Fable 143 (Chambry 135* = Perry 128)
The Kite and the Snake
A kite seized a snake and flew up high in the sky carrying the snake along with him. The snake then twisted around and struck the kite, so that they both fell down to the ground. As the kite was about to die from the force of the impact, the snake remarked, ‘You have no right to get angry, you scoundrel, since you plotted destruction for someone who had done you no wrong! You deserve to suffer, and this is a fitting punishment for what you planned to do.’
NOTE: For a very similar fable but with a different moral interpretation, see Fable 460.
Fable 144 (Aphthonius 27 = Perry 400)
The Shepherd and the Honeybees
A story about honeybees and a shepherd, urging us not to set our hearts on wicked gains.
Some honeybees were making honey in the hollow of an oak tree. A shepherd discovered the bees’ work and attempted to carry away some of the honey. The honeybees flew all around him, stinging the man with their stings. In the end the shepherd exclaimed, ‘I give up! I don’t need the honey if it means dealing with the bees.’
Trouble awaits you if you pursue ill-gotten gains.
NOTE: Compare the Greek proverb, ‘no honey, no bees’ (Erasmus, Adages 1.6.62), which was used to refer to a person who rejected something pleasant because of some unpleasantness that accompanied it.
FABLES ABOUT THE TRICKSTER TRICKED
Fable 145 (Chambry 270 = Perry 191)
The Fox, the Donkey, and the Lion
The fox and the donkey were partners in a hunting expedition, but when they encountered a lion the fox recognized the danger they were in. She went to the lion and offered to betray the donkey if the lion would promise to spare her life in return. The lion agreed to let the fox go, and the fox then led the donkey into a trap and made him fall in. Once he saw that the donkey could not escape, the lion immediately seized the fox, saving the donkey for later.
Likewise, it is often the case that if you plot against your associates, you will be destroyed together with them.
Fable 146 (Ademar 40 = Perry 568)
The Wolf, the Fox, and the Shepherd
A wolf had assembled an immense store of booty in his den so that he could feast on all sorts of delicacies for months into the future. When the fox found out about this she paid a visit to the wolf and spoke to him in anxious tones, ‘Why should I be deprived of your company these many days? I’ve been in tears since you have not come outside.’ The wolf replied spitefully, ‘You didn’t come here out of any concern for me; you’re just hoping to get something. I know you must have had some reason for coming here: you are trying to trick me!’ This made the fox extremely angry, so she went to the shepherd and said to him, ‘Would you like it if I turned the enemy of your flock over to you today so that you wouldn’t have to worry about him any more?’ The shepherd replied, ‘I will be at your service and will give you whatever you want.’ The fox immediately led the shepherd to where the wolf was hiding and the shepherd killed the wolf with his lance. He then let the spiteful fox eat her fill of someone else’s larder. Eventually the fox fell foul of hunters and was caught by their hounds. As she was being torn to pieces, the fox exclaimed, ‘Just as I committed a serious crime, now I am going to die, since I brought about someone else’s death.’
If you injure other people, you need to watch out, or somebody else will injure you too.
NOTE: L’Estrange’s epimythium abounds with proverbs: “Tis with Sharpers as ‘tis with Pikes, they prey upon their own kind; and ‘tis a pleasant Scene enough, when Thieves fall out among themselves, to see the cutting of one Diamond with another.’
Fable 147 (Chambry 16* = Perry 279)
The Goat and the Donkey
There was a man who kept a goat and a donkey. The goat was jealous of the donkey because he was given more to eat, so she made a deceptive proposal to the donkey, under the guise of giving him advice. ‘Look,’ said the goat, ‘you are always being punished, constantly having to turn the millstone or carry burdens on your back. Why don’t you pretend to have a seizure and throw yourself into a ditch?’ The donkey trusted the goat and did what she told him to do. As a result of the fall, the donkey was badly scraped and bruised. The donkey’s owner summoned a doctor to recommend a remedy. The doctor said that the donkey could be cured by a potion made from the lungs of a goat. So they slaughtered the unfortunate goat, who was thus trapped in her own snare while the donkey was saved.
