Friday, January 15, 2010

Quadrupedes et Pisces (Abstemius)

SOURCE: This fable comes from the first Hecatomythium ("100 Fables") of Laurentius Abstemius (Lorenzo Bevilaqua), a fifteenth-century Italian scholar. Of all the neo-Latin fable collections, Abstemius's was the most popular, and his stories are frequently anthologized in the 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century collections of Aesop's fables in Latin. Here is a 1499 edition of the book online. This is fable 21 in the collection.

READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons or accent marks - and read the text out loud until you feel comfortable and confident. Then, try reading the unmarked text at the bottom. It should be easy for you after practicing with the marked texts. :-)


MACRONS. Here is the text with macrons:

Quādrupedēs, cum bellum sibi ab avibus esset indictum, cum piscibus foedus iniērunt, ut eōrum auxiliō sē ab avium furōre tuerentur. Cum autem optāta expectārent auxilia, piscēs negant per terram ad eōs accēdere posse. Haec nōs admonet fābula nē eōs nōbīs sociōs faciāmus, quī, cum opus sit, nōbīs adesse nōn possint.



ACCENT MARKS. Here is the text with stress accents, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):

Quadrúpedes, cum bellum sibi ab ávibus esset indíctum, cum píscibus foedus iniérunt, ut eórum auxílio se ab ávium furóre tueréntur. Cum autem optáta expectárent auxília, pisces negant per terram ad eos accédere posse. Haec nos ádmonet fábula ne eos nobis sócios faciámus, qui, cum opus sit, nobis adésse non possint.



UNMARKED TEXT. Here is the unmarked text - after practicing with the marked text that you prefer, you should not have any trouble with the unmarked text. I've put in some line breaks to show the natural pauses in the story:

Quadrupedes,
cum bellum sibi
ab avibus esset indictum,
cum piscibus
foedus inierunt,
ut eorum auxilio
se
ab avium furore tuerentur.
Cum autem
optata expectarent auxilia,
pisces negant
per terram
ad eos accedere posse.
Haec nos admonet fabula
ne eos
nobis socios faciamus,
qui, cum opus sit,
nobis adesse non possint.




IMAGE. Here is an illustration for the story (image source):