Alciato: Alius Peccat, Alius Plectitur

This is a poem intended for my anthology of Latin Aesopic poetry. I'm accumulating the materials for the anthology in a Google Docs folder, including a document for this poem where you will find vocabulary and notes. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome! You can use the "comment" feature in the Google Doc, which I will be updating with revisions. Today's poem is by Andrea Alciato (1492-1550).

Alius Peccat, Alius Plectitur

Arripit ut lapidem catulus morsuque fatigat,

Nec percussori mutua damna facit,

Sic plerique sinunt veros elabier hostes,

Et, quos nulla gravat noxia, dente petunt.

There is an Aesop's fable that expresses a similar idea: when a thief steals the bees' honey, the bees attack the beekeeper, who then rebukes them for attacking him instead of the one who actually took the honey: The Beekeeper (Perry 72). In Alciato's emblem, the stone is silent: it cannot rebuke the dog for biting the stone instead of attacking the one who threw it.

Here is the poem written out in English prose order to help in reading:

ut catulus 

arripit lapidem

et fatigat morsu

nec facit mutua damna

percussori,

sic plerique 

sinunt veros hostes elabier,

et petunt dente

quos 

nulla noxia gravat.

And here's the meter marked:

Arripit · ut lapi·dem catu·lus, mor·suque fa·tigat,

Nec per·cussori || mutua · damna · facit.

Sic ple·rique si·nunt ve·ros e·labier · hostes,

Et quos · nulla gra·vat || noxia · dente pe·tunt.

You can find illustrations for the emblem at the Glasgow site.

Meanwhile, for more, here are the other Anthology poems I've posted so far here at the blog. :-)