People who lay traps for others bring about their own destruction.
NOTE: For a similar story about a wolf and a fox, see Fable 17.
Fable 148 (Ademar 30 = Perry 562)
The Fox and the Partridge
A partridge had seated herself high on a perch when a fox came up to her and said, ‘How beautiful you are to look at: your legs are so red! your mouth is like coral! Ah, if only you were sleeping, you would be even more lovely …’ The partridge believed the fox and closed her eyes, and the fox immediately grabbed her. In a voice choked with sobs, the partridge said to the fox, ‘I beg you, in the name of all your artful wiles, please say my name before you eat me up.’ As the fox’s mouth opened to pronounce the word ‘partridge’, the partridge flew out and escaped. The fox said sadly, ‘Woe is me, what need was there for me to speak?’ The partridge likewise said, ‘Woe is me, what reason was there for me to close my eyes, when I wasn’t even sleepy?’
For people who speak when there is no reason to do so and who go to sleep when they should be on their guard.
NOTE: For a similar fable about a fox and a rooster, see Fable 149 (following).
Fable 149 (Chambry 180* = Perry 252)
The Fox, the Rooster, and the Dog
A dog and a rooster had become friends and were making a journey together. When night fell, they came to a place in the woods. The rooster took his seat up in the branches of a tree while the dog went to sleep in a hollow at the foot of the tree. The night passed and day was dawning when the rooster crowed loudly, as roosters usually do. A fox heard the rooster and wanted to make a meal of him, so she came running up and stood at the foot of the tree and shouted to the rooster, ‘You are an excellent bird and so useful to people! Why don’t you come down and we’ll sing some songs together, delighting in one another’s company.’ The rooster replied, ‘Go over to the foot of the tree, my dear, and tell the watchman to let you in.’ When the fox went to announce herself, the dog suddenly leaped up and grabbed the fox, tearing her to pieces.
The story shows that people are the same way: if you are wise, you take up arms to save yourself whenever you run into trouble.
Fable 150 (Avianus 25 = Perry 581)
The Boy and the Thief
A boy was weeping as he sat upon a well at the water’s edge, his mouth gasping and gulping in a great show of extravagant sobs. A sly thief noticed that the boy was crying and asked him why he was so distraught. The boy pretended that his rope had snapped and broken, and that he was bewailing the loss of a golden jug that had fallen down into the well. Without a moment’s hesitation, the thief’s criminal fingers peeled off his hampering garments and he plunged directly into the depths of the well. As the story goes, the little boy then tied the thief’s cloak around his own little neck and disappeared out of sight in the bushes. After the thief had risked danger for a deceptive reward, he plopped down on the ground and lamented the loss of his cloak. The clever thief is said to have made the following speech as he sighed and complained to the gods of heaven: ‘So be it! From now on, if anybody is foolish enough to think there could be a jug lurking beneath these transparent waters, let him beware! He will loose the shirt off his back, just as he deserves.’
Fable 151 (Chambry 318* = Perry 210)
The Boy Who Cried ‘Wolf’
There was a boy tending the sheep who would continually go up to the embankment and shout, ‘Help, there’s a wolf!’ The farmers would all come running only to find out that what the boy said was not true. Then o
ne day there really was a wolf, but when the boy shouted they didn’t believe him and no one came to his aid. The whole flock was eaten by the wolf.
The story shows that this is how liars are rewarded: even if they tell the truth, no one believes them.
