Saturday, January 28, 2012

Ad Medelam

Here is today's emblem and distich by Joachim Camerarius, 2:8. It is based on the Aesop's fable about the lion's court and how the monkey was made into medicine; you can read a version of that fable in English here, meanwhile, here is a Latin version of the story. :-)

Ad Medelam
Ipse sui est morbi medicus leo: vos quoque reges
Assentatores pellite sponte malos.



Here is the vocabulary:

ad - to, towards
medela - cure, healing, health
ipse - emphatic adjective (-self)
suus - one's own (his, hers, their)
sum - be, exist
medicus - physician, doctor
leo - lion
vos - you (plural)
quoque - also, as well
rex - king
assentator - flatterer, yes-man
pello - drive out, banish, push away
spons - free will; sponte - freely
malus - bad, evil