When a certain man of Athens saw Aesop playing with marbles amidst a crowd of boys, he stood there and laughed at him as if Aesop were crazy. As soon as he realized what was going on, Aesop—who was an old man far more inclined to laugh at others than to be laughed at himself—took an unstrung bow and placed it in the middle of the road. ‘Okay, you know-it-all,’ he said, ‘explain the meaning of what I just did.’ All the people gathered round. The man racked his brains for a long time but he could not manage to answer Aesop’s question. Eventually he gave up. Having won this battle of wits, Aesop then explained, ‘If you keep your bow tightly strung at all times, it will quickly break, but if you let it rest, it will be ready to use whenever you need it.’
In the same way the mind must he given some amusement from time to time, so that you will find yourself able to think more clearly afterwards.
NOTE: The motif of the bow resting and tensed was a Roman cliché (e.g. Horace, Odes 2.10: ‘Apollo does not always stretch the bow’). There is a similar story in the ‘Life of Saint Anthony’ (Golden Legend 21): an archer is angry when he sees Saint Anthony resting, so Saint Anthony then tells the man to shoot an arrow, then another arrow, then another, until finally the man says ‘If I keep on like this, my bow will break!’ Saint Anthony concludes that it is the same way with people: they will break if they are never allowed to take a rest.
PARADOXES
Fable 538 (Phaedrus 1.18 = Perry 479)
The Woman in Labour
No one gladly revisits a place where he got hurt.
After her months of pregnancy had passed, a woman about to deliver her child was lying on the ground, moaning and weeping. Her husband urged her to rest her body on the bed, so that she might better relieve herself of nature’s burden, but the woman refused and said, ‘I hardly think that my trouble could come to an end in the very place where it was first conceived!’
NOTE: This joke is also found in Plutarch, Advice on Marriage 39.
Fable 539 (Babrius 34 = Perry 47)
The Boy and the Tripe
A crowd of country folk had sacrificed a bull to the goddess Demeter, scattering leaves over the wide threshing-floor, while the tables were covered with platters of meat and jars brimming with wine. There was a boy who ate greedily and stuffed himself full with beef tripe. On the way home, he was seized by a stomach ache. Collapsing into his mother’s tender embrace, he vomited, and said, ‘Woe is me, I’m going to die! Mother, all my guts are falling out!’ The mother replied, ‘Be brave and throw it all up; don’t hold anything back. Those are not your own guts you are vomiting: they are the bull’s!’
NOTE: An epimythium probably added by a later editor reads: ‘This fable might be applied to someone who has squandered the property of an orphan and then weeps and wails when he has to pay it back.’ Alciato, Emblems 129, tells the same story not about human beings, but about a kite and his mother.
Fable 540 (Chambry 246* = Perry 66)
The Boys and the Butcher
Two young boys were standing next to the butcher. Then, when the butcher was occupied in some business of his own, one of the boys grabbed a piece of meat and hid it in the folds of the other boy’s garment. When the butcher turned around and looked for the meat, the boy who had taken the meat swore he didn’t have it, and the one who had the meat swore he hadn’t taken it. When the butcher realized the wicked trick the boys had played, he said, ‘Even if you manage to deceive me, you will never deceive the god by whom you have sworn falsely!’
The fable shows that even if we succeed in deceiving our fellows by swearing falsely, there is no way that we can deceive the gods.
Fable 541 (Phaedrus App. 27 = Perry 554)
Socrates and the Slave
Socrates was being rudely addressed by a slave who had actually seduced his master’s wife, a fact which Socrates knew to be familiar to the people who were present. Socrates therefore said to the slave, ‘You are pleased with yourself because you are pleasing to someone whom you ought not to please, but don’t think you will escape unpunished, because you are not pleasing the person whom you really ought to please!’
NOTE: There is a promythium appended to the fable in Perotti’s Appendix: ‘No curse weighs more heavily than a guilty conscience.’ For another fable about Socrates in Phaedrus, see Fable 94
Fable 542 (Chambry 56* = Perry 29)
The Charcoal Burner and the Fuller
A charcoal burner who lived in a certain house decided it would be a good idea to live together with a fuller who had moved in next door. But the fuller told him, ‘How on earth would I be able to carry on with my work? I am afraid that whatever I washed white, you would cover with soot!’
The story shows that opposites are utterly incompatible.
Fable 543 (Chambry 309* = Perry 204)
The Rich Man and the Tanner
A tanner was about to move in next door to a rich man but the rich man tried to get rid of him on account of the foul smell. The tanner said to him, ‘It will bother you for a little while but then you will get used to it, and afterwards you will not even notice the smell.’ The rich man said, ‘We will not lose our sense of smell simply on account of your profession!’
The fable shows that a person should not accept foolish advice, especially if it is contrary to his nature.
NOTE: For a quite different conclusion to this same situation, see Fable 544 (following).
Fable 544 (Chambry 309 = Perry 204)
The Rich Man and the Tanner
A rich man was living next door to a tanner and could not stand the foul odour. He urged the tanner to move away but the tanner put him off, always saying ‘In a little while.’ This happened repeatedly, until the rich man got used to the foul odour and didn’t bother the tanner any more.
