Via antiqua via est tuta

In English: The old way is the safe way.

This is a follow-up on yesterday's proverb, about the "well-worn" way. Today's proverb is about the antiqua via, the old or ancient way. The idea once again is that if things are part of a tradition, an ancient tradition, then they are "tried and true," a safe way to follow.

This notion of reverence for antiquity and mistrust of "the new" was a fundamental aspect of Roman culture. This is made quite clear by the Latin word novus, which means "new" but also "strange, weird, unusual."

It's also worth pondering the Latin word antiquus and its etymology in Latin. The root of this word is ant- meaning "before, in front of." There is a similar Latin adjective, anticus, which means "front, in the front" (so the front door of your house would be the ianua antica).

As often, the worlds of space and time are metaphorically superimposed on each other, and entwined with other values. In English we are used to the idea that something in "front" has a higher value than something behind or in the back. The best students go to the front of the class, the winner of a race is out in front of the competition, etc.

You need to keep in mind, then, that in Latin something "ancient," antiquus, is something out in the front. It has happened "before." In what is admittedly an odd reversal for our way of imagining time in English, Roman antiquity stretches out in front of us, not behind. In Latin, you can see what has happened before, while the future cannot be seen.

So, looking forward to antiquity, here is today's proverb read out loud:

13. Via antiqua via est tuta.

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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Via trita via tuta

In English: The well-worn way is the safe way.

In yesterday's proverb, we learned that innocence is one form of safe conduct. Today's proverb recommends another strategy for safety and security: follow the well-worn path.

In literal terms, this makes good sense. If you follow a path that many others have traveled, you can be confident that you will reach your destination. By going along a way that many others are traveling, you are more likely to find food and supplies along the way, bridges where you need to cross a river, and so on.

In metaphorical terms, by doing things the "tried and true" way, you can be confident about the outcome you will achieve. For example, for Thanksgiving last week, you probably relied on a traditional family recipe to end up with the best stuffing or the best cranberry relish. There are different ways to do things, but you can gain a real sense of security by doing something the traditional way.

At the same time, there is a strong impulse in our culture to reject traditional ways, to boldly go where no one has gone before, striking out on our own, taking risks, experimenting. Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken by is a poem that famously poses the choice between the well-traveled way and the road less traveled by.

You can see our preference for the road less traveled by in the fate of Latin tritus in the English language. The Latin word is a passive participle of the verb, terere, "to wear, wear down, rub," so tritus means "worn." Yet over time, the English word "trite" has taken on negative connotations, meaning something that has been "worn out," stripped of its meaning, emptied of importance. This meaning is also found in Latin, but in English, the word "trite" has come to have strictly negative connotations, without any neutral meaning, much less any positive connotations.

As someone who is very interested in traditional stories and sayings, I'm sad that our prejudice against the "trite" has contributed to the demise of so much of our folk tradition. Every time I publish a post about a Latin proverb in my blog, I am glad to be using a very modern "way" to try to keep some of the old ways alive in people's minds.

So, in praise of the "tried and true," here is today's proverb read out loud:

12. Via trita via tuta.

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. You can also hear this saying read aloud (in part: via trita) at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyrazow obcych i zwrotw obcojezycznych (weblink).

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Innocentia ubique tuta

In English: Innocence is safe everywhere.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, which was also about innocentia. Today's proverb tells us that the person who is innocent is safe everywhere; in other words, someone who has done no wrong has nothing to fear. (The Latin word in-nocens, "innocent," means literally "not-harming," someone who does no harm.)

You can see a great illustration of this motto in Otto Vaenius's Q. Horatii Flacci Emblemata, published in 1612. This book is a set of emblematic images with mottoes and commentaries based on phrases from the poetry of the Roman poet Horace. The book provides a brief and pithy Latin motto for each emblematic image, and then the poem by Horace which inspired the motto. This particular motto is based on the famous poem which begins Integer vitae, scelerisque purus..., "Living a blameless life, unblemished by crime..." The poem is cited in full in Vaenius's book, along with translations into various European languages (not including English, however).

In the image for this particular motto, you can see a man walking unafraid, even though he is challenged by some seriously scary-looking creatures, including a horned dragon with a sharp-tipped tongue.

Even though he faces terrible dangers, the man rejects a pile of weapons which lies off to the side. With this gesture, he shows that he refuses to put on the suit of armor or take up the weapons. Why? Because as an innocent man he has no need of weapons, no need to be on the defensive, brandishing weapons in a show of force. (Use the nifty zoom tool at the website to get a close-up look if you want!)

