<< Home Page | Phryx Aesopus (Osius) Index

Phryx Aesopus (Osius, 1574)

104. TIGRIS. (Perry 340)

VEnatore feras quodam vexante sagittis,
Cum fugerent, non hoc Tigris ab hoste timet.
Sola sibi pugnae vim sustentura videtur,
Quam frustrata tamen spes animosa fuit.
In femur e latebris illius agente sagittam
Venatore, gravi vulnere laesa gemit,
Et circumspiciens auctorem quaerere facti
Sustinet, at tuto delitet ille loco.
Obvia cui Vulpes, est qua non ulla ferarum
Fortior, a quonam saucia facta gemis?
Nescio Tigris ait, iactam tamen esse sagittam
Ipse manu valida me docet esse dolor.
Saepe quid incaute, praestant qui viribus, audent,
Fidentesque [(printer); sic: Fidesque] suo robore saepe cadunt.
Plus valido quondam prudentia robore prodest,
Saepe minus vires calliditate valent.

*** The image apparently depicts a unicorn, instead of a tiger (the fable was traditionally told about a lion, not about a tiger). ***


Phryx Aesopus Habitu Poetico, by Hieronymus Osius, 1574 (artist not identified). Available online at the University of Mannheim. This book clearly recycles a set of images from another book of Aesop's fables. In some cases, the illustration does not match the fable shown, and in some cases I have not been able to identify what fable a given illustration is supposed to illustrate.