Phaedrus: Mons Parturiens

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 the Roman poet Phaedrus.

Mons Parturiens

Mons parturibat, gemitus immanes ciens,

Eratque in terris maxima expectatio.

At ille murem peperit. Hoc scriptum est tibi,

Qui, magna cum minaris, extricas nihil.

This fable is most famous through its use by the Roman poet Horace in his poetic treatise, Ars Poetica: parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus; "the mountains will labor, a ridiculous mouse will be born."

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

Mons parturibat, 

ciens immanes gemitus,

et 

in terris

erat maxima expectatio.

At ille (mons)

peperit murem. 

Hoc scriptum est tibi,

qui,

cum minaris magna,

extricas nihil.

And here's the meter marked:

Mons par·turi·bat, gemi·tus im·manes · ciens,

erat·qu~ in ter·ris max·im~ ex·pecta·tio.

At il·le mu·rem pepe·rit. Hoc · script~ est · tibi,

qui, mag·na cum · mina·ris, ex·tricas · nihil.

You can find illustrations for the fable here. This one is by Tenniel:

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

Aesopic "One-Liners"

As part of our ongoing work on the Latin fables of Desbillons (see this post for more info), Hector picked out a really interesting pair of fables to read together, one by Desbillons and one from Phaedrus. They are a quintessential type of Aesopic fable, the "one-liner," where there really isn't a plot at all, but instead just a witty put-down, as you'll see:

Desbillons 4.1 Sus et Leaena

Fecunda Sus Leaenae vertebat probro,

Catulum quod unum quolibet partu ederet.

"Unum, at Leonem," retulit indignans fera.

Res dignitate praevalent, non copia.

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

Fecunda Sus 

vertebat Leaenae

probro,

quod 

quolibet partu

ederet unum Catulum.

Indignans fera retulit,

"Unum, at Leonem."

Res praevalent

dignitate,

non copia.

This is a fable that comes from the Greco-Roman Aesopic tradition, although it is sometimes a fox who addresses the lioness, rather than a pig. Given how many piglets a pig can have, however, that seems like the better choice, as well as heightening the lowly status of the mother-animal compared to the regal lioness.

The meter is iambic, and here is some help with the meter (for more about iambic meter, see the post about Desbillons 1.1).

Fecun · da Sus · Leae · nae ver · tebat · probro,

Catulum · quod u · num quo · libet · part~ e · deret.

Un~ at · Leo · nem re · tulit in · dignans · fera.

Res dig · nita · te prae · valent · non co · pia.

The other "one-liner" fable we read is from Phaedrus:

Phaedrus 1.7 Vulpes ad Personam Tragicam

Personam tragicam forte vulpes viderat;

quam postquam huc illuc semel atque iterum verterat,

'O quanta species' inquit 'cerebrum non habet!'

Hoc illis dictum est quibus honorem et gloriam

Fortuna tribuit, sensum communem abstulit.

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

Forte

Vulpes viderat

tragicam personam;

postquam

verterat hanc (personam) 

huc illuc

semel atque iterum,

inquit,

"O quanta species...

non habet cerebrum!"

Hoc dictum est illis

quibus 

Fortuna tribuit

honorem et gloriam  

(et) abstulit communem sensum.

The use of the tragic mask in this poem marks it as clearly Roman, and you can see illustrations here; I like the version in the Medici Aesop:

In some versions, it's a wolf rather than a fox... and just look what happens to the story in Caxton, where it's about "the wulf and of the dede mans hede," although the illustration shows a dead woman:

This 15th-century version has a wolf and the head of a statue:

The meter is iambic:

Perso·nam tragi·cam for·te vul·pes vi·derat;

quam post·qu~ huc il·luc semel · atqu~ ite·rum ver·terat,

'O quan·ta speci·es' in·quit 'cere·brum non · habet!'

Hoc il·lis dict~ · est quibus · honor~ · et glo·riam

Fortu·na tribu·it, sen·sum com·mun~ ab·stulit.

Meanwhile, for more Desbillons, here are the other Desbillons poems I've posted so far here at the blog, and here is more from Phaedrus, plus some reconstructed Phaedrus poems.

Phaedrus: Mons Parturiens

This is the collection of Latin fables that started it all: Phaedrus! You can read more about Phaedrus at Wikipedia.


4.22 Mons Parturiens

Mons parturibat, gemitus immanes ciens,

eratque in terris maxima expectatio.

At ille murem peperit. Hoc scriptum est tibi,

qui, magna cum minaris, extricas nihil.

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

Mons parturibat, 

ciens immanes gemitus,

et 

in terris

erat maxima expectatio.

At ille (mons)

peperit murem. 

Hoc scriptum est tibi,

qui,

cum minaris magna,

extricas nihil.

This famous fable is also found in Horace, and it has its own Wikipedia article.


The meter is iambic:

Mons par·turi·bat, gemi·tus im·manes · ciens,

erat·qu~ in ter·ris max·im~ ex·pecta·tio.

At il·le mu·rem pepe·rit. Hoc · script~ est · tibi,

qui, mag·na cum · mina·ris, ex·tricas · nihil.

Here is an illustration from a 1701 edition of Phaedrus: