FABLES ABOUT TIMING AND OPPORTUNITY
Fable 288 (Chambry 75* = Perry 48)
The Bat and the Songbird
A songbird was hanging in a cage in a window. A bat flew up and asked the songbird why she sang at night but was silent during the day. The songbird said that she had her reasons: it was while she had been singing once during the day that she had been captured. This had taught her a lesson, and she had vowed that she would sing only at night. The bat remarked, ‘But there is no need for that now, when it won’t do you any good: you should have been on your guard before you were captured!’
The story shows that it is useless to repent after disaster has struck.
NOTE: This species of bird, botalis in Greek (or, in this version, boutalis), is otherwise unidentified. The story seems to be an aetiological account of some nocturnal songbird like the nightingale.
Fable 289 (Syntipas 23 = Perry 211)
The Drowning Boy
A boy had gone down to the river to bathe, but because he didn’t know how to swim he was in danger of drowning. The boy then saw a man walking by and called to him for help. As the man was pulling the boy out of the water, he said, ‘If you don’t know how to swim, why on earth did you dare to try these swollen river waters?’ The drowning boy replied, ‘Right now I just need your help; you can lecture me about it afterwards!’
The fable shows that people who lecture someone during a moment of crisis are offering criticism that is inappropriate and out of place.
Fable 290 (Herodotus 1.141 = Perry 11)
The Fisherman and His Pipe
There was once a fisherman who saw some fish in the sea and played on his pipe, expecting them to come out onto the land. When his hopes proved false, he took a net and used it instead, and in this way he was able to haul in a huge catch of fish. As the fish were all leaping about, the fisherman remarked, ‘I say, enough of your dancing, since you refused to dance when I played my pipe for you before!’
Fable 291 (Chambry 172 = Perry 54)
The Farmer’s Boy and the Snails
A farmer’s boy was roasting snails. When he heard them sizzling in the fire, he said, ‘You wretched creatures! Your homes are on fire and all you can do is sing!’
This story shows that anything which is done at the wrong time is liable to be ridiculed.
Fable 292 (Chambry 80* = Perry 52)
The Farmer and His Dogs
There was a farmer who was trapped on his country estate by a winter storm. He didn’t have any food, so first he ate his sheep, then his goats. When the storm got worse, he even slaughtered the oxen who pulled his plough. When the dogs saw what was happening, they said to one another, ‘Let’s get out of here now! Since we can see that the master didn’t even spare the oxen who labour on his behalf, how can we expect to be spared?’
The story shows that you should especially avoid someone who does not even spare his own people.
Fable 293 (Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 2.29 = Perry 325)
The Crested Lark and the Farmer
There is a little bird who is called the crested lark. She lives in the wheat-fields and makes her nest there precisely at the time of year that will allow her chicks to be just getting their feathers when the harvest is gathered. One time, the lark happened to have made her nest in some crops that had ripened earlier than usual and as a result her chicks were still not able to fly when the wheat had already turned to yellow. So when the mother bird went to gather food for her chicks, she warned them that if anything unexpected should happen or if the chicks should chance to hear anything, they should pay close attention and tell her everything as soon as she returned. Meanwhile, the farmer whose field it was called his young son and said, ‘Do you see how the crops have ripened and now require our labour? As soon as it is light tomorrow, go to our friends and ask them to come lend a hand to help harvest our crop.’ Having said this to his son, the farmer then went away. When the lark came back home, the terrified chicks all began chirping in fright and begged their mother to hurry up and take them right away to some other nesting place, since the farmer had sent someone to ask his friends to come at dawn and reap the harvest. The mother ordered them to stay calm. ‘If the farmer is expecting his friends to help with the harvest,’ she said, ‘there will be no harvesting of the crops tomorrow, and there is no need for me to carry you away today.’ The next day the mother flew away again to look for food. The farmer, meanwhile, was waiting for the friends that he had summoned. The sun was blazing high in the sky but nothing was happening; the day dragged on, but none of the farmer’s friends appeared. The farmer again spoke to his son and said, ‘Our friends are all so lazy! Why don’t we go ask our relatives to come right away and help with the harvesting tomorrow?’ As on the day before, the chicks were stricken with terror and told their mother what had happened. The mother urged them once again to not be afraid or worry: relatives never obey such requests for help right away, since they are hardly willing to get to work so quickly. ‘But pay attention,’ she said, ‘in case you hear something different tomorrow.’ The next day at dawn the mother bird went off in search of food, while the farmer’s relatives failed to supply the help that had been requested of them. So the farmer finally said to his son, ‘Enough of these friends and relatives! At first light tomorrow I want you to bring two sickles, one for me and one for you: we will reap the wheat tomorrow by ourselves, using our own hands.’ When the mother learned from her chicks what the farmer had said, she concluded, ‘Now it is time for us to surrender our home and move away: without a doubt, it will happen just as the farmer said. It’s up to him, now that he’s not expecting anybody else to help.’ So the lark abandoned her nest and the farmer harvested his crops.
