image: lupus
BESTIARIA LATINA BLOG - Latin Via Fables - Zoo - Legenda 		 

Lupus et Agnus

 Comments? Questions? Suggestions?

Scroll down to find: Overview, Study Guide, Segmented Prose Text, and Grammar Comments

The story of The Wolf and The Lamb is adapted from the Romulus Anglicus.

You can find this poem, Romulus Anglicus 2, along with other fables from the Romulus collections, at the aesopica.net website. The Perry number for this fable is Perry 155.

You can see a 1501 woodcut illustration for this fable at the University of Mannheim website.

There is another example of this story in verse form, from the metrical Romulus collection (written in dactylic hexameter).

You can find a translation of a Greek version of this fable in Aesop's Fables, by Laura Gibbs (Oxford University Press, 2003).

   Use this Study Guide to organize your learning activities.

Lupus et Agnus
simul de rivo biberunt,
sed Lupus erat
in parte superiori
et Agnus in inferiori. 		image: lupus
Lupus itaque,
cum haustum fecerat,
erexit se
et dixit ad Agnum:
image: lupus
Tu
qui lanam
in deceptione portas,
semper meis offensis
insistis. 		qui: relative pronoun, antecedent is tu
Agnus vero,
ad hanc vocem trepidus,
timide respondit
et humiliter:
vero: postpositive
Domine potens et tremende,
quare tam aspere
mihi loqueris innocenti? 		mihi...innocenti: split phrase
Quas enim offensas
possem parvulus ego
tibi inferre? 		enim: postpositive
possem: potential subjunctive
inferre: complementary infinitive with possem
Et Lupus ait:
Tu turbas aquam,
et inde gustare non possum. 		gustare: complementary infinitive with possum
Responditque Agnus:
Mira sunt
quae dicis;
cum tu sis superius
et ego inferius,
quomodo possum
tibi aquam turbare?

quae: relative pronoun, antecedent is unexpressed subject of sunt

sis: subjunctive with cum

turbare: complementary infinitive with possum
Sed occasionem
adversum me quaeris,
sicut qui vult
ab amico recedere.

quae: relative pronoun, antecedent is unexpressed "someone"

recedere: complementary infinitive with vult
Tunc ergo exasperatus
Lupus ait iterum :
Tu nimis es garrulus
et iurgia mecum
multiplicare praesumis,

ergo: postpositive
exasperatus...ait: participle plus verb
(the wolf got upset... and said...)

multiplicare: complementary infinitive with praesumis

sicut pater tuus,
qui,
nondum transactis sex mensibus,
de eodem
in hoc loco
mihi disseruit,
quod in te
merito redundabit.

qui: relative pronoun, antecedent is pater

quod: relative pronoun, without expressed antecedent ("the whole situation with his father")

image: lupus

Et ait miser Agnus:
Cur sic in me
illas patris culpas refundis,
qui nondum natus eram? 		qui: relative pronoun, antecedent is me
Tunc raptor ait:
Sic mihi respondes
in omnibus,
et reclamare non cessas? 		reclamare: complementary infinitive with cessas
Irruensque in eum,
guttur eius
crudeliter apprehendit
et finem fecit verborum.

irruens...apprehendit: participle plus verb
(the wolf rushed... and grabbed...)

finem...verborum: split phrase

Moralitas.
Sic tyranni faciunt:
cum innocentum res vel mortem
cupiunt,
sive iuste sive iniuste
eos spoliant
et opprimunt.
image: lupus
© The segmented texts, annotations and audio files at BestLatin.net
are copyrighted by Laura Gibbs, 2007. No copyright is claimed for any images.