The man himself looks quite saintly and completely tranquil in the face of these dangers. He is accompanied by a sheep which is clearly under his care, suggesting the image of the "good shepherd," a man who is not only safe but provides safety for his the flock in his charge.

If you have never explored the world of emblem books, they are a wonderful way to learn about Renaissance and early modern Latin. You can see several emblem books at the website entitled Emblem Project Utrecht: Dutch Love Emblems of the Seventeenth Century. It's one of my favorite Latin resources online - if you haven't ever taken a look at an emblem book, this is a great way to get started!

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

14. Innocentia ubique tuta.

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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Innocentia eloquentia

In English: Innocence is eloquence.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, eloquentia sagitta. Today's proverb is also about "eloquence" but it makes a rather different point: innocence speaks for itself, hence innocence is eloquence. In an ideal world, an innocent person would not need speak out, or hire lawyers to speak out on his behalf in a courtroom. Instead, his innocence would convey the message in and of itself.

This Latin saying is cited in a fascinating and extremely funny document from the ancient world, mid-second century: Apuleius's defense, or Apologia pro se de magia, when he was charged with witchcraft. From start to finish (here's an appropriately humorous summary of the whole thing!), Apuleius makes a mockery of his accusers, and here you can see him twisting the words of this proverb around to his benefit - since Apuleius was probably the most eloquent man of his day, he claimed that eloquence as proof of his innocence!

Sane quidem, si uerum est quod Statium Caecilium in suis poematibus scripsisse dicunt, innocentiam eloquentiam esse, ego uero profiteor ista ratione ac praefero me nemini omnium de eloquentia concessurum. Quis enim me hoc quidem pacto eloquentior uiuat, quippe qui nihil unquam cogitaui quod eloqui non auderem?

Clearly indeed, if it is true what they say Statius Caecilius wrote in his poems, that innocence is eloquence, by this line of reasoning I can claim and assert that I yield to no one in the world when it comes to eloquence. For who among the living could be in this respect more eloquent than I am - I, indeed, who have never thought anything which I did not dare to speak openly?

Apuleius is best known for his amazing and delightful novel, Metamorphoses, the adventures of a man who was turned into a donkey by accident when he was testing out some magic spells without being quite sure what he was doing. His life as a donkey is not easy, but he finally manages to eat some roses, which brings him back to his human state. It's one of the most wonderful works to have survived from the ancient world - if you have not read it, then... read it! Now! Here is an English translation online: The Golden Asse (Adlington's translation, 1566).

As for the Apologia, there is an outstanding Latin-English edition online, with notes and commentary! In addition to the text, you will also find some accompanying essays, such as "Apuleius the Magician" and "Magic in the Daily Life of Roman North Africa in the Time of Apuleius."

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud, in case you ever need to make a self-defense in Latin:

15. Innocentia eloquentia.

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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Eloquentia sagitta

In English: Eloquence is an arrow.

After writing about the wounds of love and Cupid's arrows in yesterday's proverb, I thought it would be nice to follow up with a motto that is also based on the metaphor of the "arrow," although in a quite different context! Today's saying is the motto of the Bland family, and in the context of a family motto it can also be translated as "Eloquence is my arrow" or "Eloquence is our arrow." (Latin, unlike English, is very sparing in its use of possessive pronouns and adjectives, so you can freely add them to your English translations of Latin, if the context suggests the use of a possessive pronoun or adjective in English.)

The idea here, of course, is that instead of using weapons, such as arrows, members of the Bland family are able to use the power of speech to accomplish their goals and overcome any opposition that they face. In a sense, it's something like the English saying "the pen is mightier than the sword." If you are interested in the origins of this particular saying, there is a very interesting discussion at wikipedia.

Both of these phrases - "eloquence is my arrow" and "the pen is mightier than the sword" - make a similar point, that the power of language is actually a kind of weapon, a weapon that is preferable to or even stronger than conventional weapons.

In addition to the argument of the sayings, however, there are specific metaphorical associations at work here. The pen and the sword can be associated with one another because a pen is like a sword: it is shaped like a sword, it is wielded in the hand like a sword, etc. What, then, about eloquence and the arrow? In just what way can we think of eloquence as being like an arrow?

