NOTE: This story also appears in Plutarch, Life of Agis 2.
Fable 347 (Babrius 41 = Perry 371)
The Lizard and the Snake
They say that there was once a lizard who burst into pieces right down the middle when he was trying to equal the length of a snake.
You will hurt yourself and accomplish nothing if you try to imitate someone who is far better than you are.
Fable 348 (Chambry 33 = Perry 268)
The Earthworm and the Snake
An earthworm saw a snake stretched out and envied his length. The earthworm wanted to be as long as that snake, so he lay down beside the snake and tried to extend himself. The worm stretched and stretched until he accidentally split into pieces.
This is what happens to someone who competes with his superiors: he destroys himself before he can equal them.
NOTE: Following Crusius as adopted by Perry, I have changed Chambry’s alopeks, ‘fox’ to skoleks, ‘earthworm.’
Fable 349 (Phaedrus 1.24 = Perry 376)
The Frog and the Ox
A poor man perishes when he tries to imitate rich and powerful people.
There was once a frog who noticed an ox standing in the meadow. The frog was seized by a jealous desire to equal the ox in size so she puffed herself up, inflating her wrinkled skin. She then asked her children if she was now bigger than the ox. They said that she was not. Once again she filled herself full of air, straining even harder than before, and asked her children which of the two of them was bigger. ‘The ox is bigger,’ said her children. The frog was finally so indignant that she tried even harder to puff herself up, but her body exploded and she fell down dead.
NOTE: Another version of this story (Babrius 28) begins with the ox stepping on one of the little frogs, crushing it underfoot, which is what brings the ox to the frog’s attention.
FABLES ABOUT CHANGING ONE’S NATURE
Fable 350 (Babrius 32 = Perry 50)
Aphrodite and the Weasel
A weasel once fell in love with a handsome young man and the blessed goddess Aphrodite, the mother of desire, allowed the weasel to change her shape, so that she appeared to be a beautiful woman whom any man would be glad to take as his wife. As soon as the young man laid eyes on her, he also fell in love and wanted to marry her. While the wedding feast was in progress, a mouse ran by. The bride leaped up from her richly decorated couch and began to run after the mouse, thus bringing an end to the wedding. After having played his little joke, Eros took his leave: Nature had proved stronger than Love.
NOTE: Eros is the Greek personification of Desire, like ‘Cupid’ in Latin. This story has much in common with the Greek proverb, ‘weasels don’t wear wedding gowns’ (Zenobius 2.93, who directly associates this proverb with the Aesopic fable).
Fable 351 (Romulus ad Rufum 5.9 = Perry 107)
Jupiter and the Fox
No piece of luck can conceal a depraved nature.
Jupiter had turned the fox into the likeness of a human being and had seated her on the throne as his queen. But when the fox happened to notice a beetle creeping out from its hole, she leaped up and began chasing this familiar object of prey. The gods laughed at the fox as she ran, while the great father of the gods blushed and renounced his relations with the fox. As he chased her out of the chamber, Jupiter said, ‘Live the life you deserve, since you clearly are not worthy of my favours!’
NOTE: In the Greek prose version (Chambry 119), it is Zeus himself who lets loose the beetle to test the fox’s transformation.
Fable 352 (Lucian, Fisherman 36 = Perry 463)
The Monkeys and the Pyrrhic Dance
They say that the king of Egypt once taught some monkeys how to dance the Pyrrhic dance. Since monkeys are creatures that readily imitate human behaviour, they quickly learned their lesson and did the dance, dressed in purple robes and masks. For a while everyone was impressed by the sight, until a more discerning member of the audience threw some nuts which he had in his pocket into the midst of the dancers. When the monkeys saw the nuts they forgot all about their performance; instead of dancing, they started acting like monkeys again. They crushed their masks and ripped their robes, fighting one other for the nutmeats. The whole pattern of the dance was thrown into confusion, much to the audience’s amusement.
NOTE: The Pyrrhic dance was a martial arts dance notorious for its wild gyrations.
Fable 353 (Babrius 80 = Perry 249)
The Camel and the Pyrrhic Dance
While he was out carousing, the owner of a camel ordered her to dance to the music of bronze cymbals and flutes. The camel refused and said, ‘I am lucky just to walk down the road without being laughed at: dancing the Pyrrhic is out of the question!’
Fable 354 (Chambry 306 = Perry 83)
The Monkey and the Camel
At the animal convention, the monkey got up and danced. He won great approval and was applauded by all. The camel was jealous and aspired to the same success so she also stood up and attempted to dance, making a complete fool of herself. The other animals grew angry and drove the camel away, beating her with clubs.
This fable is appropriate for jealous people who try to rival their superiors.
Fable 355 (Aphthonius 7 = Perry 140)
The Lion and the Farmer’s Daughter
A story about a lion and a young woman, which teaches us not to indulge our desires.
