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Ovis et Canis

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The story of The Sheep and The Dog is adapted from Phaedrus, Ademar, the Romulus Anglicus, the rhymed Romulus and Walter of England.

The original texts are available at the aesopica.net website. The Perry number for this fable is Perry 478 (with links to the Latin texts).

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

You can find translations of the versions by Phaedrus and by Ademar in Aesop's Fables, by Laura Gibbs (Oxford University Press, 2003).

   Use this Study Guide to organize your learning activities.

Canis calumniosus
traxit Ovem in causam
pro pane,
et dixit:
Debes mihi reddere panem,
quem dederam tibi mutuo. 		reddere: complementary infinitive with debes
quem: relative pronoun, with antecedent panem
Contendebant,
et Ovis
hoc factum negavit,
dicens
se nunquam
panem a Cane mutuasse.

mutuasse: infinitive in indirect statement introduced by dicens (accusative subject se)
Cum ante iudicem venissent,
Canis dixit
se habere testes,
et iudex
ab illis veritatem requirit.

venissent: subjunctive with cum

habere: infinitive in indirect statement introduced by dixit (accusative subject se)
Introductus
Miluus dixit:
Me coram
Ovis panem accepit. 		introductus...dixit: participle plus verb
(he was led in... and said...)
Accipiter introiens
ait:
Negas tu
quod accepisti? 		introiens...ait: participle plus verb
(he came in... and said...)
Et Lupus
etiam declaravit:
Scio
panem commodatum esse,
et non unum modo:
decem vero debet.

commodatum esse: infinitive in indirect statement introduced by scio (accusative subject panem)

modo: in the sense of "only"

debet: implied subject is Ovis
Victa Ovis
a tribus falsis testibus,
artius exigitur,
nihil praeter lanam habens
quod dare Cani posset.

quod: relative pronoun, antecedent is nihil

posset: potential subjunctive

dare: complementary infinitive with posset
Hiems iam erat,
et coacta Ovis
extractam lanam suam
vendidit,
ut redderet
quod non acceperat,
boream patiens
vellere nuda suo.

redderet: subjunctive with ut

quod: relative pronoun, antecedent is implied object of redderet ("to give back [that] which...")

vellere...suo: split phrase (the ablative qualifies nuda: "stripped of her fleece")

Deinde in brumae frigore
mortua est
et consumunt carnem testes
ac dentibus ossa.		 consumunt carnem testes ac dentibus ossa: note the poetic word order (consumunt testes dentibus carnem et ossa)
Fabula dicta est illis
qui seditiose
innocentes laniant
et opprimunt.
© The segmented texts, annotations and audio files at BestLatin.net
are copyrighted by Laura Gibbs, 2007. No copyright is claimed for any images.