Friday, March 19, 2010

Auriga et rota currus stridens (Abstemius)

SOURCE: This fable comes from the first Hecatomythium ("100 Fables") of Laurentius Abstemius (Lorenzo Bevilaqua), a fifteenth-century Italian scholar. Of all the neo-Latin fable collections, Abstemius's was the most popular, and his stories are frequently anthologized in the 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century collections of Aesop's fables in Latin. Here is a 1499 edition of the book online. This is fable 84 in the collection.

READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons or accent marks - and read the text out loud until you feel comfortable and confident. Then, try reading the unmarked text at the bottom. It should be easy for you after practicing with the marked texts. :-)


MACRONS. Here is the text with macrons:

Aurīga interrogābat currum, quārē rota, quae erat dēterior, strīdēret, cum cēterae idem nōn facerent. Cui currus: Aegrōtī, inquit, semper mōrōsī, et quaerulī esse cōnsuēvērunt. Haec indicat fābula, mala solēre hominēs ad querimōniam semper impellere.



ACCENT MARKS. Here is the text with stress accents, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):

Auríga interrogábat currum, quare rota, quae erat detérior, stridéret, cum céterae idem non fácerent. Cui currus: "Aegróti (inquit) semper morósi et quaéruli esse consuevérunt." Haec índicat fábula mala solére hómines ad querimóniam semper impéllere.



UNMARKED TEXT. Here is the unmarked text - after practicing with the marked text that you prefer, you should not have any trouble with the unmarked text. I've put in some line breaks to show the natural pauses in the story:

Auriga
interrogabat currum,
quare rota,
quae erat deterior, strideret,
cum ceterae idem non facerent.
Cui currus:
"Aegroti (inquit)
semper morosi et quaeruli
esse consueverunt."
Haec indicat fabula
mala solere homines
ad querimoniam semper impellere.




IMAGE. Here is an illustration for the story (image source) showing a wheel that definitely looks like it would squeak!