The Complete Fables Page 5

  One could apply this fable to men who make protestations of virtue but who actually behave like rascals.

  35

  The Fox and the Crocodile

  The fox and the crocodile were contesting their nobility. The crocodile stretched himself to his full length in illustration of his forebears and said that his forefathers had been all-round gymnasts.

  ‘Oh, there’s no need for you to tell me,’ said the fox. ‘Just from looking at your skin I can see that you have been doing gym exercises for so many years that you have quite cracked yourself.’

  It is the same with men. Liars are caught out by their deeds.

  NOTE: The crocodile actually boasts of his forefathers having held the position of Gymnasiarch. This was an elected post at Athens involving presiding over public liturgies in the gyms and paying the training-masters. In Sparta, the word was used simply to describe a training-master. Among the Greeks, the gyms were places of immense public importance, not just exercise or sports halls as they are today.

  36

  The Fox and the Dog

  A fox slipped among a flock of sheep and took hold of one of the lambs. He pulled it from its mother’s teat and made as if to caress it.

  A sheepdog asked him:

  ‘Just what do you think you are doing?’

  The fox said:

  ‘Oh, I’m just teasing and playing with it.’

  ‘Well stop that at once,’ cried the dog, ‘or I’ll show you what the caresses of a dog are like!’

  This fable applies to the careless man and to the foolish thief.

  37

  The Fox and the Leopard

  The fox and the leopard were having a beauty contest. The leopard boasted constantly about the marvellous variety of his coat.

  The fox replied:

  ‘How much more beautiful I am than you! For I am varied not merely in my body but in my soul!’

  This fable shows that ornaments of the spirit are preferable to a beautiful body.

  38

  The Fox and the Monkey Elected King

  The monkey, having danced in an assembly of the animals and earned their approval, was elected by them to be king. The fox was jealous. So, seeing a piece of meat one day in a snare, he led the monkey to it, saying that he had found a treasure. But rather than take it for himself, he had kept guard over it, as its possession was surely a prerogative of royalty. The fox then urged him to take it.

  The monkey approached it, taking no care, and was caught in the trap. When he accused the fox of luring him into a trap, the fox replied:

  ‘Monkey, you want to reign over all the animals, but look what a fool you are!’

  It is thus that those who throw themselves into an enterprise without sufficient thought not only fail, but even become a laughing stock.

  39

  The Fox and the Monkey Dispute Their Nobility

  The fox and the monkey, travelling together, were disputing their nobility. Each of them enumerated his titles and distinctions along the way, until they arrived at a certain location. The monkey rolled his eyes and began to sigh. The fox asked him what was the matter. The monkey indicated a number of gravestones nearby and said:

  ‘Ah, it is so difficult not to weep upon seeing these monuments to the slaves and freedmen of my forefathers!’

  ‘Oh?’ asked the fox, archly. ‘Well, you may lie as much as you please, for none of them can arise to contradict you!’

  It is thus with men. Liars never boast more than when there is no one about to contradict them.

  40

  The Fox and the Billy-Goat

  A fox, having fallen into a well, was faced with the prospect of being stuck there. But then a billy-goat came along to that same well because he was thirsty and saw the fox. He asked him if the water was good.

  The fox decided to put a brave face on it and gave a tremendous speech about how wonderful the water was down there, so very excellent. So the billy-goat climbed down the well, thinking only of his thirst. When he had had a good drink, he asked the fox what he thought was the best way to get back up again.

  The fox said:

  ‘Well, I have a very good way to do that. Of course, it will mean our working together. If you just push your front feet up against the wall and hold your horns up in the air as high as you can, I will climb up on to them, get out, and then I can pull you up behind me.’

  The billy-goat willingly consented to this idea, and the fox briskly clambered up the legs, the shoulders, and finally the horns of his companion. He found himself at the mouth of the well, pulled himself out, and immediately scampered off. The billy-goat shouted after him, reproaching him for breaking their agreement of mutual assistance. The fox came back to the top of the well and shouted down to the billy-goat:

  ‘Ha! If you had as many brains as you have hairs on your chin, you wouldn’t have got down there in the first place without thinking of how you were going to get out again.’

  It is thus that sensible men should not undertake any action without having first examined the end result.

  41

  The Fox with the Cropped Tail

  A fox, having had his tail cut by a trap, was so ashamed that he judged his life impossible. So, resolving to urge the other foxes to shorten their tails in the same way in order that he could hide his personal infirmity in a communal mutilation, he assembled them all together. He advised them to cut their tails, saying that full tails were not only ugly but were a useless extra weight, and an obsolete appendage.

  But one of the other foxes, acting as a spokesman, said:

  ‘Hey, friend! If it wasn’t in your own interest you wouldn’t be giving us this advice!’

  This fable concerns those who give advice not out of kindness but through self-interest.

  42

  The Fox Who Had Never Seen a Lion

  There was a fox who had never seen a lion. But one day he happened to meet one of these beasts face to face. On this first occasion he was so terrified that he felt he would die of fear. He encountered him again, and this time he was also frightened, but not so much as the first time. But on the third occasion when he saw him, he actually plucked up the courage to approach him and began to chat.

