sexagesimussecundus

Theme for this week: Animals

As in today's society, animals played a large role in the lives of Romans. Some were kept as pets, others honored because of symbolism to the gods or sacrificed. Other animals worked as transportation, pulling carts or transporting riders. Still other animals had literary symbolism connected to them (e.g., lions to courage and deer to fleeing). And so, the word of the day this week will focus on animals.

bubo, bubonis m./f.

Definition: owl

Sententia: Bubo ululavit, atque vir veritus est ne mox moreretur, ut Caesar magnus ipse sonitu audito mortuus est.

The owl screeched/hooted, and so the man feared that soon he might die, as the great Caesar himself had died with the sound having been heard.

This word occurs in Ovid's Amores, poem 1.12. Owls were the birds of Minerva, and so they were associated with wisdom. And as the sentence points out, you supposedly would face an imminent death if you heard an owl (this was said to have happened to Julius Caesar, Augustus, and others).

ADDENDUM:

Another word for a screech owl in particular is "ulula", which is cool because it is related to "ululo", which means "to wail, to screech" (as in crying babies and nymphs). However, it is rather rare, appearing only 9 times in Latin literature, so I figured that it would be better as an addendum to this word rather than a separate word.