The Complete Fables

by Aesop

  This fable shows that we are not all made to do the same things.

  276

  The Ass and the Dog Travelling Together

  An ass and a dog were taking the same route when they found a sealed document on the ground. The ass picked it up, broke the seal, opened it, read it aloud and the dog listened. It was all about fodder – that is to say hay, barley and straw. The dog became bored by this recital from the ass and said:

  ‘Skip a few lines, friend. Maybe you’ll come across something in there about meat and bones.’

  The ass scanned the rest of the document and found nothing that was of interest to the dog, who then spoke up again:

  ‘Throw the paper away. It’s completely useless.’

  277

  The Ass and the Ass-driver

  An ass who was being driven by an ass-driver strayed off the main path after a while and started to cross some steep slopes. When he fell over a precipice, the ass-driver, seizing the ass by the tail, tried to pull him back up. But, as the ass struggled frantically upside-down, the ass-driver let go and said:

  ‘I give up. But you win the wrong victory.’

  This fable applies to quarrelsome people.

  278

  The Ass and the Cicadas

  Hearing some cicadas sing, an ass was charmed by their harmony and envied them their talent.

  ‘What do you eat,’ he asked them, ‘that gives you such a beautiful song?’

  ‘The dew,’ they replied.

  From then on, the ass waited for the dew and eventually starved to death.

  So, when we long for things which are not in our nature, not only will we never be satisfied but we will bring upon ourselves even more misfortune.

  279

  The Ass Who Was Taken for a Lion

  An ass, clothed in the skin of a lion, passed himself off in the eyes of everyone as a lion, and made everyone flee from him, both men and animals. But the wind came along and blew off the lion’s skin, leaving him naked and exposed. Everyone then fell upon him when they saw this, and beat him with sticks and clubs.

  Be poor and ordinary. Don’t have pretensions to wealth or you will be exposed to ridicule and danger. For we cannot adapt ourselves to that which is alien to us.

  280

  The Ass Eating the Jerusalem Thorn, and the Fox

  An ass was eating the prickly head of a Jerusalem Thorn. A fox saw him doing this and addressed him with these mocking words:

  ‘I marvel that with such a loose and soft tongue you can chew so happily on something so hard.’

  This fable addresses itself to those whose tongues utter hard and dangerous resolutions.

  NOTE: The plant mentioned here, paliourous in Greek, is Rhamnus paliurus, commonly known as the Jerusalem Thorn or Christ’s Thorn. It occurs throughout the Mediterranean region from Spain to Turkey. The moral of this fable suggests its use in opposing demagogues and fanatical orators in a political assembly.

  281

  The Ass Pretending to Be Lame, and the Wolf

  An ass grazing in a small meadow saw a wolf creep up on him, so he pretended to be lame. The wolf, coming nearer, asked why he was limping. The ass replied that he had been jumping over a fence and had landed on a thorn. He advised the wolf to pull it out before eating him to avoid piercing his mouth. The wolf let himself be persuaded. While he was lifting up the ass’s foot and concentrating on the hoof, the ass, with a sharp kick in the jaw, knocked his teeth out. In a bad way, the wolf said:

  ‘I deserve what I got. For, having learned from my father the art of butchery, why should I want to try my hand at medicine?’

  Thus, people who undertake things which are outside their abilities naturally bring themselves to disgrace.

  282

  The Bird-catcher and the Wild and Domesticated Pigeons

  A bird-catcher spread his nets and tied his domesticated pigeons to them. Then he withdrew and watched from a distance what would happen. Some wild pigeons approached the captive birds and became entangled in the snares. The bird-catcher ran back and started to grab them. As he did so, they reproached the domesticated pigeons because, being of the same race, they should have warned them of the trap. But the domesticated pigeons replied:

  ‘We are more concerned with preventing our master’s displeasure than with pleasing our kindred.’

  Thus it is with domestic slaves: you can’t blame them when, for love of their masters, they fail to show love towards their own kind.

  283

  The Bird-catcher and the Crested Lark

  A bird-catcher was setting up his snares. A crested lark, seeing him from afar, asked him what he was doing. He said that he was founding a city [polis]. Then he withdrew and hid himself. The lark, trusting in the man’s words, flew down and was caught in a snare. The bird-catcher came running up and the lark said to him:

  ‘Say, fellow! If this is the kind of city you are founding, it won’t have many inhabitants!’

  This fable shows that if houses and cities are deserted, it is usually because the leading men there are harsh and severe.

  284

  The Bird-catcher and the Stork

  A bird-catcher, having laid some nets for cranes, watched his bait from a distance. Then a stork landed in the midst of the cranes and the bird-catcher ran back and caught her as well. She begged him to release her, saying that, far from harming men, she was very useful, for she ate snakes and other reptiles. The bird-catcher replied:

  ‘If you really are harmless, then you deserve punishment anyway, for landing among the wicked.’

