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DE CATTO ET MURIBUS

 

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Source: Aesop's Fables, 1687 (illustrated by Francis Barlow).

 

Introduction: This is a fable about how the cat tries to trick the mice but, thanks to the insight of a wise old mouse, the trick does not succeed. In the ancient Roman version of this fable, the story is not about a cat, but about a weasel. This is because the ancient Romans kept weasels in their houses to chase the mice, instead of cats. As the centuries passed and people started keeping cats in their houses to chase the mice, they kept telling the same old fables, but they changed the weasel character in the story into a cat. For another fable about a wise animal who is able to avoid danger, see the story of the sow who kept her distance from the wolf. For another fable about cats and mice, see the story of Venus and the cat.

 

Latin Text:

 

Cattus, cum Pistoris domum ingressus est, quam plurimos invenit Mures et, nunc unum nunc alterum devorando, tam caute Patrifamilias providebat ut paucos relinqueret. Mures interim, cum ante oculos habuissent diuturnam illorum caedem, consilium ceperunt, quo pacto Cattum vorabundum evitarent. Post varias disceptationes concludebant tandem ut in locis occultis altissimisque remanerent, ne descendendo in praedam Catto venirent. Cattus, hoc consilio intellecto, se mortuum fingebat, cum unus ex Murium senioribus ab alto exclamavit, "Euge, amice! Non Catto credendum est, ne mortuo quidem."

 

Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:

 

Cattus,

cum Pistoris domum ingressus est,

quam plurimos invenit Mures

et, nunc unum nunc alterum devorando,

tam caute Patrifamilias providebat

ut paucos relinqueret.

Mures interim,

cum ante oculos habuissent

diuturnam illorum caedem,

consilium ceperunt,

quo pacto

Cattum vorabundum evitarent.

Post varias disceptationes

concludebant tandem

ut in locis occultis altissimisque remanerent,

ne

descendendo

in praedam Catto venirent.

Cattus,

hoc consilio intellecto,

se mortuum fingebat,

cum unus

ex Murium senioribus

ab alto exclamavit,

"Euge, amice!

Non Catto credendum est,

ne mortuo quidem."

 

Translation: A cat came to live in a baker's house, and found an incredible quantity of Mice. By gobbling up one, then another, and so on, the cat so carefully acted on his master's behalf that hardly any mice were left. The mice, meanwhile, when they saw this endless slaughter happening before their eyes, they settled on a plan so that they could escape the voracious cat. After various debates, they finally decided to keep to the hidden and highest places without going down where they would become the Cat's prey. The Cat, having figured out what the mice were doing, pretended to be dead. When one of the elders of the Mice shouted from his high place: Bravo, my friend! But no Cat is to be trusted, not even a dead one.

 

[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]

 

Parallels: The Latin story on this page is about the cat who tried to fool the mice by playing dead; see Perry 79. The illustration and the Englsh poem, however, are about the mice who decide to bell the cat; see Perry 613.

 

Related Links: Crossword Puzzle

 

Illustration: Here is an illustration for the fable of the cat and the mice, from an early edition of Steinhowel's Aesop.

 

 

Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view. This image does not match the Latin story.

 

 

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