Fable 152 (Babrius 111 = Perry 180)
The Merchant, the Donkey, and the Salt
A merchant who owned a donkey heard that salt was cheaper by the seashore, so he decided to go into the salt business. He went and loaded his donkey with salt and then headed back home. At a certain moment, the donkey accidentally lost his footing and fell straight into a stream. This caused the salt to dissolve, making his load lighter. The donkey was thus able to rise easily to his feet and enjoy a less taxing journey home. The merchant sold what was left of the salt and led the donkey back again to load him with an even greater cargo than before. As the donkey made his way with difficulty back to the stream where he had fallen before, he sank to his knees, on purpose this time. Then, after his cargo had dissolved in the water, he leaped nimbly to his feet, delighted to have turned the situation to his advantage, or so he thought. The merchant realized what was happening and decided that the next time he would bring back home a big load of porous sponges. On their way back across the stream, the wicked donkey fell down on purpose as before. This time the sponges grew heavy with water and the cargo expanded. As a result, the donkey had to carry a burden that was twice as heavy as it had been to begin with.
NOTE: An epimythium probably added by a later editor reads: ‘It often happens that the same things which brought us luck can also get us into trouble.’ Aelian, Characteristics of Animals 7.42, tells this same story about a mule who tries to trick Thales, one of the legendary seven sages of Greece.
FABLES ABOUT VENGEANCE
Fable 153 (Life of Aesop 135 = Perry 3)
The Dung Beetle and the Eagle
As he was being chased by an eagle, the hare ran to the dung beetle, begging the beetle to save him. The beetle implored the eagle to respect the hare’s asylum, solemnly compelling him by the sacred name of Zeus and pleading with the eagle not to disregard him simply because of his small size. But the eagle brushed the beetle aside with a flick of his wing and grabbed the hare, tearing him to pieces and devouring him. The beetle was enraged and flew off together with the eagle to find the nest in which the eagle kept his eggs. After the eagle was gone, the beetle smashed all the eggs. When the eagle came back, he was dreadfully upset and looked for the creature who had smashed the eggs, intending to tear him to pieces. When it was time for the eagle to nest again, he put his eggs in an even higher place, but the beetle flew all the way up to the nest, smashed the eggs, and went away. The eagle grieved for his little ones and said that this must be the result of some angry plot of Zeus to exterminate the eagle race. When the next season came, the eagle did not feel secure keeping the eggs in his nest and instead went up to Olympus and placed the eggs in Zeus’s lap. The eagle said to Zeus, ‘Twice my eggs have been destroyed; this time, I am leaving them here under your protection.’ When the beetle found out what the eagle had done, he stuffed himself with dung and went straight up to Zeus and flew right into his face. At the sight of this filthy creature, Zeus was startled and leaped to his feet, forgetting that he held the eagle’s eggs inside his lap. As a result, the eggs were broken once again. Zeus then learned of the wrong that had been done to the beetle, and when the eagle returned, Zeus said to him, ‘It is only right that you have lost your little ones, since you mistreated the beetle!’ The beetle said, ‘The eagle treated me badly, but he also acted very impiously towards you, O Zeus! The eagle did not fear to violate your sacred name, and he killed the one who had taken refuge with me. I will not cease until I have punished the eagle completely!’ Zeus did not want the race of eagles to be wiped out, so he urged the beetle to relent. When his efforts to persuade the beetle failed, Zeus changed the breeding season of the eagles, so that it would take place at a time when the beetles were not found above ground.
NOTE: The fable of the dung beetle and the eagle is alluded to on three occasions by Aristophanes: Wasps 1448, Lysistrata 695, and Peace 127–34. In Caxton (6.2), the dung beetle is replaced by a weasel!
Fable 154 (Phaedrus 1.28 = Perry 1)
The Eagle and the Fox
Even a high and mighty person should beware of his inferiors; their ingenuity can find a way to take revenge.
There was once an eagle who stole the cubs of a fox and carried them off to her nest as food for her chicks to peck at. The mother fox set off in pursuit, begging the eagle not to impose this unbearable loss on such a miserable creature as herself. The eagle scoffed at her request, fully confident in the loftiness of her own position. The fox then snatched a burning faggot from the altar and completely surrounded the tree with flames, threatening pain to her enemy at the cost of her own flesh and blood. The eagle conceded: in order to snatch her chicks from the maw of death, she returned the fox’s cubs unharmed.
