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DE AGRICOLA ET CICONIA

 

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

 

Introduction: You may have heard the legend that babies are delivered by storks. This is not a belief found in ancient Greece or Rome, but the Greeks and Romans did consider the stork to be a bird with a strong sense of family values. Supposedly the storks took especially good care of their young and then, when the young storks grew up, they supposedly took very good care of their parents. The stork in this fable hopes that its good reputation will save its life when it is caught in a trap set by a peasant. As you will see, however, the peasant is not persuaded by the stork's story! For another story about a bird pleading for its life, see the story of the fowler and the partridge. For the more vicious side of the stork, see the story of the frogs and their king.

 

Latin Text:

 

Laqueum praetendit Rusticus gruibus anseribusque, sata depascentibus. Capitur et Ciconia. Supplicat illa et innocentem sese clamitat, nec Gruem nec Anserem esse, sed avium omnium optimam, quippe quae parentibus sedulo inservire eundemque senio confectum alere consueverat. Agricola: "Horum (inquit) nihil me fugit; verum cum nocentibus postquam te cepi, cum nocentibus morieris."

 

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

 

Laqueum praetendit

Rusticus

gruibus anseribusque,

sata depascentibus.

Capitur et Ciconia.

Supplicat illa

et innocentem sese clamitat,

nec Gruem nec Anserem esse,

sed avium omnium optimam,

quippe

quae

parentibus sedulo inservire

eundemque senio confectum alere

consueverat.

Agricola:

"Horum (inquit) nihil

me fugit;

verum

cum nocentibus

postquam te cepi,

cum nocentibus morieris."

 

Translation: A countryman stretched out a trap for the cranes and the geese who were feeding on the crops he had sown. A stork was also captured. The stork begged him for mercy, shouting that she was innocent, and that she was not a crane or a goose, and that she was the best of all the birds, why she even was diligently devoted to her parents, and accustomed to care for each of them when worn out by old age. The farmer said, "None of this escapes me but in fact now that I've caught you with the evil-doers, with the evil-doers you will die."

 

[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 194.

 

 

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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