Latin Via Proverbs 89

I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This is another group of proverbs with first conjugation verbs, along with first, second, and third declension nouns.

Please note: to read the proverbs in Latin, you need to acquire a copy of the book from lulu.com! What I am providing here in the blog are notes to help people who are making their way through the book either in a Latin class or on their own.

Group 89

1154. The passing hour flies by on ambiguous wings. (This is an inscription from a sundial.)

1155. Death flies around on its black wings. (You can find this phrase in Horace.)

1156. Death has no interest in gifts. (The "gifts" are would-be bribes, which have no sway over Death.)

1157. After death, envy comes to a halt. (You can see this illustrated in one of Vaenius's Horatian emblems.)

1158. Virtue continues to smell sweet after the funeral. (This is the Chesley family motto.)

1159. The ash makes all things equal. (The ash here refers to the ash of cremation. You can find this saying in Seneca.)

1160. Death makes all things equal. (Compare a similar saying in Erasmus, Mors aequa est omnibus, mendicis iuxta ac regibus, "Death is equal to all, paupers along with kings.")

1161. Death makes equal sceptres and mattocks. (In other words, kings, with their scepters, and farmers, with their mattocks, are equal in death.)

1162. An elephant has no interest in a gnat. (You can also find this saying: Elephas muscam non curat, "An elephant has no interest in a fly.")

1163. The dog barks at the trail in his dreams, too. (In Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, he explains that it is a rabbit's trail: Et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat.)

1164. He's giving straw to the dog and bones to the donkey. (In other words, he's acting like a fool, giving the wrong thing to the wrong animal.)

1165. The ox expects grass at least sometimes. (This is saying in Erasmus's Adagia, 3.4.80.)

1166. The wolf seizes the sheepfold that is unguarded. (You can find this saying in Ovid's Tristia.)

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