Irenaeus Fabula 19. Piscatores

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 Piscatores, the story of some fisherman who invited the god Mercury to dine with them, thinking to improve their own situation in this regard. This fable is not found in Perry's inventory of the fables; does anybody know of another source in which this fable appears?

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

Quos vides convivantes e mensa assurgere ad adventum Dei, piscatores sunt, qui, haud secundo mari ac sidere piscatoriam experti, nil prendiderunt, nisi cochleas paucas et macras, fami depellendae impares. Unde isti male pransi, Mercurio Deo forte illac transeunti obviam eunt, rogant, invitant secum accumbere. Non Religionis utique aut hospitalitatis est ista invitatio, sed propriae indigentiae et sordidae emendicationis ergo. Non invitant Deum, ut de appositis gaudeat, sed ut egentibus et famelicis eroget et apponat. Unde eos mensamque fastidiens, iussos suas escas esse, nil moratus, praeteriit. Tales Invitatores et Mensae parum Deo sapiunt, qui se suaque, non Deum, quaerunt aut curant.

Quos vides convivantes
e mensa assurgere
ad adventum Dei,
piscatores sunt,
qui,
haud secundo mari ac sidere piscatoriam experti,
nil prendiderunt,
nisi cochleas paucas et macras,
fami depellendae impares.
Unde isti
male pransi,
Mercurio Deo
forte illac transeunti
obviam eunt,
rogant, invitant
secum accumbere.
Non Religionis utique
aut hospitalitatis
est ista invitatio,
sed propriae indigentiae
et sordidae emendicationis ergo.
Non invitant Deum,
ut de appositis gaudeat,
sed
ut egentibus et famelicis
eroget et apponat.
Unde
eos mensamque fastidiens,
iussos suas escas esse,
nil moratus,
praeteriit.
Tales Invitatores et Mensae
parum Deo sapiunt,
qui
se suaque,
non Deum,
quaerunt aut curant.

Here's an illustration for the fable (image source), commonly called the "Mercury dime." You can see why - although this is technically an image of "winged Liberty," it is very easy to mistake the head on this coin for the head of the god Mercury, hence the name. The coin was minted in the US from 1916 through 1945:

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