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DE MEMBRIS ET VENTRE

 

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

 

Latin Text:

 

Humani artus cum ventrem otiosum viderent, ab eo discordabant, et suum ei ministerium negaverunt. Hoc facto, cum et ipsi quoque deficerent, intellexerunt ventrem acceptos cibos per omnia membra dividere et cum eo in gratiam et mutuum officium redierunt. Magnae res discordia pereunt, concordia crescunt, valentque.

 

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

 

Humani artus

cum ventrem otiosum viderent,

ab eo discordabant,

et suum ei ministerium negaverunt.

Hoc facto,

cum et ipsi quoque deficerent,

intellexerunt

ventrem

acceptos cibos

per omnia membra dividere

et cum eo

in gratiam et mutuum officium

redierunt.

Magnae res

discordia pereunt,

concordia crescunt valentque.

 

Translation: The limbs of the human body, when they saw that the stomach was lazy, they quarreled with the stomach and denied him their services. After they did this, when the limbs themselves also grew weak, they understood that the stomach took the food it was given and divided it through all the members of the body, and they returned into the stomach's good graces, with a mutual sense of duty. Great affairs are destroyed by discord, but with concord they grow and flourish.

 

[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 130.

 

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.

 

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