Avianus

Exasperation sharpened her wits
—Fable XXVII

Avianus (or possibly Avienus; fl. c. AD 400) was a Latin writer of fables. He appears to have lived at Rome and to have been a pagan. Forty-two fables by him are known, some of which became connected with epimythia ('morals') of later origin through the mediaeval manuscript tradition.

Quotes

Text and translation: J. W. Duff, Minor Latin Poets, Vol. 2, LCL 434 (1934)

• "Nam quae praeda, rogas, quae spes contingere posset,
    iurgia nutricis cum mihi verba darent?"
  Haec sibi dicta putet seque hac sciat arte notari,
    femineam quisquis credidit esse fidem.
  • "What kill, do you ask, could come my way? what prospect could there be, when a scolding nurse befooled me?"
    Let anyone who believes in a woman's sincerity reflect that to him these words are spoken and that it is he whom this lesson censures.
    • I. De Nutrice et Infante ('The Nurse and her Child')
      • Other translations:
        "What profit could I ever hope to gain
        when hearkening to the prattle of a nurse?"
        Thus often must a worried man complain,
        who, trusting woman, finds her art a curse.
        —Jack Lindsay, Song of a Falling World (1948), p. 60

• Non sine supremo magna labore peti.
  • Great achievement is only reached by the utmost toil.
    • II. De Testudine et Aquila ('The Tortoise and the Eagle')
      • Other translations:
        He that wylle haue and gete worship and glorye may not haue hit withoute grete laboure.
        —William Caxton, "The Tortose and the other Byrdes" (1484)

• Sic quicumque nova sublatus laude tumescit,
    dat merito poenas, dum meliora cupit.
  • So anyone elated and puffed up with new-found glory pays a just penalty in hankering after what is too high for him.
    • II. De Testudine et Aquila ('The Tortoise and the Eagle')
      • Other translations:
        For men sayn comynly / who so mounteth hyher / than he shold / he falleth lower than he wold.
        —William Caxton, "The Tortose and the other Byrdes" (1484)

• Metiri se quemque decet propriisque iuvari
    laudibus, alterius nec bona ferre sibi.
  • Everyone should take his true measure and be content with his own merits, and not claim for himself his neighbour's goods.
    • V. De Asino Pella Leonis Induto ('The Donkey in the Lion's Skin')
      • Cp. Harry Callahan in Magnum Force (1973): "A man's got to know his limitations."

• Tum sortem sapiens humanam risit Apollo,
    invidiaeque malum rettulit ipse Iovi,
  quae, dum proventis aliorum gaudet iniquis,
    laetior infelix et sua damna cupit.
  • Then Apollo, learning the truth, smiled at human lot, and with his own lips reported to Jupiter the curse of jealousy, which, as it rejoices in other people's untoward fortunes, is unlucky enough the more gladly to desire its own harm also.
    • XXII. De Cupido et Invido ('The Greedy Man and the Jealous Man')

• Postquam nulla viam virtus dedit, admovet omnes
    indignata nova calliditate dolos.
  • When no valiant effort could provide a way, she lost her temper and with fresh cunning applied all her crafty devices.
    • XXVII. De Cornice et Urna ('The Crow and the Jar')
      • Other translations:
        Exasperation sharpened her wits.
        —Frederic Taber Cooper, An Argosy of Fables (1921), p. 162
        In anger, she applied all her wiles, with strange cleverness.
        —Stephen T. Newmyer, "Tool Use in Animals", Scholia, vol. 14 (2005), p. 11

• Viribus haec docuit quam sit prudentia maior.
  • This has proved the superiority of foresight over stout efforts.
    • XXVII. De Cornice et Urna ('The Crow and the Jar')

• Non quia magna tibi tribuerunt membra parentes
    viribus effectum constituere tuis.
  • Because your parents transmitted strong limbs to you, it does not follow that they added efficiency to your strength.
    • XXXI. De Mure et Bove ('The Mouse and the Ox')

• Sic qui cuncta deos uno male tempore poscunt,
    iustius his etiam vota diurna negant.
  • So to those wicked enough to ask the gods for everything at once, they refuse the more justly even the prayers of a single day.
    • XXXIII. De Ansere Ova Aurea Pariente ('The Goose that laid the Golden Eggs')

• Quisquis torpentem passus transisse iuventam,
    nec timuit vitae providus ante mala,
  collectus senio, postquam gravis adfuit aetas,
    heu frustra alterius saepe rogabit opem.
  • The man that has allowed his youth to go by in idleness and has not taken anxious precautions against the ills of life—that man, foredone with years, will in the presence of burdensome old age often ask in vain, alas, for a neighbour's help.
    • XXXIV. De Formica et Cicada ('The Ant and the Grasshopper')

• Proderit ergo graves quamvis perferre labores,
    otia quam tenerum mox peritura pati.
  • It will be better to endure toil however burdensome than to experience when young an ease that is soon to be lost.
    • XXXVI. De Vitulo et Bove ('The Calf and the Ox')

• Est hominum sors ista, magis felicibus ut mors
    sit cita, cum miseris vita diurna negat.
  • This is the lot of mortals; death comes swift to the happier ones, while the daily life of the unfortunate refuses them death.
    • XXXVI. De Vitulo et Bove ('The Calf and the Ox')

• "Vade" ait "et pictae nimium confide iuventae,
    dum mihi consilium pulchrius esse queat,
  miremurque magis quos munera mentis adornant,
    quam qui corporeis enituere bonis."
  • "Go," said she, "keep your excessive confidence in your gorgeous youthfulness, so long as I can surpass you in fine counsel, and so long as we can admire those adorned by gifts of intellect more than those who shine in bodily charms."
    • XL. De Pardo et Vulpe ('The Leopard and the Fox')

About

• Avianus can scarcely be called a poet. His tasteless, strained, imprecise Latin, with its constant inappropriate Virgilian reminiscences, might have been written by a nineteenth-century public schoolboy.
  • Robert Browning, "The Fables of Avianus [Review of Avianus, Fabulae, by A. Guaglianone]", The Classical Review, vol. 10, no. 1 (1960), p. 42