fabulae

My year 8 class are currently reading some of Phaedrus' fables. Here are a few that we've been looking at. See if you can complete the translations.

Ovis, canis et lupus
Solent mendaces luere poenas malefici.
Calumniator ab ove cum peteret canis,
quem commendasse panem se contenderet,
lupus, citatus testis, non unum modo
deberi dixit, verum adfirmavit decem.
Ovis, damnata falso testimonio,
quod non debebat, solvit. Post paucos dies
ovis iacentem in fovea conspexit lupum.
‘Haec’ inquit ‘merces fraudis a superis datur’.

________ are accustomed to pay the penalties for their crimes. When the perjurious ________ asked the sheep to return to him the loaf of bread, which he had lent her, a ________, having been summoned as a ________, said that he was owed not only ________, but claimed that it was ________. The ________, condemned by this ________ testimony, paid back that which she did not owe. After a few ________, the ________ saw the ________ lying dead in a ditch. ‘This reward’ she said ‘is given to tricksters by the gods’.

Leo senex, aper, taurus et asinus
Quicumque amisit dignitatem pristinam,
ignavis etiam iocus est in casu gravi.
Defectus annis et desertus viribus
leo cum iaceret spiritum extremum trahens,
aper fulmineis spumans venit dentibus,
et vindicavit ictu veterem iniuriam.
Infestis taurus mox confodit cornibus
hostile corpus. Asinus, ut vidit ferum
impune laedi, calcibus frontem extudit.
At leo exspirans 'Fortis indigne tuli
mihi insultare: sed te, Naturae dedecus,
quod ferre certe cogor bis videor mori'.

Whoever has lost his original ________ becomes a ________ and a ________, when in serious misfortune. When a ________, failing in ________ and ________ by his strength, was lying, drawing his final ________, a boar, foaming at the mouth, with his teeth shining, ________ and repaid an old ________ with a blow. Soon a troublesome ________ pierced his hostile ________ with his horns. A donkey, when he saw the beast suffering without retaliating, struck him on the forehead with his hooves. But, as he died, the ________ said “I bore it bravely when the brave insulted me: but because I am forced to bear it from you too, Nature’s shame, I seem to die twice.”

For more of Phaedrus' fables and translations click here.