NOTE: The fable of the unhappy friendship between the fox and the eagle was already attested in the Greek poet Archilochus, c.650 BCE (frag. 174 West). It is also alluded to in Aristophanes, Birds 652–3. For a quite different ending to the story, see Fable 155 (following).
Fable 155 (Syntipas 24 = Perry 1)
The Eagle and the Fox
The eagle befriended the fox but he later devoured the fox’s cubs. Since she had no power over the eagle, the fox prayed to the gods for justice. Then one day when a sacrifice was burning upon an altar, the eagle flew down and grabbed the sizzling meat to carry it off to his chicks. The meat was so hot that as soon as the chicks ate it, they died.
This fable shows that even if the victims of powerful and wicked people cannot get revenge directly, the gods will nevertheless inflict a punishment on them in response to their victims’ prayers.
Fable 156 (Phaedrus 1.26 = Perry 426)
The Fox and the Stork
Do no harm—and if someone does get hurt, then turn-about is fair play, as this fable cautions.
The fox is said to have started it by inviting the stork to dinner and serving a liquid broth on a marble slab which the hungry stork could not so much as taste. The stork, in turn, invited the fox to dinner and served a narrow-mouthed jug filled with crumbled food. The stork was able to thrust her beak inside and eat as much as she wanted, while her guest was tormented with hunger. As the fox was licking the neck of the jug in vain, the stork is supposed to have said, ‘When others follow your example, you have to grin and bear it.’
NOTE: Caxton (2.13) supplies the English proverb, ‘with the staf which he had made he was bete’. The story of the fox and the stork is also found in Plutarch, Symposiastic Questions 1.1.
Fable 157 (Aphthonius 37 = Perry 374)
The Goat and the Vine
The vine was covered with clusters of grapes and its shoots were as vigorous as its fruit. A goat began to eat the vine, indulging his outrageous appetite. He had already wreaked havoc on the fresh shoots when the vine said to him, ‘You will pay for this outrage! The time will soon come when you will be sent as a holy victim to be sacrificed, and I myself will be the one to supply the wine for the libation!’
The things that a person does to others will happen to him in turn.
NOTE: This fable is also found in the Greek Anthology 9.99. For the deer and the vine, see Fable 80.
Fable 158 (Phaedrus 3.5 = Perry 497)
Aesop and the Hooligan
Success has been the ruin of many a man.
There was a hooligan who struck Aesop with a stone. Aesop said, ‘Well done!’ and he even gave the boy a coin. Then he added, ‘Confound it, that’s all the cash I’ve got, but I’ll show you more where that came from. Look, the man coming this way is a wealthy and important person; if you can hit him with a stone the same way you hit me, you’ll get the reward you deserve.’ The hooligan was convinced and did as Aesop told him, but his hope for a reward brought his reckless daring to ruin: he was arrested and paid t
he price for his crime on the cross.
NOTE: For another example of the Roman punishment of crucifixion, see Fable 577.
FABLES ABOUT JEALOUSY AND SPITE
Fable 159 (Chambry 114* = Perry 68)
The Two Enemies
There were two enemies who had set sail on the same ship. They wanted to keep their distance from one another, so one went up on the prow while the other took the stern. Each man then stayed where he was. Soon a fierce storm began to blow and the ship foundered. The man standing at the stern asked the helmsman which part of the ship was likely to sink first. ‘It will be the prow’, said the helmsman. ‘So be it!’ said the man. ‘The thought of death does not trouble me so long as I will see my enemy die before me!’
So too there are people who feel such ill-will towards their neighbours that they elect to suffer something dreadful themselves so that they can see the others suffering along with them.
Aesop's Fables Page 13
