Avianus - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Avianus, a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

writer of fable

Fable

A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...

s, generally placed in the 5th century, and identified as a pagan.

The 42 fables which bear his name are dedicated to a certain Theodosius, whose learning is spoken of in most flattering terms. He may possibly be Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, the author of Saturnalia; some think he may be the emperor of that name. Nearly all the fables are to be found in Babrius

Babrius

Babrius was the author of a collection of fables written in Greek. He collected many of the fables that are known to us today simply as Aesop's fables .Practically nothing is known of him...

, who was probably Avianus's source of inspiration, but as Babrius wrote in Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, and Avianus speaks of having made an elegiac version from a rough Latin

Latin

copy, probably a prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

paraphrase, he was not indebted to the original. The language and metre are on the whole correct, in spite of deviations from classical usage, chiefly in the management of the pentameter

Pentameter

Pentameter may refer to:*the iambic pentameter of the modern period*the dactylic pentameter of antiquity...

. The fables soon became popular as a school-book. Promythia and epimythia (introductions and morals), paraphrases, and imitations were frequent, such as the Novus Avianus of Alexander Neckam

Alexander Neckam

Alexander Neckam was an English scholar and teacher.-Biography:Born at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, Neckam's mother, Hodierna, nursed the prince with her own son, who thus became Richard's foster-brother...

(12th century).

Fables

De nutrice et infanti
De testudine et aquila - noticed under The Tortoise and the Birds
De cancris
De vento et sole - The North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop's Fables . It is type 298 in the Aarne-Thompson folktale classification.-The story and its application:...
De asino pelle leonis induto - The Ass in the Lion's Skin
The Ass in the Lion's Skin
The Ass in the Lion's Skin is one of Aesop's Fables . There are also several Eastern variants and the story's interpretation varies accordingly.-The Fable:...
De rana et vulpe - The Frog Physician
De cane qui noluit latrare - The Mischievous Dog
The Mischievous Dog
The Mischievous Dog is one of Aesop's Fables, of which there is a Greek version by Babrius and a Latin version by Avianus. It is numbered 332 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a dog that bites the legs of others. Its master therefore ties a bell around its neck to warn people...
De camelo
De duobus sociis et ursa - The Bear and the Travelers
The Bear and the Travelers
The Bear and the Travelers is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 65 in the Perry Index. This was expanded and given a new meaning in Mediaeval times.-The Classical Fable:...
De calvo
De ollis - The Two Pots
The Two Pots
The Two Pots is one of Aesop's Fables and numbered 378 in the Perry Index. The fable may stem from proverbial sources.-The Fable:There is a short Greek version of the fable and a longer, more circumstantial late Latin poem by Avianus. It concerns two pots, one of earthenware and the other of metal,...
De thesauro
De hirco et tauro
De simia
De grue et pavone
De quercu et harundine - The Oak and the Reed
The Oak and the Reed
The Oak and the Reed is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 70 in the Perry Index. It appears in many versions: in some it is with many reeds that the oak converses and in a late rewritten version it disputes with a willow.-The story and its interpretation:...
De venatore et tigride
De quattuor iuvencis et leone
De abiete ac dumis - The Fir and the Bramble
The Fir and the Bramble
The Fir and the Bramble is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 304 in the Perry Index. It is one of a group in which trees and plants debate together, which also includes The Trees and the Bramble and The Oak and the Reed...
De piscatore et pisce - The fisherman and the little fish
The fisherman and the little fish
The fisherman and the little fish is one of Aesop's fables and is numbered 18 in the Perry Index. Babrius records it in Greek and Avianus in Latin. The story concerns a small fry caught by a fisherman that begs for its life on account of its size and suggests that waiting until it is larger would...
De luscinia
De cupido et invido
De Baccho
De venatore et leone
De fure et parvo
De leone et capella
De cornice et urna - The Crow and the Pitcher
The Crow and the Pitcher
The Crow and the Pitcher is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 390 in the Perry Index. It is found in the 2nd century CE Greek fable collection by pseudo-Dositheus, and later appears in the 4th–5th century Latin verse collection by Avianus. The history of this fable in antiquity and the Middle...
De rustico et iuvenco
De viatore et fauno - The Satyr and the Traveller
The Satyr and the Traveller
The Satyr and the Traveller is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 35 in the Perry Index. The popular idiom 'to blow hot and cold' is associated with it.-The Fable:...
De apro et coco
De mure et tauro
De pigro Tyrinthium frustra orante - God helps those who help themselves
God helps those who help themselves
The phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is a popular motto that emphasizes the importance of self-initiative.The phrase originated in ancient Greece, occurring in approximately equivalent form as the moral to one of Aesop's Fables, Hercules and the Waggoner, and later in the great tragedy...
De ansere ova aurea pariente - The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs
The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs
Killing The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs is among the best known of Aesop's Fables and use of the phrase has become idiomatic of an unprofitable action motivated by greed.-The story and its moral:...
De cicada et formica - The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Ant and the Grasshopper, also known as The Grasshopper and the Ant , is one of Aesop's Fables, providing an ambivalent moral lesson about hard work and foresight. In the Perry Index it is number 373...
De simiae gemellis
De vitulo et bove
De leone et cane
De pisce et focis
De milite veterano
De pardo et vulpe
De olla cruda
De lupo et haedo

Editions

Hendrik Cannegieter (1731)
Lachmann (1845)
Wilhelm Fröhner
Wilhelm Fröhner
Wilhelm Fröhner or Guillaume Frœhner was a curator at the Musée du Louvre, an archaeological researcher and collector of antiquities in Paris...

(1862)
Emil Baehrens
Emil Baehrens
Paul Heinrich Emil Baehrens was a German classical scholar.After completing his studies he became Privatdozent at Jena. In 1877 he was appointed ordinary professor at the University of Groningen...

in Poetae Latini Minores (1879–1883)
Robinson Ellis
Robinson Ellis
Robinson Ellis was an English classical scholar.He was born at Barming, near Maidstone, and was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, Rugby School, and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1858 he became fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and in 1870 professor of Latin at University College, London...

, The Fables of Avianus (1887)

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