Fable of the Day: De Musca

[Laura Gibbs]

[Note: You can find more of these fables at the old blog address for Latin Via Fables.]

Title: De Musca, quae quadrigis insidens pulverem se excitasse dicebat: The Fly, who sitting on the chariot said that she was stirring up the dust, by Abstemius


Latin Text:



Quadrigae in stadio currebant, quibus musca insidebat. Maximo autem pulvere, tum equorum pedum pulsu, tum rotarum volutatione, exorto, dicebat musca, "Quam magnam vim pulveris excitavi!" Haec fabula ad eos spectat, qui, cum ignavi sint, alienam tamen gloriam suis magnificis verbis in se transferre conantur.


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


Quadrigae
in stadio currebant,
quibus musca insidebat.
Maximo autem pulvere,
tum equorum pedum pulsu,
tum rotarum volutatione,
exorto,
dicebat musca,
"Quam magnam vim pulveris
excitavi!"
Haec fabula ad eos spectat,
qui,
cum ignavi sint,
alienam tamen gloriam
suis magnificis verbis
in se transferre conantur.

Crossword Puzzle: While I am in the process of moving to North Carolina, I may be slow to add the crossword puzzled, but I'll get caught up eventually. If you subscribe to the Bestiaria Latina round-up, you can find out when new materials are added.



Translation:



A four-horse chariots were racing in the stadium, and there was a fly sitting on the chariot. When a mighty dust was stirred up, now from the pounding of the horses' hooves, now from the turning of the wheels, the fly said, "What a great force of dust I have aroused!" This fable focuses on those who, although they are lazy, nevertheless try with their boasting words to shift onto themselves other people's glory.



[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.]



Source: Abstemius 16 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)



Another English translation. Sir Roger L'Estrange included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. So, here is L'Estrange's translation:



What a Dust do I raise! says the Fly upon the Coach-Wheel and what a rate do I drive at, says the same Fly again upon the Horse's Buttock.
This Fly in the Fable, is every Trifling Arrogant Fop in Nature, by what Name or Title soever Dignify'd, or Distinguish'd.

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