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Hircus et Taurus

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Scroll down to find: Overview, Study Guide, Verse, Audio, and Segmented Prose Text

The story of The Goat and The Bull is a poem written by Avianus. It is written in elegiac couplets. You can find this poem, Avianus 13, along with other poems by Avianus, at the aesopica.net website. The Perry number for this fable is Perry 217. In some versions of this fable there is just one goat in the cave (as here in Avianus), and in other versions of the fable there are several goats. You can see a 1501 woodcut illustration for this fable at the University of Mannheim website. You can find a translation of a Greek version of this story in Aesop's Fables, by Laura Gibbs (Oxford University Press, 2003).

   Use this Study Guide to organize your learning activities.

Here is the poem (click "play" icon for brief audio sample):

Immensum taurus fugeret cum forte leonem
Tutaque desertis    quaereret antra viis,

Speluncam reperit quam tunc hirsutus habebat
Cinyphii ductor     qui gregis esse solet.

Post ubi submissa meditantem irrumpere fronte
Obvius obliquo     terruit ore caper,

Tristis abit longaque fugax de valle locutus,
Nam timor expulsum     iurgia ferre vetat:

Non te demissis saetosum, putide, barbis,
Illum, qui super est     consequiturque, tremo.

Nam si discedat, nosces, stultissime, quantum
Discrepet a tauri     viribus hircus olens.

The following version puts the words in a more prose-like order so that it will be easier for you to read:

Taurus cum forte fugeret leonem immensum, et tuta antra quaereret desertis viis,	leonem: the o is long, so penultimate stress
reperit speluncam quam tunc habebat hirsutus hircus, qui solet esse ductor Cinyphii gregis.	hirsutus: the u is long, so penultimate stress
Post ubi taurum, meditantem irrumpere, fronte submissa, terruit caper, obvius obliquo ore,	obliquo: the i is long, so penultimate stress
taurus tristis abit et fugax de valle longa locutus,
nam timor vetat expulsum ferre iurgia:
putide! non tremo te, saetosum demissis barbis;
tremo illum, qui super est et consequitur.
Nam si discedat, nosces, stultissime, quantum hircus olens discrepet a tauri viribus.	discedat: the e is long, so penultimate stress