Irenaeus Fabula 37. De Lupo et Sucula

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 Lupo et Sucula, the story of the wolf who wanted to "help" the sow in labor. In Perry's indexing system, this is Perry 547.

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

Parturienti suculae astat ad fores lupus, pulsat, salutat, precatur felicem partum, Lucinae manum propitiam; offert se feturae custodem, denique quidquid obsequii et officii potest. Gratias agit intus puerpera; egere se quidem obsequio, sed non suo; unam gratiam ab eo requirere: ut foras abeat, praesto et longissime, nunquam reversurus. Sic agendum cum hoste manifesto.

Parturienti suculae
astat ad fores
lupus,
pulsat, salutat,
precatur felicem partum,
Lucinae manum propitiam;
offert se
feturae custodem,
denique
quidquid obsequii et officii
potest.
Gratias agit intus puerpera;
egere se quidem obsequio,
sed non suo;
unam gratiam
ab eo requirere:
ut foras abeat,
praesto et longissime,
nunquam reversurus.
Sic agendum
cum hoste manifesto.

Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) from a 1479 edition of Aesop:

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