This brings us back to one of the most ancient metaphors in the western tradition: the famous "winged words" of the Greek poet Homer, the "epea (words) pteroenta (winged)." (And yes, that is the same "ptero" as in our English word "pterodactyl," referring to the dinosaur who had wings, "pter," for fingers, "dactyl"). Homer realized that spoken words are not static things, some kind of inert physical object like written words on a page. Instead, spoken words, especially well-spoken words, are winged things. They fly out from the mouth towards a targeted destination. Once set in motion, the words are swift in flight and cannot be called back. If you want to think of such words metaphorically as weapons, they would, indeed, be arrows.

It makes metaphorical sense, then, for the pen to be mightier than the sword, and also for words to be arrows, the idea clearly expressed in today's proverb.

So, winging its way toward you with digital sound, here is today's proverb read out loud:

16. Eloquentia sagitta.

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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Nemo ex amoris vulnere sanus abit

In English: No one walks away unscathed from the wound of love.

I thought this proverb would be a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb about health and wholeness, this time transferred from the sphere of medicine to the sphere of lovesickness instead. Love has its wounds, and as this proverb tells us, even if you recover from the wound you are never quite sanus, "healthy" (or "sane"!) again afterwards.

This saying is adapted from the Roman poet Propertius, whose elegies chronicle the story of his love for a certain "Cynthia" (although it is not clear if Cynthia is a real person or a product of Propertius's poetic imagination). The poems are in couplets, with a dactylic hexamter line followed by a pentameter: nec quisquam ex illo vulnere sanus abit, "And no one from that wound walks away unscathed." If you mark the line for meter, it would look something like this: nec quis~qu(am) ex il~lo = vulnere ~ sanus a~bit.

Here's the larger context of the poem, where Propertius is exploring the implications of the depiction of the Roman "Cupid" as a winged boy wielding arrows:

et merito hamatis manus est armata sagittis,
et pharetra ex umero Cnosia utroque iacet:
ante ferit quoniam, tuti quam cernimus hostem,
nec quisquam ex illo vulnere sanus abit.
in me tela manent, manet et puerilis imago:
sed certe pennas perdidit ille suas;
evolat heu nostro quoniam de pectore nusquam,
assiduusque meo sanguine bella gerit.

and rightfully his hand is armed with barbed arrows, and a Cretan quiver lies across his two shoulders, because he wounds us before we can safely see our enemy, and no one walks away unscathed from that wound. The barbs remain in me, as does the boy's image: but clearly he has lost his wings since, alas, he never flies out of my heart and ceaselessly wages war in my blood.

In other words: OUCH. Love is a war, and lovers are its walking wounded. That's why another Roman poet, Ovid, had to write a book of "Remedies for Love," Remedia Amoris, hoping to offer a cure for lovesickness and its pangs.

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

2243. Nemo ex amoris vulnere sanus abit.

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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Medicus curat, natura sanat

In English: A doctor administers the cure; nature does the healing.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's "medical" proverb. Today's proverb is based on a simple parallel structure: on the one hand there is the medicus, the medical doctor, who administers the cure and takes care of the patient, curat, but it is natura, nature, who actually makes the patient healthy, sanat.

A fuller form of this proverb is medicus curat, natura sanat morbos, where the verbs curat and sanat are given an explicit object: morbos, sicknesses.

There are some good etymological items to notice in these two Latin verbs. The Latin verb curare means to take care of, in the sense of being concerned for something. This is indeed where we get the English word "cure," which is generally used in a medical context (although "manicure" and "pedicure" are admittedly not medical procedures!), but the Latin word has a range of meaning that extends far beyond the medical context. You can get a sense of the broader meaning of the Latin cura, if you look at some other English words derived from this same root, such as the "curator" who takes care of things. Even the English word "curious" is derived from this root, because a curious person is concerned with things - especially things that other people might not pay attention to at all. The English word "secure" is a person who has no cares or concerns, from the Latin se-curus, without care.

The other Latin verb in today's proverb, sanare, means "to make whole, make healthy," from the adjectival root sanus, meaning "healthy" and also "sane, rational." You can see both meanings of the san- root at work in English derivatives. When people go to a "sanatorium," they are hoping to get well and healthy (and hopefully everything is appropriate "sanitized" at the sanatorium), but someone who is "insane" is suffering specifically from mental illness.

So, hoping that everyone is feeling both sane and secure, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1087. Medicus curat, natura sanat.

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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