Phaedrus

Question 1

Prologue
Aesopus auctor quam materiam repperit,
hanc ego polivi versibus senariis.
duplex libelli dos est: quod risum movet,
et quod prudenti vitam consilio monet.
calumniari si quis autem voluerit, 5
quod arbores loquantur, non tantum ferae,
fictis iocari nos meminerit fabulis.

Answer 1

Aesop is the orginator, he invented the material, I have refined them into senarian verses. the little book is a double gift: which moves to laughter and which guides life with prudent counsel. If anyone wishes to complain because trees talk, not only wild beasts, let him remember that we are joking about imaginary stories.

Question 2

Fables 1.1
Ad rivum eundem lupus et agnus venerant,
siti compulsi. Superior stabat lupus,
longeque inferior agnus. tunc fauce improba
latro incitatus iurgii causam intulit:
Cur” inquit “turbulentam fecisti mihi 5
aquam bibenti?” laniger contra timens:
“Qui possum, quaeso, facere quod quereris, lupe?
a te decurrit ad meos haustus liquor.”
Repulsus ille veritatis viribus
“Ante hos sex menses male” ait “dixisti mihi.” 10
Respondit agnus “Equidem natus non eram.”
“Pater hercle tuus” ille inquit “male dixit mihi.”
atque ita correptum lacerat iniusta nece.
Haec propter illos scripta est homines fabula
qui fictis causis innocentes opprimunt. 15

Answer 2

compelled by thirst, a wolf and a lamb had come to the same brook.the wolf was standing upstream, and much lower down was the lamb. then the robber, prompted by his wicked mouth brought a cause for quarel: ‘why’ he said ‘have you made the water turbulent for me while i’m drinking?’ The wooly one fearing in response (said) ‘How can I, pray, do the thing which you accuse (me of), wolf? the water flows down from you to me where i drink.’ Repelled by the power of truth he said ‘six months ago you cursed me.’ The lamb responded ‘indeed I was not born.’ He (wolf) said, ‘ by Hercules, your father cursed me.’ And so having seized him he tore him with an unjust death. This fable was written on account of those men who oppress the innocent with invented causes.

Question 3

Fables 1.24
Inops potentem dum vult imitari perit.
In prato quondam rana conspexit bovem,
et tacta invidia tantae magnitudinis
rugosam inflavit pellem; tum natos suos
interrogavit an bove esset latior. 5
Illi negarunt. Rursus intendit cutem
maiore nisu, et simili quaesivit modo,
quis maior esset. Illi dixerunt bovem.
Novissime indignata, dum vult validius
inflare sese, rupto iacuit corpore. 10

Answer 3

When a man without resources wishes to imitate the powerful he perishes. Once a frog caught sight of a cow in a meadow and touched by envy of such a great magnitude, she puffed up her wrinkled skin; then she asked her children whether she was wider than the cow. The said no. Again she stretched her skin with greater effort and in the same manner asked which was bigger. They said the cow. finally indignant, while she was wanting to inflate herself more forcefully, she lay there having burst her body.

Question 4

1.26
Nulli nocendum; si quis vero laeserit,
multandum simili iure fabella admonet.
Ad cenam vulpes dicitur ciconiam
prior invitasse, et liquidam in patulo marmore
posuisse sorbitionem, quam nullo modo 5
gustare esuriens potuerit ciconia.
Quae vulpem cum revocasset, intrito cibo
plenam lagonam posuit; huic rostrum inserens
satiatur ipsa et torquet convivam fame,
quae cum lagonae collum frustra lamberet, 10
peregrinam sic locutam volucrem accepimus:
“Sua quisque exempla debet aequo animo pati.”

Answer 4

Harm must be done to no one; indeed if anyone has inflicted an injury this fable warns them the punishment must be imposed in a similar fashion. A fox is said to have first invited a stork to dinner, and to have placed a water soup on a flat marble plate before her, which the stork, being hungry, was in no way able to taste it.When the stork invited the fox in return, she placed before him a bottle filled by mashed food; into which she inserted her beak and satisfied herself and tormented her dinner guest with hunger, while the fox was vainly licking the neck of the bottle, we hear the exotic bird speaking thus: ‘One who sets an example ought to bear it with a equal/stable mind.

Question 5

1.2
(Aesop is telling this story to the Athenians during the times of Pisistratus)

“Ranae vagantes liberis paludibus 10
clamore magno regem petiere ab Iove,
qui dissolutos mores vi compesceret.
Pater deorum risit atque illis dedit
parvum tigillum, missum quod subito vadi
motu sonoque terruit pavidum genus. 15
Hoc mersum limo cum iaceret diutius,
forte una tacite profert e stagno caput
et explorato rege cunctas evocat.
illae timore posito certatim adnatant
lignumque supra turba petulans insilit. 20
quod cum inquinassent omni contumelia,
alium rogantes regem misere ad Iovem,
inutilis quoniam esset qui fuerat datus.
tum misit illis hydrum, qui dente aspero
corripere coepit singulas. Frustra necem 25
fugitant inertes, vocem praecludit metus.
furtim igitur dant Mercurio mandata ad Iovem,
adflictis ut succurrat. tunc contra Tonans:
‘Quia noluistis vestrum ferre’ inquit ‘bonum,
malum perferte.’ vos quoque, o cives,” ait, 30
“hoc sustinete, maius ne veniat, malum.”

Answer 5

“the frogs while wandering free in the marshes asked Jupiter ,with loud cries, for a king, who would restrain their loose morals with force. The father of the gods laughed and gave them a small piece of wood, which was sent with a sudden motion and sound into the shallows which frightened the timid race. When it lay sunk in the mud for a long time, by chance one frog quietly put her head out of the pond and with the king examined calls out to all the others. The frogs, fear laid aside eagerly swam up to the wood and the impudent crowd leaps on top of it. when they had defiled it with every insult, asking for another king they sent to Zeus, since the one he gave them was useless. Then Jupiter sent a water snake to them, who began to seize them one by one with violent teeth. In vain, sluggish they flee from death, fear shut off their voice. Therefore, secretly they give messages to Mercury for Jupiter so that he might help the distressed. Then the thunderer said in reply: ‘since you did not want to endure/bear your good, suffer the bad.’ You also, citizens” said Aesop, “endure the bad, lest a worse thing come.”