<< Home Page | Phaedrus Index

Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Appendix XIX. Scrofa parturiens et lupus (Perry 547)

Faciendum prius de homine periculum quam eius te committas fidei

Premente partu scrofa cum gemeret iacens.
Accurrit lupus et obstetricis partibus
se posse fungi dixit, promittens opem.
Quae uero nosset pectoris fraudem improbi,
suspectum officium repudiauit malefici
et "Satis est" inquit "si recedis longius."
Quodsi perfidiae se commisisset lupi,
pari dolore fata deflesset sua.


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.