Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Irenaeus Fabula 10. De Iove et Serpente

I'm embarking on a new Latin fable project here at the Latin Via Fables blog: digitizing the 300 fables in the Mithologica sacro-profana, seu florilegium fabularum by P. Irenaeus, published in 1666, which has recently become available at GoogleBooks. For a complete index of the fables in the book, with links to the fables I've digitized so far, check out the Aesopus wiki page at Aesopus.PBwiki.com.

Today's fable is De Iove et Serpente, the story of the serpent who came to Zeus's wedding reception. In Perry's indexing system, this is Perry 221.

To make reading the fable easier, I've provided a segmented version of the story below.

Iovi nuptias celebranti cuncta Animalia munera offerebant, singula pro viribus. Accessit etiam et Serpens, rosam vernantem, recens decerptam suaveolentemque ore tenens, sedentique ad pulvinar Deorum Iovi obtulit. Quem ut vidit Iupiter, aversatur donum et donatorem, dixit: Bonorum ego libens vota et munera accepta habeo, serpentis vero odi, quo innuitur de quavis manu hostias et donaria Deo haud placere.

Iovi
nuptias celebranti
cuncta Animalia munera offerebant,
singula pro viribus.
Accessit etiam et Serpens,
rosam vernantem,
recens decerptam
suaveolentemque
ore tenens,
sedentique ad pulvinar Deorum
Iovi obtulit.
Quem ut vidit Iupiter,
aversatur donum et donatorem,
dixit:
Bonorum ego libens
vota et munera accepta habeo,
serpentis vero odi,
quo innuitur
de quavis manu
hostias et donaria
Deo haud placere.

Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) - just look at the stamp on the far left, which provides an illustration of the story:



Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.

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