The story shows that familiarity can alleviate seemingly intractable problems.
Fable 545 (pseudo-Diogenian, Preface = Perry 425)
The Fisherman and the Octopus
When a fisherman happened to see an octopus during the winter, he said, ‘If I take off my clothes and jump in after him, I will freeze! But if I do not catch that octopus, I condemn my children to die of starvation!’
Fable 546 (Chambry 27* = Perry 26)
The Fisherman and the River
A fisherman was fishing in a river. He stretched out his nets and covered the river’s stream from one side to the other. He then tied a stone to a piece of rope and struck the water with it so that the fish would flee and fall unwittingly into the net. Someone who lived in that neighbourhood saw what the man was doing and began to complain, because by agitating the river in this way he deprived them of clear water to drink. The fisherman answered, ‘But if I do not disturb the river, I will have no choice but to die of hunger!’
The story shows that the same is true in cities too: demagogues are most effective when they stir up sedition in their homelands.
Fable 547 (Chambry 62 = Perry 71)
The Coward and the Lion of Gold
There was a certain greedy coward who found a lion of gold and said, ‘I do not know how to act in such circumstances. This is driving me crazy! I can’t decide what to do: my love of money and my innate cowardice are tearing me in two. What kind of accident or supernatural power could have produced a lion of gold? My mind is at war with itself when it confronts this problem: it longs for the gold but it fears the object which the gold has been made into. My desire urges me to seize it, but my character urges me to keep away. O Fortune, you have given me this thing but you do not allow it to be taken! O treasure that offers no satisfaction! O welcome gift of a god that is so unwelcome! What to do? How can I get some advantage from this? How can I contrive a means to approach it? I will go get my servants and bring them here and order them to launch a mass attack and grab the lion, while I watch them from a distance.’
The story is suitable for a rich man who does not dare to touch his wealth or make use of it.
Fable 548 (Chambry 299* = Perry 94)
&
nbsp; The Woman and Her Two Daughters
There was a woman who was the mother of two daughters, and she had married them both off: one to a gardener and the other to a potter. She then paid a visit to the daughter who was married to the gardener, and as they talked about things in general the mother asked her daughter how she was faring. The daughter said, ‘In general, things are good, but please pray that there will be some rainfall, so that the vegetables will be well-watered and flourish accordingly.’ The mother then left and went to see the daughter who was living with the potter. She asked the daughter what she might need, and the daughter replied, ‘In general, things are good, mother, but please pray that we have clear weather and hot sunny days without a cloud in the sky so that the pots will dry out more quickly.’ At this point the mother said, ‘But if you are hoping for clear skies and your sister wants a downpour, then how am I going to pray for the two of you?’
The story shows that people who are conducting two opposite businesses are bound to fail at both of them.
NOTE: Other versions of this story (included in Chambry’s first edition of the Greek fables) are about a father and his daughters.
Fable 549 (Phaedrus 4.5 = Perry 512)
The Mother and Her Three Daughters
Often there is more good to be found in one man than in a crowd of people, as I will reveal to posterity in this little story.
A certain man left three daughters at his death. One daughter was very beautiful and always chasing after men with her eyes. Another daughter was the frugal type with country virtues, always spinning wool. The third daughter was quite ugly and entirely given over to the bottle. The old man had named the mother of the girls as his heir under the condition that she distribute his entire fortune to the three girls equally, but in the following manner: first, ‘Let them not possess nor enjoy what they have been given’, and second, ‘As soon as they have given up the property which they receive, let them bestow a hundred thousand sesterces on their mother.’ Gossip filled the city of Athens, and the mother diligently consulted expert lawyers but none could explain to her how the daughters could not possess what was given to them or how they might not enjoy its benefits; likewise they could not say how girls who had nothing would be able to pay such a sum of money to their mother. A great deal of time had been lost in delaying, and still the meaning of the will could not be grasped, so the mother put the law aside and appealed to common sense. To the lascivious daughter, she gave the women’s clothes and baubles, along with the silver ewers and beardless eunuchs; the spinster received the fields and the flocks, the country estate and farmhands, along with the cattle and draught animals and farming tools; and for the hard-drinking daughter there was a cellar filled with casks of vintage wine, an elegant house, and pleasant little gardens. The mother was about to give the designated goods to each daughter with the public’s general approval (since they were all well acquainted with the daughters’ proclivities), when Aesop suddenly appeared in the midst of the crowd and said, ‘If only the father were aware of what is happening, he would be turning in his grave at the inability of the Athenians to understand his will!’ When asked to explain himself, Aesop corrected the mistake that they had all made and told them, ‘Assign the house with its furnishings and lovely gardens and the aged wine to the spinster who lives in the countryside; give the dress and the pearls and the attendants and so on to the ugly creature who boozes her days away; and then give the fields and the country estate with the sheep and the shepherds to the slut. None of them will be able to stand having things which are alien to their way of life. The ugly daughter will sell all the finery to supply herself with wine; the slut will get rid of the fields so that she can supply herself with fripperies; and the one who loves the flocks and is devoted to spinning will not hesitate to sell the opulent estate. In this way no daughter will possess what has been given to her, and each of them will bestow on their mother the specified sum from the proceeds of the sale.’
