincent of Beauvais:
Formica hieme frumentum ex caverna trahens siccabat quod aestate colligens coagulaverat. Cicada autem eam rogabat esuriens ut daret aliquid illi de cibo, ut viveret. Cui Formica: Quid faciebas, inquit, in aestate? At illa: Non mihi vacabat: per saepes oberrabam cantando. Formica igitur, ridens et frumentum includens, ait: Si aestate cantasti, hieme salta.The fable is good example of the harshness of Aesop's world: the ant's role in this story is not to help a fellow creature, but instead to point out her mistakes. If only the grasshopper had read the Biblical Book of Proverbs and learned to look to the ant, before it was too late!
During winter the ant dragged out and drained grain from its hole which she had collected and conglomerated in summer. The grasshopper, on the other hand, was hungry and asked the ant to give her some of the food so that she could live. The ant said to her: What were you doing while it was summer? The grasshopper replied: I was very busy: I wandered through all the hedgerows singing. So the ant, laughing and shutting away her grain, said: As you sang in summer, so you must dance in winter.
So, hoping you are finding time for both singing this summer and preparing for winter (school starts in just a month - eee!), here is today's proverb read out loud:
2421. Vade ad formicam, o piger!
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
July 18, 2008
Audacem reddit felis absentia murem
In English: The cat's absence makes the mouse grow bold.
I thought I would post this animal proverb in honor of our new cat, Ralph, who is busily consuming a lizard as I write this. Yes, despite the ready abundance of cat chow in a bowl on the porch (on which Ralph eagerly chows down), our cat is a killer. My husband had just remarked a few days ago that since we had gotten the cat, we weren't seeing so many lizards running around our garden as we used to. Clearly, the lizards know that when the cat is around, life is not safe.
And, in fact, when I went out to see the cat just a few minutes ago, he was meowing piteously, gripping a still-twitching lizard tail in his paw, looking about frantically to find where the rest of the lizard had gone. After digging around in the grass for a few minutes, he emerged with a good-sized lizard (a skink perhaps?) dangling from his mouth. I left him to eat his meal in peace.
Ralph came to us as a stray about a month ago, and he is a wonderful cat. Watching him in our yard (he is an all-outdoor cat, and doesn't even seem to understand what doors are for; I suspect he has never been inside a house), we have seen him eating grasshoppers and also lizards. Probably that is how he survived on his own. Now that he has adopted us, he is in seventh heaven, since he has all this human affection he could want (he was even more starved for affection than he was for food), and he has several acres of grass and woods to hunt for grasshoppers and lizards - plus cat chow on the porch, tame and tedious as it may seem compared to lizard sushi.
So, whether they might be mice or lizards, the little creatures need to know to watch out for the cat, and to take advantage of the cat's absence whenever possible, as the Latin proverb tells us. Or, as the English saying has it, "when the cat's away, the mice play." Although I like the idea of the bold mouse, the audax mus, which the Latin version emphasizes.
Meanwhile, hoping that you have managed to avoid any predators in your world today, here is the Latin proverb read out loud:
1822. Audacem reddit felis absentia murem.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
I thought I would post this animal proverb in honor of our new cat, Ralph, who is busily consuming a lizard as I write this. Yes, despite the ready abundance of cat chow in a bowl on the porch (on which Ralph eagerly chows down), our cat is a killer. My husband had just remarked a few days ago that since we had gotten the cat, we weren't seeing so many lizards running around our garden as we used to. Clearly, the lizards know that when the cat is around, life is not safe.
And, in fact, when I went out to see the cat just a few minutes ago, he was meowing piteously, gripping a still-twitching lizard tail in his paw, looking about frantically to find where the rest of the lizard had gone. After digging around in the grass for a few minutes, he emerged with a good-sized lizard (a skink perhaps?) dangling from his mouth. I left him to eat his meal in peace.
