Phaedrus (Burmann): Vultur et Aliae Aves

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 Phaedrus, as reconstructed by Pieter Burman.

Vultur et Aliae Aves

Vultur, natalem simulans se celebrare, aves

Domum invitavit. Deinde, ingressus, ostium

Occlusit atque caedere coepit singulas.

Sic spem tribuentes saepe struunt contraria.

As in many Aesop's fables, the emphasis is not on how wicked the vulture is; instead, the emphasis is on how foolish the birds were to accept his invitation. The epimythium warns us to be on the lookout for people who, like the vulture, get our hopes up only in order to destroy us.

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

Vultur, 

simulans
se celebrare natalem, 

invitavit aves domum. 

Deinde ingressus, 

occlusit ostium

atque coepit caedere singulas.

Sic 

tribuentes spem 

saepe struunt contraria.

And here's the meter marked:

Vultur, · nata·lem simu·lans se · celebrar~ · aves

Dom~ in·vita·vit. Deind~ · ingres·sus os·tium

Occlu·sit at·que cae·dere coe·pit sin·gulas.

Sic spem · tribuen·tes sae·pe struunt · contra·ria.

Here is an illustration from Steinhowel's Aesop:

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