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DE MURE ET RANA

 

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

 

Introduction: In the ancient Greek version of this fable, the frog offers to carry the mouse across a river and then treacherous tries to drown the mouse, but the two of them are then swept up and carried off by a predatory kite. In the unusual version of the fable that you will read here, the mouse and the frog are instead at war with one another, engaged in single combat, fighting one another with lances as if they were knights on horseback! This notion of the frog and the mouse at war with one another was probably inspired by the ancient mock-epic poem called Batrachomyomachia, "The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice." For another fable about what happens when a third party shows up at a pitched battle, see the story of the lion, the bear and the fox. For another fable about animal battles, see the story of the war between the birds and the beasts.

 

Latin Text:

 

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.

 

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

 

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 lengthy and severe hatred, 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 bulrushes, bristling with equal bumps. 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 so butchered 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.]

 

Parallels: For parallel versions, see Perry 384.

 

Related Links: Crossword Puzzle

 

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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