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barlow035

Page history last edited by Laura Gibbs 14 years, 8 months ago

 

HOME | Barlow's Aesop: Previous Page - Next Page 

 

Barlow 35. DE MURE ET RANA

 

Online Forum: At the Aesopus Ning Forum, you can ask questions about this fable. You will also  find links there to additional learning materials to help you in reading the Latin (vocabulary, grammar commentary, simplified version, quizzes, macrons, etc.).

 

Post longe exercita odia, Mus et Rana in bellum ruebant. Causa certaminis erat de paludis imperio. Anceps pugna fuit. Mus insidias sub herbis struebat et improviso Marte Ranam adoritur. Rana, viribus melior et pectore, insultuque valens, hostem aggreditur. Hasta utrique erat iuncea et paribus formosa nodis. Sed, certamine procul viso, Milvus adproperat, dumque prae pugnae studio neuter sibi cavebat, bellatores ambos egregie pugnantes Milvus secum attollit laniatque.

 

Translation: After serious protracted enmity, the mouse and frog rushed into battle. The cause of the contest was rule of the swamp. The fight went this way and that. The mouse laid ambushes in the swamp-grass and in a surprise offensive she attacked the frog. The frog, stronger in strength and spirit, fought back against the enemy. Each had a spear made of bulrush, shaped with equal nodes. But the kite saw the contest from a distance and hurried up. While, on account of their zeal for battle, the frog and the mouse were not watching out for themselves, the kite carried away both of the warriors who were fighting so boldly, and butchered the both of them.

 

[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.]

 

The Moral of the Story:

 

Saepissime

hoc evenire

videmus

litigiosis civibus,

qui,

dum inter se certant

quis grandior fiet,

tertius aliquis

ex improviso apparet,

qui pretium certaminis eripit,

spoliisque fruitur duorum

tam ambitiose

sese gerentium aemulorum.

 

Illustration: Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view. This is one of Barlow's more extraordinary images. Not only is the fable itself unusual (surely under the influence of the Batrachomyomachia!), but the vision of this battle is delightfully surreal. The frog is ridding in on a lobster, while the mouse is riding in on, of all things, a weasel (so much for the equally proverbial battle of the mice and the weasels!). The frog and the mouse are wearing armor (the frog has a helmet made from a shell, and I believe the mouse's helmet is made from an acorn?). Meanwhile, there are ranks of frogs and mice standing at attention, in a circle around the two combatants, as if this were a single-combat duel like the contest between Menelaus and Paris in the Iliad. Of course, while Paris was rescued by Aphrodite, leaving Menelaus empty-handed, here we see the kite, poised, ready to snatch away both of the combatants and eat them for dinner. As often, the scene is depicted twice: in the foreground we see the frog and the mouse before they have begun to fight with one another, while in the background we can see them engaged in pitched battle, oblivious to the approaching kite.

 

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