Ralph came to us as a stray about a month ago, and he is a wonderful cat. Watching him in our yard (he is an all-outdoor cat, and doesn't even seem to understand what doors are for; I suspect he has never been inside a house), we have seen him eating grasshoppers and also lizards. Probably that is how he survived on his own. Now that he has adopted us, he is in seventh heaven, since he has all this human affection he could want (he was even more starved for affection than he was for food), and he has several acres of grass and woods to hunt for grasshoppers and lizards - plus cat chow on the porch, tame and tedious as it may seem compared to lizard sushi.
So, whether they might be mice or lizards, the little creatures need to know to watch out for the cat, and to take advantage of the cat's absence whenever possible, as the Latin proverb tells us. Or, as the English saying has it, "when the cat's away, the mice play." Although I like the idea of the bold mouse, the audax mus, which the Latin version emphasizes.
Meanwhile, hoping that you have managed to avoid any predators in your world today, here is the Latin proverb read out loud:
1822. Audacem reddit felis absentia murem.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
July 11, 2008
Et canis in somnis vestigia latrat
In English: A dog also barks at the trail when dreaming.
A fuller version of the Latin saying reads, et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat, "A dog also barks at the rabbit's trail when dreaming." I thought I would choose this for today's animal proverb, since a friend sent me an email this morning where he mentioned his little Beagle chasing rabbits in her sleep. Of course, cats do this too - my new cat spends a lot of time lounging on the porch, while chasing after lizards in his dreams (so far in real life, all the lizards in our garden have escaped his reach). The little et in the proverb, et canis, expresses the idea that dogs to this, too, just like humans.
I read somewhere in fact that all mammals dream (with exception of anteaters? there was some exception to the rule - I just don't remember which creature it was!). Dreaming is definitely a mystery in Darwinian terms, because sleeping is a quite dangerous thing for a creature to do, especially the deep sleep in which dreaming takes place. When animals, be they dogs or humans, are dreaming, they are extremely vulnerable to attack. So there has to be some huge advantage of dreaming, an advantage big enough to outweigh the vulnerability that goes with it. If you are curious about some of the science here, check out these researchers at MIT, and what they learned from studying the dreams of rats: Animals have complex dreams, MIT researcher proves. And for some mind-blowing ideas about dreaming in general, the best book I know is Ursula LeGuin's Lathe of Heaven - a genius combination of science fiction, dream physiology, and Eastern philosophy. Plus the Beatles. :-)
The Latin saying about dogs and their dreams comes from a poem which is preserved in a medieval (ninth-century) manuscript. It appears with two other poems that are found in the ancient novel by Petronius, the Satyricon, leading some scholars to believe that perhaps this poem also had its place in the novel, which has only survived in part. Since I was not able to find a handy version of the poem online (and no English translation at all), I've transcribed the poem here, with a rough-and-ready English translation:
Somnia, quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris,
non delubra deum nec ab aethere numina mittunt.
sed sibi quisque facit, nam cum prostrata sopore
urguet membra quies et mens sine pondere ludit,
quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit. oppida bello
qui quatit et flammis miserandas eruit urbes,
tela videt versasque acies et funera regum
atque exundantes profuso sanguine campos.
qui causas orare solent, legesque forumque
et pavidi cernunt inclusum cordi tribunal.
condit avarus opes defossumque invenit aurum.
venator saltus canibus quatit. eripit undis
aut premit eversam periturus navita puppem.
scribit amatori meretrix, dat adultera munus.
et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat.
in noctis spatium miserorum vulnera durant.
Dreams, whose fleeting shadows toy with the mind, are not sent by the shrines of the gods nor by the divinities in heaven. Rather, each person dreams for himself: when sleep weighs upon the body's members stretched out at rest, and the mind is at play, free from weight, then whatever happened in day light unfolds in the darkness. The person who shatters towns with warfare and topples pitiable cities with fires - he sees weapons and the battle line routed and the deaths of kings and fields flowing with spilled blood. The people who plead cases by profession - they witness writs and courts and the tribunal enclosed within the coward's heart. The greedy man heaps up wealth and discovers buried gold. The hunter bursts through the thickets with his dogs. The sailor survives the waves or faces death, clinging to his overturned ship. The prostitute writes to her lover, the adulterer gives her gifts. The dog, too, barks at the rabbit's trail in dreams. The wounds of the afflicted last into the night time.
