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Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Book IV - XII. Malas Esse Diuitias (Perry 111)

Opes inuisae merito sunt forti uiro,
quia diues arca ueram laudem intercipit.
Caelo receptus propter uirtutem Hercules,
cum gratulantes persalutasset deos,
ueniente Pluto, qui Fortunae est filius,
auertit oculos. Causam quaesiuit Pater.
"Odi" inquit "illum quia malis amicus est
simulque obiecto cunctaa corrumpit lucro."

Hercules and Plutus (trans. C. Smart)

Wealth by the brave is justly scorn'd,
Since men are from the truth suborn'd,
And a full chest perverts their ways
From giving or deserving praise.
When Hercules, for matchless worth,
Was taken up to heav'n from earth,
As in their turns to all the crowd
Of gratulating gods he bow'd,
When Plutus, Fortune's son, he spies,
He from his face averts his eyes.
Jove ask'd the cause of this disgust:
"I hate him, as he is unjust,
To wicked men the most inclined,
And grand corrupter of mankind."


Latin text from Phaedrus at The Latin Library (Ad Fontes), English translations from The Fables of Phaedrus Translated into English Verse by Christopher Smart (London: 1913). Ben Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb), contains the Latin texts of Phaedrus, with a facing English translation, along with a valuable appendix listing all the Aesop's fables attested in Greek and/or in Latin. Invaluable.