Irenaeus Fabula 58. De Piscatoribus

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 Piscatoribus, the story of the ups and downs of the life of a fisherman. In Perry's indexing system, this is Perry 13.

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

Piscatores retia in mare iecerant, quod ad terram trahentes, cum grave sentirent, magna laetitia gestiebant, existimantes se multum piscem captaturos et lucrum. Ad quos unus e sociis: "Quid ita?" inquit, et "Forte frustra gestimus? Quid si truncum inutilem aut lapidem trahimus? Et tempus et operam perdimus? Quippe laetitiae solet esse comes tristitia, ne efferamur: res humanae sic ludunt mortales; non omne quod splendet aureum est.

Piscatores
retia in mare iecerant,
quod ad terram trahentes,
cum grave sentirent,
magna laetitia gestiebant,
existimantes
se
multum piscem captaturos
et lucrum.
Ad quos
unus e sociis:
"Quid ita?" inquit, et
"Forte frustra gestimus?
Quid si truncum inutilem
aut lapidem trahimus?
Et tempus et operam perdimus?
Quippe laetitiae solet esse comes
tristitia,
ne efferamur:
res humanae
sic ludunt mortales;
non omne quod splendet
aureum est.

Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) showing a fisherman with his net:

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