This is an Aesop’s fable about how one’s relatives and friends are generally unreliable and not to be trusted. In effect, this is basically what the more respectable books of philosophy advise us to do: we should rely only on ourselves, regarding everything which does not involve us or our livelihood as something that is none of our business and not to our benefit. Ennius included this Aesop’s fable in his Satires, narrating these events in witty and elegant verse. I will quote the final lines, which I think are worth learning by heart and keeping in mind: ‘Now keep this saying always at the forefront of your thoughts, and don’t wait for your friends to do something that you are perfectly able to do for yourself’
NOTE: Ennius (d. 169 BCE) was a Roman poet whose works survive only in fragments. Here Aulus Gellius, a Latin rhetorician of the second century CE, tells the fable in his own words and then quotes the moral originally supplied by Ennius in verse.
Fable 294 (Babrius 26 = Perry 297)
The Farmer and the Cranes
There were some cranes who came to nibble at a field which a farmer had recently sown with wheat. For a while the farmer was able to chase the cranes away by waving an empty sling to frighten them. Eventually the cranes realized that the swinging of the sling in the air did them no harm, so they ignored the farmer whenever he tried to chase them away. Finally the farmer abandoned his initial strategy and began throwing rocks at the cranes, crippling a good many of them. As the cranes abandoned the field they cried to one another, ‘Let’s run away to the land of the Pygmies! This man is no longer just trying to frighten us: he has actually started to do something about it!’
NOTE: The enmity between the cranes and the legendary ‘Pygmies’ was an ancient Greek legend (e.g. Homer, Iliad 3.1 ff.).
Fable 295 (Babrius 33 = Perry 298)
The Farmer and the Birds
At the setting of the Pleiades, when it is time to sow the crops, there was a certain farmer who had cast his wheat seed into the fresh earth. He had to keep an eye on the field because an immense flock of squawking jackdaws had arrived, and starlings too, that plague of seed sown in the fields. Behind the farmer walked a boy, carrying an empty sling. The starlings instinctively listened to hear when the farmer asked for the sling and they flew away before he could
hit them. The farmer then decided to take another approach. He called the boy and told him what they were going to do. ‘My boy,’ said the farmer, ‘we must use a trick to defeat this clever tribe of birds. So whenever they show up, I will ask you for bread, but instead of bread you will give me the sling.’ The starlings came back and began pecking at the field. The farmer asked for bread, according to the plan, and the starlings did not run away. The boy then filled the sling with stones and gave it to the farmer. The old man began to stone the birds, hitting one bird in the head, another in the leg, and another in the shoulder, so that the birds all flew away from the field. They happened to meet up with some cranes who asked them what had happened. One of the jackdaws replied, ‘Stay away from this wicked species of humans: they have learned to say one thing while doing another.’
NOTE: An epimythium probably added by a later editor reads: ‘Beware the sort of person who uses tricks.’
Fable 296 (Ademar 19 = Perry 298)
The Crane and the Crow
A crane and a crow had made a mutual pledge of assistance, agreeing that the crane was to defend the crow from other birds, while the crow would use her powers of prophecy to warn the crane about future events. These two birds often went to the field of a certain man and ate the crops that he had sowed there, tearing them up by the roots. When the farmer saw what was happening to his field, he was upset, and said to his boy, ‘Give me a stone.’ The crow alerted the crane, and they prudently made their escape. On another occasion, the crow again heard the farmer asking for a stone and warned the crane so that the crane would not get hurt. After some thought, the man understood that the crow was able to predict what was happening. He said to the boy, ‘When I say, “give me some bread,” I want you to give me a stone.’ The farmer then went to the field and told the boy to give him some bread, so the boy gave him a stone. The farmer threw the stone at the crane and broke both his legs. The injured crane said to the crow, ‘What has become of your god-given prophecies? Why didn’t you warn me that this was going to happen?’ The crow then said to the crane, ‘In this case it is not my understanding that is at fault. The counsels of wicked people are always deceptive, since they say one thing and do another!’
For someone who seduces innocent people with his promises but later causes them nothing but trouble.
NOTE: For another fable about the crow’s prophetic powers, see Fable 319.
FABLES ABOUT IDENTITY AND APPEARANCE
Fable 297 (Romulus 4.7 = Perry 576)
The Birds, the Bird-catcher, and His Tears
Our author warns us with the following fable that we should never fail to heed a wise man’s advice.
It was springtime and various species of birds were sitting happily in their nests, hidden among the branches. They happened to notice a bird-catcher who was assembling his reeds, coating the long rod with birdlime. When they saw that the man had tears in his eyes, those ignorant and foolish birds began to say to one another, ‘We can see that this man must be extremely kind, since his great sensitivity makes him burst into tears whenever he looks at us.’ One of the birds who was wiser than the rest, being experienced in all the bird-catcher’s tricks, is supposed to have said, ‘Oh no! Run away, you foolish and innocent birds! Save yourselves from this trap! I beg you to fly as fast as you can up high in the sky, making good use of your wings. If you want to know the truth, look carefully at what he is doing: you will see that he is planning to catch some of us in his snare, and once we are caught he will kill us or strangle us and carry us off in that basket.’
