Two fables by Phaedrus.

Panem et Circenses, bread and circuses, that was the way Romans checked social unrest. Nevertheless, the idea that something was not quite right is expressed in the following fable. Of course it is originally Greek, but the sentiment that the rich are living on the poor is common in almost every society. The fable tells how frogs (ranae) in a pound are loudly protesting when they hear that the sun is about to marry (uxorem duco): their pound has already been completely scourged by the rays of the sun, what if the sun will have children? One doesn’t need to be an academic to see what this fable is really about.  The link below tells how this fable was abused against the Dutch Republic in the 17^th century by the British and French. It still makes me angry!

Meter: iambic senarius (u-u-u-u-u-xx  with all possible variations for the first 5 feet)

Phaedrus, book 1, VI. Ranae ad Solem

Vicini furis celebres vidit nuptias

Aesopus, et continuo narrare incipit -

Uxorem quondam Sol cum vellet ducere,

clamorem ranae sustulere ad sidera.

Convicio permotus quaerit Iuppiter

causam querellae. Quaedam tum stagni incola

'Nunc' inquit 'omnes unus exurit lacus,

cogitque miseras arida sede emori.

Quidnam futurum est si crearit liberos?'

vicini furi : a neighbouring thief  = a thievish neighbour

celebres nuptias: a crowded wedding

continuo: immediately

tollo sustuli sublatum: to lift, raise (sustulere = sustulerunt)

convicium: loud noise, outcry

querella: complaint

stagnum : standing water, pound

unus (Sol)

exuro exussi exustum : to burn out

cogo coegi coactum: to compel

crearit = creaverit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frogs_and_the_Sun

Source unknown

And more injustice! Everyone knows people in high positions but with no brains, e.g. politicians or CEO’s. They are favoured by luck, whereas people like you and me have no chance.  In this fable a fox is looking at a persona tragica – not tragic person, but a mask (persona) used in tragedies.  Actors in ancient tragedy and comedy wore masks, as they had to perform several roles in the same play. This kind of mask covered the whole head, so it was indeed a dignified face (quanta species) without brains (cerebrum non habet. This lack of brains implied a lack of sensus communis. Like persona tragica, this word too is a fallacy for English speakers: not `common sense’, but `feeling for one’s fellow man’ or `working in the interest of the community’.

Phaedrus, book 1, VII. Vulpes ad Personam Tragicam

Personam tragicam forte vulpes viderat;

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

Hoc illis dictum est quibus honorem et gloriam

Fortuna tribuit, sensum communem abstulit.

forte: by chance

tribuo: to assign, bestow

aufero abstuli ablatum:  to take away

Translations by C. Smart (1913)

The Frogs and Sun

When Esop saw, with inward grief,

The nuptials of a neighboring thief,

He thus his narrative begun:

Of old 'twas rumor'd that the Sun

Would take a wife: with hideous cries

The quer'lous Frogs alarm'd the skies.

Moved at their murmurs, Jove inquired

What was the thing that they desired?

When thus a tenant of the lake,

In terror, for his brethren spake:

"Ev'n now one Sun too much is found,

And dries up all the pools around,

Till we thy creatures perish here;

But oh, how dreadfully severe,

Should he at length be made a sire,

And propagate a race of fire !"

The Fox and the Tragic Mask

A Fox beheld a Mask- "0 rare

The headpiece, if but brains were there !"

This holds-whene'er the Fates dispense

Pomp, pow'r, and everything but sense.