Irenaeus Fabula 8. De Hercule et Auriga

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 Hercule et Auriga, the story of Hercules and the wagon-driver, one of my personal favorites among the fables of Aesop. In Perry's indexing system, this is Perry 291.

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

Videsne hunc currum haerentem luto, rotis pene in limo absorptis, equos anhelantes et quasi exhaustis viribus immobiles? Aurigam, positis loris, curru, habenis, humi pronum, tendentem utrasque in Caelum manus? Deos omns in opem e t maxime Herculem implorat: sed frustra Caelum et Deos votis fatigat. Non sic vocati veniunt. Tandem enim vox de Caelo tonat: Insipiens, euge! Age, urge, flagella, equos tuos, et ipse ambabus manibus rotis connitere, et tunc aderit Hercules vocatus. Taxat pigros ac desides, manus sub ascella condentes, dum serio ac strenue operandum.

Videsne
hunc currum haerentem luto,
rotis pene in limo absorptis,
equos anhelantes
et quasi exhaustis viribus immobiles?
Aurigam,
positis loris, curru, habenis,
humi pronum,
tendentem utrasque in Caelum manus?
Deos omns in opem
et maxime Herculem implorat:
sed frustra
Caelum et Deos votis fatigat.
Non sic vocati veniunt.
Tandem enim
vox de Caelo tonat:
Insipiens, euge!
Age, urge, flagella, equos tuos,
et ipse
ambabus manibus rotis connitere,
et tunc aderit Hercules vocatus.
Taxat pigros ac desides,
manus sub ascella condentes,
dum serio ac strenue operandum.

Here's an illustration for the fable by Francis Barlow (image source):

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