This fable informs us that one person’s advice can easily save many others from danger.
NOTE: The fables in the medieval prose paraphrases of Phaedrus regularly refer to our ‘author’, meaning Aesop or else his putative translator ‘Romulus’ (Phaedrus’ name had been long since forgotten).
Fable 298 (Phaedrus 4.2 = Perry 511)
The Mice and the Weasel
You might think I am only joking, and it’s true that I amuse myself with a light-hearted stroke of the pen, not having anything of real importance on my agenda. Yet you should pay careful attention to these little tales: useful things can come in quite small packages! Appearances can be deceiving: people are often fooled by first impressions, and it takes an exceptional mind to detect something hidden in an unexpected nook or cranny. Still, I’ve gone on too long without offering any reward to the reader, so I will throw in a fable for good measure: the story of the weasel and the mice.
A weasel, enfeebled by old age and senility, was no longer able to pursue the swift-footed mice, so she decided to coat herself with flour and lie down nonchalantly in a dark corner of the house. One of the mice thought that she must be something good to eat, but as soon as he pounced, the weasel caught him and consigned him to oblivion; another mouse did the same, and a third mouse likewise met his doom. A few mice later, another mouse arrived: his skin was wrinkled with extreme old age and he had escaped many a time from snares and traps. Already at a distance he recognized the ambush prepared by their cunning enemy. ‘You there, lying in the corner,’ said the mouse, ‘I wish you well if—and only if—you really are made of flour!’
Fable 299 (Babrius 17 = Perry 79)
The Chickens and the Cat
A cat laid a trap for the chickens by hanging himself from a peg as if he were a sack. When the quick-witted rooster with his hooked spurs noticed the cat, he made this sharp remark: ‘I’ve seen many sacks in my life, so I know what they look like—and not one of them ever had the teeth of a living cat!’
NOTE: The Greek prose version (Chambry 13) is about mice, not chickens.
Fable 300 (Plutarch, Life of Aratus 30 = Perry 446)
The Birds and the Cuckoo
Aesop says that when the cuckoo asked the little birds why they ran away from him, they said it was because he would someday turn into a hawk.
NOTE: The metamorphosis of the cuckoo into a hawk is referred to in Aristotle, History of the Animals 563b.
Fable 301 (Ademar 61 = Perry 572)
The She-Goat, the Kid, and the Wolf
A goat had given birth to a young kid. In order to protect her unsuspecting offspring, the mother warned the kid not to open the door, as she knew that there were many wild beasts prowling about the sheepfold. Having issued her warning, the mother goat then went away. Next, the wolf arrived at the door, imitating the mother goat’s voice. When he heard the voice, the kid replied, ‘I hear my mother’s voice, but I know you are a liar and no friend of mine! By disguising yourself with my mother’s voice, you think will be able to drink my blood and eat my flesh.’
It is a good idea to follow the orders given to you by your parents.
Fable 302 (Syntipas 39 = Perry 199)
The Boy and the Scorpion
A young boy had gone far off into the desert where he was catching crickets to put them in cages. When he noticed a scorpion in their midst, he mistook it for another cricket. The boy reached down to pick the scorpion up off the ground, whereupon the scorpion pointed his sting at the boy, ready to stab him, and said, ‘If you had gone so far as to touch me, I would have set both you and your crickets free!’
This fable shows that you should not treat bad people the same way that you treat good people; rather, you should deal with each of them in the way that suits their character.
NOTE: For the practice of catching crickets for their song, see Theocritus 1.
Fable 303 (Aphthonius 2 = Perry 399)
The Goose and the Swan
A story about a goose and a swan, exhorting young people to study.
A wealthy man wanted to raise a goose and a swan together but for different purposes: the swan was for singing and the goose was for eating. The time came for the goose to meet his appointed fate and have his throat cut. Yet the darkness of night-time prevented the man from knowing which bird was which. As a result, he grabbed the swan instead of the goose. The swan then declared his true nature by bursting into a swan-song, and thu
s narrowly escaped from death.
The fable shows that music is so powerful that it can even avert death.
NOTE: For another fable with the swan song motif, see Fable 284.
Fable 304 (Syntipas 5 = Perry 59)
The Weasel and the File
A weasel went into a blacksmith’s shop and there she came across an iron file. She began to lick the file with delight, scraping her tongue in a mad effort to overpower the instrument of iron. The weasel’s tongue started to bleed, making her even happier; the taste of blood made her think she was actually devouring the file. So the weasel kept on licking until her tongue was completely gone.
This story shows that people who think there is a profit in some useless activity will get so carried away by what they are doing that they destroy themselves.
Fable 305 (Phaedrus 4.8 = Perry 93)
The Viper and the File
If you have ever tried to take a bite out of someone whose fangs are even sharper than yours, you will recognize yourself in this story.
Aesop's Fables Page 20
