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DE PARTU MONTIUM

 

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

 

Introduction: The Roman poet Horace is famous for his love of Aesop's fables, and this little story about the mountains in labor makes an appearance in his poetic treatise, The Art of Poetry: Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus, "The mountains are going to give birth, and a ridiculous mouse will be born." The Roman poet Phaedrus also told a version of this same story and added the following moral: "This is a fable written for people who make serious-sounding threats but who actually accomplish nothing." In his 17th-century version of the fable, Sir Roger L'Estrange comments simply, "Much ado about nothing." The folklorist Joseph Jacobs provides this moral: ""Much outcry, little outcome." What is the moral you would give to this story? For another story about a mouse who is tiny but hardly ridiculous, see the story of the lion and the mouse. For another story about being misled by gossip and rumor, see the story of the wolf and the nurse.

 

Latin Text:

 

Rumor erat parturire Montes. Homines undique accurrunt et circumstant, monstri quidpiam non sine pavore expectantes. Montes tandem parturiunt; exit ridiculus Mus.

 

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

 

Rumor erat

parturire Montes.

Homines

undique accurrunt et circumstant,

monstri quidpiam

non sine pavore

expectantes.

Montes tandem parturiunt;

exit ridiculus Mus.

 

Translation: The rumor was that the mountains were giving birth. People came running from all directions and stood around,  not without fear, exspecting some kind of monster. The mountains finally gave birth; a ridiculous mouse came out.

 

[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 520.

 

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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