<< Home Page | Phaedrus Index

Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Book I - XXV. Canes et Corcodilli (Perry 482)

Consilia qui dant prava cautis hominibus
et perdunt operam et deridentur turpiter.
Canes currentes bibere in Nilo flumine,
a corcodillis ne rapiantur, traditum est.
Igitur cum currens bibere coepisset canis,
sic corcodillus 'Quamlibet lambe otio,
noli vereri'. At ille 'Facerem mehercules,
nisi esse scirem carnis te cupidum meae'.

The Dog and the Crocodile (trans. C. Smart)

Who give bad precepts to the wise,
And cautious men with guile advise,
Not only lose their toil and time,
But slip into sarcastic rhyme.
The dogs that are about the Nile,
Through terror of the Crocodile,
Are therefore said to drink and run.
It happen'd on a day, that one,
As scamp'ring by the river side,
Was by the Crocodile espied:
"Sir, at your leisure drink, nor fear
The least design or treach'ry here."
"That," says the Dog, "ma'm, would I do
With all my heart, and thank you too,
But as you can on dog's flesh dine,
You shall not taste a bit of mine."


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.