The cunning of a single man thus solved a problem that had eluded many others in their ignorance.
NOTE: For another example of Aesop’s expertise in posing and solving riddles, see Fable 537. The Roman sestertius was the coinage in which the largest sums were reckoned and the amount of money involved here is not unusual for an aristocratic Roman family. At roughly the time that Phaedrus was writing, a decree was passed that someone who wanted to put on a gladiatorial show had to have a net worth of 400,000 sesterces (Tacitus, Annals 4.63).
INSULTS
Fable 550 (Phaedrus 1.7 = Perry 27)
The Fox and the Mask
A fox happened to find a mask used for performing tragedies and, after turning it this way and that several times, she remarked, ‘So full of beauty, so lacking in brains!’
This is a saying for people to whom Fortune has granted honour and glory, while depriving them of common sense.
NOTE: In the medieval Latin tradition, this story is told of a wolf, not a fox.
Fable 551 (Phaedrus 3.4 = Perry 496)
The Monkey and the Butcher
A man noticed a monkey hanging in the butcher’s shop amidst the other merchandise and foods for sale, and he asked what the monkey tasted like. ‘Well,’ joked the butcher, ‘its taste is a perfect match for its face!’
I think the butcher’s remark is more funny than true; I have often met with beautiful people who actually turned out to be complete scoundrels, while having known some ugly people who were truly excellent individuals.
Fable 552 (Chambry 1l5* = Perry 96)
The Snake and the Thorn Bush
There was a grapevine next to a river, and a thorn bush had been planted as a fence around the vine. When the river rose, the thorn bush was swept away by the water, and a snake who had entwined himself in the thorns was also carried away. When someone saw the snake riding on the thorn bush, he said, ‘A wicked ship, and worthy of its sailor!’
The story shows that a wicked person deservedly comes to a bad end by keeping company with other wicked people.
NOTE: In other versions of this story (included in Chambry’s first edition of the Greek fables), it is a fox who makes fun of the thorn bush and the snake.
Fable 553 (Babrius 133 = Perry 360)
The Donkey and the Thorns
A donkey was eating the spiny leaves of a thorn bush when a fox happened to see him. The fox crept up and said, ‘Hey you, how can you chew and swallow such tough food with your flabby, flapping tongue?’
NOTE: This odd little joke may have been prompted by the Latin proverb similes habent labra latucas, ‘the lips have lettuce to match’, which seems to have been associated with the motif of donkeys eating thistles (see Jerome, Epistles 7.5). Compare the English saying, ‘A thistle is a fat salad for an ass’s mouth’ (The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs).
Fable 554 (Ademar 8 = Perry 559)
The Snail and the Mirror
A snail found a mirror, and when she saw how brightly he shone, she fell in love with him. She quickly climbed up onto the mirror’s round surface and began to lick him. The snail clearly was no good for the mirror and only besmirched his lustrous radiance with filth and slime. A monkey then found the mirror after it had been dirtied by the snail, and remarked, ‘That’s what happens when you let someone like that walk all over you!’
For women who marry worthless fools.
Fable 555 (Phaedrus 3.19 = Perry 510)
Aesop and His Lamp
Once when Aesop happened to be the only slave in his master’s household, he was ordered to prepare dinner earlier than usual. He thus had to visit a few houses looking for fire, until at last he found a place where he could light his lamp. Since his search had taken him out of his way along a winding path, he decided to shorten his journey on the way back and go straight through the forum. There amidst the crowds a talkative fellow shouted at him, ‘Aesop, what are you doing with a lamp in the middle of the day?’ ‘I’m just looking to see if I can find a real man’, said Aesop, as he quick
ly made his way back home. If that public nuisance had bothered to give this any thought, he would immediately have understood that as far as old Aesop was concerned, he was not a man at all, but only a pest who was bothering someone who had better things to do.
NOTE: This appears to be a variation on the famous anecdote of Diogenes the Cynic looking for an honest man, as reported in Diogenes Laertius, Life of Diogenes 41. The same story is attributed to an anonymous ‘Christian ascetic’ in Rumi, Mathnawi 5.2887 ff.
Fable 556 (Phaedrus App. 9 = Perry 537)
Aesop and the Writer
A man had read to Aesop selections from a badly written work in which he stupidly boasted at length about what a great writer he was. The man wanted to know what Aesop thought, so the writer said to him, ‘Surely you do not think I have too high an opinion of myself? My confidence in my own genius is not misplaced, is it?’ ‘Not at all’, said Aesop, who was utterly exhausted by the writer’s wretched book. ‘I think it is a very good idea for you to praise yourself, given that no one else is ever likely to do so!’
Fable 557 (Chambry 19 = Perry 8)
Aesop and the Shipbuilders
Aesop's Fables Page 32
