8

Aemilanus, no doubt, cleans his feet. Why then is a clean mouth less important? (1) Still, a foul-mouthed person like him should brush with charcoal, not toothpaste. His brushing would pollute common water sources (2-4). A person who speaks usefully and well in public should have a clean mouth (5). Even that monstrous beast, the crocodile, has its mouth cleaned by friendly birds, who pick out the leeches (6-7). 

As noted by Hunink, Herodotus was the first author known to have described the phenomenon of avian activity cleaning leeches from the jaws of crocodiles.  Whether Apuleius learned of the tale from reading Herodotus directly is unknown. Aristotle and Cicero also described this. [read full essay]

(1)

cēnsor meus: satirical in tone: “that rigid judge of my morals,” “my own personal censor over there.”

velim ... respondeat: velim and vellem  with a subjunctive or infinitive are often equivalent to an optative subjunctive (AG 442.b):  "I should like him to answer the question ..."

unquamne ipse: "whether (-ne) he himself ever," followed by soleat and contendat in indirect question.

inpertiendam: supply esse, indirect statement after contendat with māiōrem cūram as the subject.

(2)

cēnseō nē ūllā cūrā ōs percōlat: "I would not advise him to spend any care on his mouth" (Jones).  For censeo + ut/ne + subjunctive, see LS censeo II.A.2. The language is legal in tone.

exōticō pulvere: "imported powder" (Jones), as discussed by Apuleius in the previous section.

iūstius: "with more justification," comparative adverb.

saltem: construe closely with commūnī aquā: "at least not with public water."

(3)

Quīn: “On the contrary," "No, instead," LS quin II.D. 

eī: "his," dative of possession.

lingua mendāciōrum et amāritūdinum praeministra: chiasmus 

fētūtīnīs et olenticētīs: very rare words, derived, respectively, from fētor or foetor, a foul stench, and olēns -ntis, rank, stinking: "cesspools and dungheaps" (Jones). The sentence combines moral turpitude with squalor and stench (Hunink).

(4)

quae: interrogative, with ratio. 

quae ratio est: "what is the point of?" followed by the infinitive pōssidere. The tone is exasperated.

malum: originally an ellipse for quod malum est (B/O) or malum tibi sit (Hunink). Here likely equivalent to a mild oath, such as "confound it!" (Jones).

laetam: "pleasing in appearance," LS laetus II.G.

contrā: = sed, coordinates linguam and vocem.

rītū: "in the manner of," + a preceding genitive (vīperae).

ātrum: "deadly" (OLD ater 9), perhaps combined with the normal sense, "black."

īnspīrāre: “inject.” Vergil uses the same verb (also with the same object, venenum) referring to stinging bees (Georgics 4.236–237), as does Ovid referring to the personification of Envy, Invidia (Metamorphoses 2.800–801).

(5)

Cēterum: "on the other hand," LS ceterus II.A.4. 

quī: = is quī, looking forward to eius os, below. "the one who... his mouth...."

promptūrum: supply esse in indirect statement after sciat with sese as the subject: “that he is about to utter.” LS promo II.B.

ut bonō potuī pōculum: "as (one washes) a cup for a healthy drink" (Jones).

(6)

quid ... diūtius: supply a verb like loquor: "why do I go on speaking at length about?" See Petronius, Satyricon 112.2, quid diutius moror, "Why do I still delay getting to the point?"

homine nātō: "one born a human," the expression is borrowed from Cicero (DND 3.11) and also appears in 14.2.

crocodillus: Apuleius perhaps drew his information about crocodiles from Herodotus, Histories 2.68. See Janet Brooks's essay in this edition.

ille: "the well-known," "the celebrated," LS ille II.A.

ea: antecedent is belua. 

sibi: "its" teeth, dative of possession.

innoxiō hiātū: “in a harmless yawn,” “by harmlessly opening his jaws" (Jones), promising no harm to the birds (see 8.7 sine noxae perīculō).

(7)

ōre amplō: ablative of description AG 415.

ēlinguī: for this ancient belief, see Pliny, Natural History 8.89, unum hoc animal terrestre linguae usu caret. The crocodile, though not actually tongueless, has the superficial appearance of so being. The tongue is attached to the jaw all round, so that no portion of it is free (B/O).

hirūdīnēs: "leeches," Isaac Casaubon's almost certain correction for the manuscripts' arūndinēs, i.e., harundinēs, "reeds." Of course, "reeds" seem possible as such, but the parallel versions of the motif refer to bloodsuckers. A scribe may have replaced the rare word for a more common one (Hunink).

implectuntur: "become entangled in" + dat.

Eās illī: direct object and indirect object, respectively, of exculpit below: "the bird digs them (the leeches) out for it (the crocodile)."

cum ... hiāvit: “when(ever) it has opened its mouth” = "when it opens its mouth." With cum + pf. indic. indicating time when, the perfect can be rendered as present in English. See LS cum I.A.1.b. 

iniectō rōstrō: ablative absolute.