A lion who had fallen in love with a young woman went to the woman’s father to ask for her hand in marriage. The father was afraid to refuse the lion’s offer, but asked him first to have his teeth and claws taken out; otherwise the lion could only arouse his daughter’s terror. The lion was so in love with the woman that he agreed to the bargain. When the lion came back and approached the farmer, now naked and defenceless, the farmer clubbed him to death.
If you follow your enemies’ advice, you will run into danger.
NOTE: See also the first-century BCE historian Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 19.25.
Fable 356 (Chambry 107* = Perry 97)
The Kid, the Wolf, and the Flute
A kid had wandered off from the flock and was being chased by a wolf. Unable to get away, the kid fell into the wolf’s clutches, so she turned to him and said, ‘I know for a fact that I am about to become your dinner, but I would like to die with dignity: please play the flute for me so that I can do a little dance.’ The wolf played the flute and the kid danced to the music. The sound alerted the shepherd’s dogs, who attacked the wolf and chased him away. As the wolf ran off he said to himself, ‘It serves me right for trying to be a musician instead of a butcher!’
The story shows that being bested in a contest of words can induce bewilderment even in persons who are wicked by nature.
NOTE: For a similar fable about a foolish wolf who acts like a doctor instead of a butcher, see Fable 312.
Fable 357 (Chambry 64 = Perry 38)
The Farmer, the Wolf, and the Plough
A ploughman loosed his oxen from the yoke and led them away to be watered. Meanwhile, a hungry wolf, who was looking for something to eat, discovered the plough and started to lick the yoke straps where the oxen had been tied. The unsuspecting wolf slowly but surely slipped his neck beneath the yoke, until he was not able to pull it back out. He then started dragging the plough along the furrow. When the ploughman came back and saw what had happened, he said, ‘O you wicked creature, if only you would give up your life of theft and crime in order to devote yourself entirely to farming!’
The same is true of wicked people: even when they promise to be on their good behaviour, no one believes them because of their bad habits.
NOTE: Compare the Greek proverb, ‘the fox is pulling the plough’ (Erasmus, Adages 2.6.28), which was used to refer to incongruous or absurd situations.
Fable 358 (Romulus Ang. 45 = Perry 676)
The Wolves and the Harvesters
Two wolves crossed paths one day and began to talk about the fact that they were an object of universal
hatred. People would even start yelling at them when they had no intention of doing anything wrong. One of the wolves then said to the other, ‘It’s all because they’ve never seen us do anything good! If the people saw us do them a favour even just once, then they would be more inclined to expect us to be good later on.’ The second wolf asked, ‘What good thing do you think we can do that will convince the people of our good behaviour?’ The first wolf replied, ‘Let’s leave the woods and go into the fields where we can help the people gathering sheaves!’ So the wolves came out of the woods and went into the fields and gathered the sheaves, just as they had planned. But as soon as the people saw the wolves in the field, they immediately chased them away, shouting and screaming. The wolves were surprised and said, ‘What do they mean by shouting at us like that, when we are not doing any harm and only trying to help them?’ The other wolf replied, ‘Let’s go back home and act as we did in the past. Whether we help the people or harass them, they are going to hate us just the same!’
Moral. The same is true of wicked people: when they do not get the reward and thanks they expect, they immediately put a stop to their good works.
Fable 359 (Odo 11 = Perry 590)
The Raven, the Stork, and His Beak
This fable shows that a change of place does not make you a saint.
There was once a stork who quarrelled with his wife and poked out her eye with his beak. The stork was ashamed at having inflicted such an injury on his wife, so he flew away to go and live somewhere else. A raven ran into the stork and asked the reason for his journey. The stork said that he had poked out his wife’s eye with his beak. The raven asked the stork, ‘Is this the same beak that you have always had?’ When the stork said it was, the raven then remarked, ‘So what is the point of your running away if you carry your beak with you wherever you go?’
Fable 360 (Alexander Nequam 38 = Perry 590)
The Magpie and Her Tail
No matter how often the magpie settled down on a perch and folded her wings, her tail-feathers still kept on twitching. Hoping to rid herself of this habit by changing her homeland, she flew across no small stretch of the sea, but in vain. As soon as the magpie alighted on the distant shore, her tail-feathers started shaking as usual. The magpie then concluded, ‘By changing my country I thought my habits would change, but I’m just as badly off as before, even though I have come to the other side of the world.’
Changing your location does not change your state of mind, and the person who wants to modify his character sails the seas in vain.
NOTE: Nequam’s epimythium is based on the proverb made famous by Horace, Epistles 1.11.27: ‘people who sail across the ocean change the sky overhead, but not their state of mind.’ Alexander Nequam (or Neckam) was a late-twelfth-century scholar and writer who wrote a collection of Aesopic fables in verse.
Fable 361 (Syntipas 41 = Perry 393)
The Black Man in the River
Someone saw a black man from India washing himself in a river and said to him, ‘You better keep still and not stir up the mud in the water, or you arc never going to turn that body of yours white!’
This fable shows that nothing in this world can change its nature.
