Irenaeus Fable 72. Cucurbita et Pinus

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 Cucurbita et Pinu, the story of a boastful gourd vine. Although there is not a fable about the gourd and the pine tree in Aesop's fables, compare a debate between the olive and the fig tree in Perry 413.

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

Pinus ingens iuxta se natam Cucurbitam et suo beneficio alitam mirabatur tam brevi tempore excrevisse in tantam altitudinem, ut iam se altius caput extolleret, sene licet et multorum temporum grandaeva. Propterea eius fortunae ac elevationi coeperat invidere. Sed cum, adventante hieme, gelu ac frigore tacta Cucurbita exaruisset et fastigii sui superbiam omnem posuisset, iam apud se mirabunda dicebat, "Heu! Fallax et non invidenda brevis prosperitas!" Tam cito nata et elata, citius casura ac peritura.

Pinus ingens
iuxta se natam Cucurbitam
et suo beneficio alitam
mirabatur
tam brevi tempore excrevisse
in tantam altitudinem,
ut iam
se altius caput extolleret,
sene licet et multorum temporum grandaeva.
Propterea
eius fortunae ac elevationi
coeperat invidere.
Sed cum, adventante hieme,
gelu ac frigore tacta Cucurbita exaruisset
et fastigii sui superbiam omnem posuisset,
iam apud se
mirabunda dicebat,
"Heu!
Fallax et non invidenda
brevis prosperitas!"
Tam cito nata et elata,
citius casura ac peritura.

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

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