Irenaeus Fable 65. Vaticinator.

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 Vaticinatore, the story of a fortune-teller who could not tell his own fortune. In Perry's indexing system, this is Perry 161.

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

Circulator quidam medio in foro Divinatoriam profitebatur, et inspectione manuum cuiuslibet sortes augurabatur, magna plebecula turba stipatus, quam dum suis praestigiis incautam teneret, quidam ipsi annunciat effractas fores domus suae, et omnia a latronibus direpta et asportata. Quo audito turbatus, relictis omnibus ad domum cucurrit. Tunc unusquisque exclamare, "O illusor et mendax, aliorum sortem divinare et scire te dicis, et tuam nescis." Innuit vanitatem artis divinatoriae.

Circulator quidam
medio in foro
Divinatoriam profitebatur,
et inspectione manuum cuiuslibet
sortes augurabatur,
magna plebecula turba stipatus,
quam
dum suis praestigiis incautam teneret,
quidam
ipsi annunciat
effractas fores domus suae,
et omnia a latronibus direpta et asportata.
Quo audito turbatus,
relictis omnibus
ad domum cucurrit.
Tunc unusquisque exclamare,
"O illusor et mendax,
aliorum sortem divinare
et scire te dicis,
et tuam nescis."
Innuit vanitatem artis divinatoriae.

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

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