Perry 74: The Stag's Reflection

As I'm gearing up for the publication of Aesop’s Fables in Latin: Ancient Wit and Wisdom from the Animal Kingdom (coming soon from Bolchazy-Carducci!), I'm reviewing the different Perry numbers that will be included in that book. For each of the fables, I'm posting here a Latin version of the fable along with an illustration that can be compared/contrasted with the version in Barlow's book.

Today's fable is Perry #74, the story of the stag who disdained his skinny legs, even though those legs could have rescued him from the hunter's attack! Instead, the stag praised his beautiful horns - and as you will see, it is the stag's horns which proved his undoing. At the Aesopus wiki, you can see a complete list of the versions of this fable that I have collected. You can even hear echoes of this Aesopic fable in the famous Christian collection of animal allegories referred to as the Physiologus, which is a core component of the later European bestiary tradition (this story, in fact, is one of the few Aesopic motifs that you will find in the Physiologus).

Here is the Latin version of the fable in Steinhowel's Aesop:

Aliquando laudamus inutilia et vituperamus bona, ut haec testatur Aesopi fabula. Cervus, bibens de fonte, sua cornua magna ut vidit, nimium laudare coepit. Crura vero tenuia vituperavit; cum haec cervus ad fontem videret, venatoris vocem audivit et canes repente latrare. Fuga cervus per campum dicitur evasisse inimicos, at ubi silva eum suscepit, magnitudo cornuum venatibus eum retinuit. Tunc mortem suam videns, ait: Quae mihi fuerunt utilia vituperavi, et deceptiosa laudavi. Laudemus ergo utilia.

Here it is written out in segmented style to make it easier to follow, while respecting the Latin word order:

Aliquando laudamus inutilia
et vituperamus bona,
ut haec testatur Aesopi fabula.
Cervus,
bibens de fonte,
sua cornua magna ut vidit,
nimium laudare coepit.
Crura vero tenuia vituperavit;
cum haec cervus ad fontem videret,
venatoris vocem
audivit
et canes repente latrare.
Fuga cervus per campum
dicitur
evasisse inimicos,
at
ubi silva eum suscepit,
magnitudo cornuum
venatibus eum retinuit.
Tunc mortem suam videns,
ait:
Quae mihi fuerunt utilia
vituperavi,
et deceptiosa laudavi.
Laudemus ergo utilia.

For an image of the story, here is an illustration from Steinhowel's Aesop published in 1479. Notice how two dogs have already sunk their teeth into the poor creature!

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