  We, too, ought to flee from the company of wicked people so that no one takes us for the accomplice of their wrongdoings.

  NOTE: Among the background of stork lore that the average ancient Greek would know in appreciating this fable, we might mention that in ancient Thessaly there was actually a law prohibiting the killing of storks because of their usefulness in destroying snakes.

  285

  The Bird-catcher and the Partridge

  A visitor turned up rather late at the house of a bird-catcher. Since the host had no food to offer him, he went to fetch his own partridge [used as a live decoy to lure wild birds] to have for supper. As he was on the point of killing her, she reproached him for his ingratitude:

  ‘Have I not been most useful in calling the birds of my own tribe and delivering them up to you? And now you want to kill me?’

  ‘All the more reason to sacrifice you,’ the bird-catcher replied, ‘since you have not even had mercy on your own kindred.’

  This fable shows that those who betray their parents are odious not only to their victims, but also to those to whom they deliver them up.

  286

  The Hen and the Swallow

  A hen found the eggs of a snake and carefully hatched them by sitting upon them and keeping them warm. A swallow, who had seen her doing this, said to her:

  ‘What a fool you are! Why are you rearing these creatures who, once grown, will make you the first victim of their evildoing?’

  Perversity cannot be tamed even by the kindest treatment.

  287

  The Hen That Laid the Golden Eggs

  A man had a beautiful hen who laid golden eggs. Believing that she might have a lump of gold in her belly, the man killed her and found that she was just the same inside as other hens. He had hoped to find riches in one go, and was thus deprived of even the little profit that he had.

  This fable shows that we should be content with our lot, and shun insatiable greed.

  288

  The Tail and the Rest of the Body of the Snake

  One day, the snake’s tail developed pretensions to be the leader and led the advance. The remaining parts of the body of the snake said to it:

  ‘How can you lead us when you have no eyes or nose like other animals?’

  But they could not persuade the tail, and ultimately common sense was defeated. The tail led the way, pulling blindly on the rest of the body so that in th
e end the snake fell into a hole full of stones and bruised her backbone and her whole body. Then the tail addressed the head, fawning and beseeching:

  ‘Save us, please, mistress, for I was in the wrong to enter into a quarrel with you.’

  This fable confounds crafty and perverse men who rebel against their masters.

  NOTE: A literal translation of the title of this fable would be ‘The Tail and the Limbs of the Snake’, since the Greeks extended the concept of ‘limbs’ beyond arms and legs to include bodily frame, but in English this does not make sense.

  289

  The Snake, the House-ferret and the Mice

  A snake and a house-ferret were fighting each other in a certain house where they lived. The mice of the house, who were forever being eaten by one or the other of them, came quietly out of their holes when they heard them fighting. At the sight of the mice, the two combatants gave up their battle and turned on the mice.

  It is the same in the city-states [poleōn]; people who interfere in the quarrels of the demagogues become, without suspecting it, the victims of both sides.

  290

  The Snake and the Crab

  A snake and a crab frequented the same place. The crab continually behaved towards the snake in all simplicity and kindness. But the snake was always cunning and perverse. The crab ceaselessly urged the snake to behave towards him with honesty and to imitate his own manner towards him; he did not listen. So, indignant, the crab waited for an occasion when the snake was asleep, grabbed it and killed it. Seeing it stretched out dead, the crab called out:

  ‘Hey, friend! It’s no use being straight now that you are dead, you should have done that when I was urging you to before; then you wouldn’t have had to be put to death!’

  One could rightly tell this fable with regard to people who, during their life, are wicked towards their friends and do them a service after their death.

  291

  The Trodden-on Snake and Zeus

  The snake, heavily trodden on so often by men’s feet, went to Zeus to complain. Zeus said to it:

  ‘If you had bitten the first one who trod on you, the second one would not have tried to do so.’

  This fable shows that those who hold their own against the first people who attack them make themselves formidable to others who do so.

  292

  The Child Who Ate the Sacrificial Viscera

  Some shepherds sacrificed a goat in the countryside and invited their neighbours. Among these was a poor woman who brought her child with her. As the feast progressed, the child, whose stomach was distended with too much food, felt ill and cried:

  ‘Mother, I’m bringing up my guts!’

  ‘Not yours,’ she replied, ‘but those you have eaten.’

  This fable is addressed to the debtor who is always ready to take the assets of others, then when one claims them back he is aggrieved as much as if he were paying with his own money.

  NOTE: This fable is actually a coarse peasant joke, perhaps even based on an amusing true incident with a child. When an animal was sacrificed to the gods, it was customary for the subsequent feast to commence with all the guests present eating the viscera – namely, the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. These choice morsels were a solemn delicacy at a sacrifice. In this story the child vomits up guts, thinking they are his own, whereas they are the goat’s.

