Filum Ariadnes

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 4:203. Here Owen adapts the myth of Ariadne's thread guiding Theseus to the way that faith can guide the human race.

Filum Ariadnes
Rexit ut errantis Thesei vestigia filum
Virginis, humanum sic genus una fides.

ARIADNE’S THREAD
As Theseus by Ariadne’s Thread
Was Led, so Men, One Faith to Truth doth lead.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are only three words in this poem that are not on the DCC list:

Ariadne - Ariadne
fīlum, fīlī n. - thread
Theseus - Theseus
 
errō -āre: go astray, wander
fidēs -eī f.: trust, faith
genus generis n.: origin, lineage, kind
hūmānus -a -um: human
regō regere rēxī rectum: guide, rule
sīc: in this manner, thus; sīc . . . ut: in the same way as
ūnus -a -um: one
ut, uti: as (+ indic.); so that, with the result that (+ subj.)
vēstīgium -ī n.: footstep, footprint, track
virgo -inis f.: maiden, virgin, girl

(image source: Jean-Baptiste Regnault)