V. PHAEDRUS.
Flourished about 15 A.D.
Phaedrus, born in Thrace, came to Rome as a slave, and was set free by Augustus. Under Tiberius he was the victim of political persecution on account of some verses offensive to Sejanus. He published five books of fables (with occasional anecdotes) largely imitated from Aesop.
His style is fluent, his tone lively and sometimes coarse, his diction correct, his verse skilful.—Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman Literature, vol. 2, p. 30.
For Reference: Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman
Literature, vol. 2, p. 29 ff.
Metre: Iambic Trimeter, B. 370, 1, 2; A. & G. 618, a, b.
1. Aesopus: a famous writer of fables, born in Phrygia about 600 B.C. He is said to have been liberated from slavery, to have lived at Sardis and to have been Croesus' ambassador to Delphi, where he was murdered by the angry townspeople, who hurled him over a precipice. Babrius, a Greek who lived about 100 B.C., made a comprehensive collection of Aesopian fables which Phaedrus imitated with considerable closeness. 5-7. 'Let no one censure me for representing trees as speaking; it is merely the play of fancy and a fable.'
2. 4. latro: the robber wolf. 7. Qui: how? Qui is the old ablative of the relative, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns.
4. 1. devocat: allures. 3. Tanto…melior: 'That is good!' See Lex. under tantus, I, C, 3, a, b. 4. prosecutus: and went on to say. See Lex. underprosequor, II, B. 5. unde: equivalent to a quo. 7. dignum ff.: with a double meaning. 10. namque: for, a strengthened nam.
5. This story is also told by Cicero, De Oratore, 2. 352 ff., and by others. 1, 2. Quantum…superius: an earlier fable (4. 23) relates how Simonides, shipwrecked and destitute, was received most hospitably by one of his admirers. 4. Simonides: the renowned Greek lyric poet of Ceos. His ode upon those who fell at Thermopylae was especially famous. Sterling translates:
Of those who at Thermopylae were slain,
Glorious the doom, and beautiful the lot;
Their tomb an altar: men from tears refrain
To honor them; and praise, but mourn them not.
Such sepulchre nor drear decay
Nor all-destroying time shall waste; this right have they.
Within their grave the home-bred glory
Of Greece was laid; this witness gives
Leonidas, the Spartan, in whose story
A wreath of famous virtue ever lives.
5. pyctae: a word borrowed directly from the Greek. 8. poetae more: poets who wrote odes in honor of victories at the games usually inserted some legend containing an account of a similar victory won by a god or a hero. 9. gemma Ledae pignera: Castor and Pollux, the latter famous as a boxer. pignera: see Lex. II, B, 1. 10. auctoritatem…gloriae: citing the authority of a like glory. 11, 12. tertiam partem: only a third. 13. duae: sc. partes, two-thirds. 24. humanam supra formani: the gods and heroes were 'divinely tall.' The diminutive servulo is in strong contrast. 31. Ut…rei: When the incident was told just as it occurred.
Another story of divine interposition on the part of Castor and Pollux is vividly told by Macaulay in The Battle of Lake Regillus.
6. Compare with Vergil's account of the oracle given by the Sibyl to Aeneas, Aeneid, 6. 9 ff. Some of the more obvious resemblances in diction and thought are Aeneid, 6. 12, 29, 35, 44, 45, 46 ff., 50, 95, 98, 99, 100.
1. Utilius: equalling a superlative, of highest value. 2. qui ff.: Delphi was a city in north central Greece and Parnassus a mountain near it. 4. tripodes: this probably means the golden seat above the cleft in the ground in the adytum of Apollo's temple at Delphi. On this the priestess (vates, 1. 3; virgo, 1. 16) sat to breathe the rising vapors which induced the prophetic ecstasy. The tripus is named from being supported on three legs. adytis: from [Greek: aduton], 'not to be entered.' The adyta, or innermost parts of temples, were accessible only to priests. 5. lauri: the laurel was sacred to Apollo. 6. Pytho: the former name for Delphi. Pytho is poetically said to speak when the Pythian priestess speaks. 7. Delii: Delos, an island of the Aegean, nearly at the centre of the Cyclades, was sacred to Apollo, and was his birthplace. 12. ite obviam: oppose.
7. Plutarch, Symposiacon Problematon, V. 1 (Moralia, 674 B, C), tells essentially this same story. Parmeno, he says, was famous for his imitation of the grunting of a pig. Even when one came upon the stage having a real pig concealed under his cloak, the audience cried, 'This is nothing to compare with the sow of Parmeno.' Then he who had the pig threw it in the midst of them, 'to show that they judged according to opinion and not truth.'
1. Pravo favore: prejudice. labi: the metaphor is in evident contrast to that in stant of 1. 2. 2. pro iudicio…erroris: in defence of their mistaken judgment. 3. rebus manifestis: the disclosure of the truth. 4. Facturus ludos: who was about to give an entertainment. 8. scurra: a city wit. urbano sale: clever jesting, merry cleverness. The Romans sharply contrasted city manners with those of the country to the disadvantage of the latter. 12. loca: seats. 18. verum: sc. porcellum. pallio: mantle or toga. 19. simul: equals simul ac. 21. prosequuntur: honor. 27. degrunnit: grunts his best. 30. scilicet: to be sure. 32. vero: sc. porcello. 35. imitatum: sc. esse.