  293

  The Child Catching Locusts, and the Scorpion

  A child was catching locusts in front of the city wall. After having caught a certain number of them, he saw a scorpion. He took it for a locust and, cupping his hand, was about to put it in his palm when the scorpion, rearing his spike, said to the child:

  ‘Would that you had done that! For then you would have lost the locusts that you have already caught!’

  This fable shows us that we should not behave in the same way towards good and wicked people.

  294

  The Child and the Raven

  A woman consulted the diviners about her infant son. They predicted that he would be killed by a raven [korax]. Terror-stricken by this prediction, she had a huge chest constructed and shut the boy up inside it to prevent him from being killed by a raven. And every day, at a given time, she opened it and gave the child as much food as he needed. Then, one day when she had opened the chest and was putting back the lid, the child foolishly stuck his head out. So it happened that the korax [hooked handle] on the chest fell down on to the top of his head and killed him.

  NOTE: This fable depends upon a pun, the same Greek word, korax, meaning both ’raven’ and ‘hooked handle, like a raven’s beak’. Every Athenian would also be familiar with the idea of a boy being shut up in a box, as it was a mythological motif.

  295

  The Son and the Painted Lion

  There was a timid old man who was afraid of his only son’s passion for hunting, for the son was full of courage. In a dream he saw that his son would be killed by a lion. Dreading that this dream would come true, the father built a dwelling for his son of great magnificence, set in a high place where he could keep his eye on him. In order to distract and please him, he had commissioned for his chamber paintings of every kind of animal, and among these was a lion. But looking at all these did not distract the young man from his boredom.

  One day, he approached the painting and cursed the lion in it:

  ‘You damned beast, it’s because of you and my father’s lying dream that I am cooped up here in this prison for women. What can I do to you?’

  And, as he said this, he struck his fist against the wall to blind the lion. But a splinter got lodged under his fingernail and he could not get it out. This became greatly inflamed, brought on a fever and swelled up to an enormous size. The fever raged so fiercely that the young man died of it.

  The lion, even though it was only a painted one, had indeed killed the young man, just as his father had foreseen.

  This shows that we should bravely face the fate which awaits us, rather than try to outwit or trick Fate, for what is destined cannot be evaded.

  296

  The Child Thief and His Mother

  A child stole the writing-tablet [delton] of his fellow pupil at school and brought it home to his mother. Instead of chastising him, she praised him. And another time he stole a cloak [himation] and gave it to her and she praised him even more. Later, coming of age and becoming a young man, he brought her ever more important stolen goods. But, one day, he was caught in the act. His hands were tied behind his back and he was led off to the executioner. His mother went with him and beat her chest. He declared that he would like to whisper something in her ear. As soon as she bent to listen, he grabbed her ear lobe and severed it with one bite of his teeth. She reproached him for his impiety: not content with the crimes he had already committed, he went on to mutilate his mother! He replied:

  ‘If, from the time I brought you the first writing-tablet that I stole, you had thrashed me, I would not have come to this pass where I am now: I would not be being led to my death.’

  This fable shows that those who are not reprimanded from the outset grow up and get worse.

  NOTE: Liddell and Scott, in their Lexicon, maintained that the Greeks called a writing-tablet a deltos because writing-tablets had once been shaped like deltas. But there were never any delta-shaped writing-tablets, and this strange suggestion has been dropped in the 1996 edition, where the cognate daltos in the Cyprian dialect is noted but no etymology is given otherwise. We should therefore point out that deltos comes from the Ugaritic daltu, which survives also in Hebrew as daleth.

  297

  The Child Bather

  One day, a child bathing in a river was in danger of drowning. Seeing a traveller pass by, he called out to him for help. The traveller scolded him for his recklessness. The boy cried out:

  ‘But get me out of trouble first! Later, when you have saved me, make your reproaches!’

  This fable applies to people who give others a pretext for treating them u
nkindly.

  298

  The Receiver of a Deposit of Money, and the God Horkos

  A man, to whom a friend had entrusted a deposit of money, was intending to withhold repayment. When this friend issued a court summons for him to take an oath [horkos], he became anxious and departed for the countryside. At the town gates he met a lame man, also leaving, and he asked him who he was and where he was going. The latter replied that he was the god Horkos [Oath] and that he was seeking out the ungodly. So the man asked a second question:

  ‘And after how long an interval is it that you usually return to the towns?’

  ‘After forty, sometimes thirty, years,’ he replied.

  After that, the man didn’t hesitate to swear the next day that he had never received the money. But he came face to face with Horkos, who led him off to hurl him from a cliff. The man moaned:

  ‘You told me that you didn’t come back for thirty years, but you haven’t even granted me a single day in safety.’