NOTE: The Greek word aethiops literally meant ‘with a face burnt by the sun’, and was used to refer to dark-skinned peoples of both India and Africa. In the Greek prose version (Chambry 11), a man makes his Ethiopian slave sick by trving to wash off his colour. The paradox of ‘washing the Ethiopian’ is found in a number of Greek sources, including the proverb collections (e.g. Apostolius 1.71) and it also appears in the Bible, Jeremiah 13: 23: ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?’ (The Hebrew text here reads ‘Cushite’, although the Septuagint already reads ‘Ethiopian’ as does Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.)
FABLES ABOUT AMBIGUOUS CREATURES
Fable 362 (Ignatius Diaconus, Tetrasticha 1.22 = Perry 418)
The Ostrich
War broke out between all the beasts and the birds. When the ostrich was captured, she fooled both sides by being both a bird and a beast: she showed the birds her head, and the beasts her feet.
You cannot trust a two-faced associate.
Fable 363 (Ademar 38 = Perry 566)
The War Between the Beasts and the Birds
The birds were at war with the beasts, and it was impossible to tell which side was winning and which was losing. Afraid to find himself on the losing side, the bat kept switching to the other side as soon as he thought it was going to prevail. Peace was eventually restored, and both the birds and the beasts realized that the bat had been a traitor. Found guilty of such a dastardly crime, the bat fled from the light and concealed himself in the dark shadows of the night.
People who try to take both sides in a dispute will be shamefully rejected by both of them; it is better not to make any enemies at all than to lose the battle.
NOTE: For another explanation of why the bat comes out only at night, see Fable 500.
Fable 364 (Chambry 251* = Perry 172)
The Bat and the Weasels
A bat had fallen to the ground, where a weasel grabbed her and was ready to kill her. The bat begged for mercy but the weasel refused, since weasels are the natural enemies of every kind of bird. The bat insisted that she was not a bird at all, but only a mouse, so the weasel let her go. Later on, the bat fell to the ground again and was seized by another weasel. The bat also begged this weasel not to kill her, but the weasel refused, since there was a war between the mice and the weasels. The bat denied that she was a mouse, but only a bat, so once again the weasel let her go. As a result, the bat was able to save herself twice by changing her name.
Clearly we must not always stick to the same course all the time since people who change with the times are often able to escape even the greatest dangers.
NOTE: For another fable about the war between the weasels and the mice, see Fable 455.
Fable 365 (Chambry 341 = Perry 242)
The Fox and the Hyena
They say that hyenas change their nature every year, so that sometimes they are male and sometimes female. So when a hyena saw a fox and criticized her for having spurned her friendly overtures, the fox replied, ‘Don’t blame me! Blame your own nature, which makes it impossible for me to tell whether you would be my girlfriend or my boyfriend!’
This is a story for an ambiguous person.
NOTE: In Greek and Roman folklore, the hyena was believed to be a hermaphrodite (e.g. Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.408 ff.).
Fable 366 (Chambry 340* = Perry 243)
The Two Hyenas
They say that the hyena has a double nature: for a period of time the hyena is male, and then later on she is female. The story goes that when a male hyena was treating a female badly, she said to him, ‘Listen here: remember how things used to be, and don’t forget that I will be a male hyena the next time around!’
The fable is a lesson for someone who is temporarily in a position of authority: people who have been judged in the past can later on be in a position to judge their former teachers.
Fable 367 (Babrius 54 = Perry 310)
The Eunuch and the Fortune-teller
A eunuch went to a fortune-teller to find out whether he would ever have children. The fortune-teller sacrificed an animal and spread out its liver for examination. He then said, ‘When I look into the liver, I see that you will be a father, but when I look upon your face, you do not even appear to be a man!’
NOTE: For another fable about a eunuch, see Fable 595. The practice of consulting the liver of an animal as a means of predicting the future was widespread in the ancient Mediterranean world.
Fable 368 (Avianus 29 = Perry 35)
The Satyr and His Guest
As winter grew rough with heavy frost and every field stiffened as the ice grew hard, a traveller was brought to a halt by thickening fog. He could no longer sec the trail in front of him, making it impossible to go on. A satyr, one of the guardians of the woods, is said to
have taken pity on the man and offered him shelter in his cave. This child of the fields was then amazed by the man and terrified by his prodigious powers. First, in order to restore his frozen limbs to life’s activities, the man thawed his hands by blowing hot air on them from his mouth. Then, when the man had begun to get warm and was eager to enjoy his host’s extravagant hospitality (for the satyr wanted to show the man how country folk lived, offering him the forest’s finest products), he brought out a full bowl of warm wine whose heat could spread throughout the man’s body and dispel the winter’s chill. But the man hesitated to touch the steaming cup with his lips and this time his mouth emitted a cooling breath. The man’s host shook with terror, dumbfounded at this double portent. The satyr drove his guest out into the woods and ordered him to be on his way. ‘Do not let any man ever come near my cave again,’ said the satyr, ‘if he can breathe in two different ways from the very same mouth!’
NOTE: Satyrs were mythical creatures who were part human and part animal. They were usually represented as men with the legs and tail of a goat, or sometimes the tail of a horse.
Aesop's Fables Page 23
