Irenaeus Fable 63. Mulier Venefica.

I've embarked 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 Muliere Venefica, the story of a witch who claimed to offer protection to others but who could not protect herself. In Perry's indexing system, this is Perry 56 .

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

Quaedam Mulier non modicum ex suis divinationibus et mendaciis quaestum captans apud imperitam plebem, promittebat Deorum iras in se infensorum suis artibus placaturam. Contigit ut ipsa impietatis apud Iudices postularetur, eorumque iudicio damnata, ad patibulum duceretur, cui plebs "O insanam mendacemque creaturam, tu quae nuper caelestium iram a plebe avertere profitebaris, humanam in te mutare nec lenire potuisti?"

Quaedam Mulier
non modicum
ex suis divinationibus et mendaciis
quaestum captans
apud imperitam plebem,
promittebat
Deorum iras
in se infensorum
suis artibus placaturam.
Contigit ut ipsa
impietatis apud Iudices postularetur,
eorumque iudicio damnata,
ad patibulum duceretur,
cui plebs
"O insanam mendacemque creaturam,
tu
quae nuper
caelestium iram
a plebe avertere profitebaris,
humanam in te
mutare nec lenire potuisti?"

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

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