So, hoping you are able to follow your own dream trail in your waking life today, here is the Latin saying read out loud:
1163. Et canis in somnis vestigia latrat.
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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A fuller version of the Latin saying reads, et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat, "A dog also barks at the rabbit's trail when dreaming." I thought I would choose this for today's animal proverb, since a friend sent me an email this morning where he mentioned his little Beagle chasing rabbits in her sleep. Of course, cats do this too - my new cat spends a lot of time lounging on the porch, while chasing after lizards in his dreams (so far in real life, all the lizards in our garden have escaped his reach). The little et in the proverb, et canis, expresses the idea that dogs to this, too, just like humans.
I read somewhere in fact that all mammals dream (with exception of anteaters? there was some exception to the rule - I just don't remember which creature it was!). Dreaming is definitely a mystery in Darwinian terms, because sleeping is a quite dangerous thing for a creature to do, especially the deep sleep in which dreaming takes place. When animals, be they dogs or humans, are dreaming, they are extremely vulnerable to attack. So there has to be some huge advantage of dreaming, an advantage big enough to outweigh the vulnerability that goes with it. If you are curious about some of the science here, check out these researchers at MIT, and what they learned from studying the dreams of rats: Animals have complex dreams, MIT researcher proves. And for some mind-blowing ideas about dreaming in general, the best book I know is Ursula LeGuin's Lathe of Heaven - a genius combination of science fiction, dream physiology, and Eastern philosophy. Plus the Beatles. :-)
The Latin saying about dogs and their dreams comes from a poem which is preserved in a medieval (ninth-century) manuscript. It appears with two other poems that are found in the ancient novel by Petronius, the Satyricon, leading some scholars to believe that perhaps this poem also had its place in the novel, which has only survived in part. Since I was not able to find a handy version of the poem online (and no English translation at all), I've transcribed the poem here, with a rough-and-ready English translation:
Somnia, quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris,
non delubra deum nec ab aethere numina mittunt.
sed sibi quisque facit, nam cum prostrata sopore
urguet membra quies et mens sine pondere ludit,
quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit. oppida bello
qui quatit et flammis miserandas eruit urbes,
tela videt versasque acies et funera regum
atque exundantes profuso sanguine campos.
qui causas orare solent, legesque forumque
et pavidi cernunt inclusum cordi tribunal.
condit avarus opes defossumque invenit aurum.
venator saltus canibus quatit. eripit undis
aut premit eversam periturus navita puppem.
scribit amatori meretrix, dat adultera munus.
et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat.
in noctis spatium miserorum vulnera durant.
Dreams, whose fleeting shadows toy with the mind, are not sent by the shrines of the gods nor by the divinities in heaven. Rather, each person dreams for himself: when sleep weighs upon the body's members stretched out at rest, and the mind is at play, free from weight, then whatever happened in day light unfolds in the darkness. The person who shatters towns with warfare and topples pitiable cities with fires - he sees weapons and the battle line routed and the deaths of kings and fields flowing with spilled blood. The people who plead cases by profession - they witness writs and courts and the tribunal enclosed within the coward's heart. The greedy man heaps up wealth and discovers buried gold. The hunter bursts through the thickets with his dogs. The sailor survives the waves or faces death, clinging to his overturned ship. The prostitute writes to her lover, the adulterer gives her gifts. The dog, too, barks at the rabbit's trail in dreams. The wounds of the afflicted last into the night time.
So, hoping you are able to follow your own dream trail in your waking life today, here is the Latin saying read out loud:
1163. Et canis in somnis vestigia latrat.
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.
For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, where you can subscribe to the latest posts by email or by RSS.
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