  This fable shows that familiarity soothes our fears.

  43

  The Fox and the Monster Mask

  A fox, having crept into an actor’s house, rummaged through his wardrobe and found, among other things, a large, beautifully fashioned mask of a monster. He held it in his paws and exclaimed:

  ‘Ah! What a head! But it hasn’t got a brain!’

  This fable refers to men who have magnificent bodies but poor judgement.

  44

  The Two Men Who Quarrelled about the Gods

  Two men were quarrelling about whether the god Theseus or the god Herakles was the greater. But the two gods, losing their tempers with them, revenged themselves each on the country of the other.

  The quarrels of underlings incite their masters to be angry with them.

  NOTE: Theseus and Herakles/Hercules were deified heroes rather than full-rank gods, but at the popular level they made do as gods, a phenomenon somewhat similar to the status of saints in Catholicism as intercessors who are meant to be ‘more accessible’ to the common man.

  45

  The Murderer

  A man who had committed a murder was being pursued by the parents of his victim. Arriving at the edge of the Nile, he came face to face with a wolf. He was so scared that he climbed up into a tree at the waterside, where he hid himself. But there he caught sight of a huge serpent [drakonta], which was slithering its way towards him. So he dropped down into the river. But in the river a crocodile ate him up.

  This fable shows that criminals pursued by the gods are not safe in any element, whether earth, air or water.

  46

  The Man Who Promised the Impossible

  A poor man was very ill, and not expected to live. As the doctors were about to give up h
ope for him, he appealed to the gods, promising to offer up to them a hecatomb and to consecrate to them some votive offerings if he recovered.

  The man’s wife, who was at his side, asked him:

  ‘And where are you going to get the money to pay for all that?’

  The man told her:

  ‘Do you think I might get better so that the gods can call me to account?’

  This fable shows that men readily make promises which in reality they have no intention of keeping.

  NOTE: A hecatomb was, literally, a hundred oxen, though in practice it was often fewer. A hecatomb was only offered on the occasion of a great public sacrifice by an army or an entire city.

  47

  The Coward and the Ravens

  A cowardly man set out to go to war. But, having heard the croak of some ravens, he lay down his arms and froze stock still. After a while he picked up his arms and again began to march. But the ravens croaked again. He stopped and then he said to them:

  ‘You can croak as loud as you like, but you aren’t going to make a meal of me.’

  This fable aims at those who are excessively timid.

  48

  The Man Bitten by an Ant, and Hermes

  One day, a sailing ship sank to the bottom of the sea with all its passengers. A man who was a witness of the shipwreck claimed that the decrees of the gods were unjust, for to lose a single impious person they had also made the innocent perish.

  There were a great many ants on the spot where he was standing. As he was saying this, it happened that one of them bit him. In order to kill it, he crushed them all.

  Then Hermes appeared to him, and struck him with his wand [rhabdos], saying:

  ‘And now do you not admit that the gods judge men in the same way you judge the ants?’

  Don’t blaspheme against the gods. When misfortune befalls you, examine your own faults.

  49

  The Husband and the Troublesome Wife

  A man had a wife who was extremely rude to all the servants of the house. He wanted to know if she would behave the same towards his father’s staff, and he sent her to visit his paternal home under a pretext. When she returned some days later, he asked her how the servants had received her.

  ‘The herdsmen and the shepherds scowled at me,’ she said.

  The husband replied:

  ‘Well, woman! If you weren’t welcomed by the servants who take the herds out at dawn and don’t return until sunset, what about those you had to spend all day with?’

  It is thus that the little things reveal the big things, and that the things which are visible reveal those which are hidden.

  50

  The Mischievous Man

  A mischievous man bet someone that he could prove that the Oracle of Delphi was a fraud. On a date which he had agreed, he took a little sparrow in his hand and hid it under his cloak, and then made his way to the temple. There he faced the oracle and asked if the object which he held in his hand was living or lifeless. He wished, if the god replied ‘lifeless’, to show the living sparrow; if the god said ‘living’, to present the sparrow after having strangled it.

  But the god, recognizing his false intentions, replied:

  ‘Enough, man! For it depends on you whether what you are holding is dead or alive.’

  This fable shows that the god defies all surprise.

  NOTE: The god of the Oracle of Delphi was Apollo. It is ironical that this story of all stories should appear in a collection of Aesop’s fables, since there was a tradition that Aesop, in the sixth century BC, was thrown from a cliff and murdered as a result of accusing the priests at Delphi of being frauds!

  51

  The Braggart

  A man who practised the pentathlon, but whom his fellow-citizens continually reproached for his unmanliness, went off one day to foreign parts. After some time he returned, and he went around boasting of having accomplished many extraordinary feats in various countries, but above all of having made such a jump when he was in Rhodes that not even an athlete crowned at the Olympic Games could possibly equal it. And he added that he would produce as witnesses of his exploit people who had actually seen it, if ever they came to his country.

  Then one of the bystanders spoke out:

  ‘But if this is true, my friend, you have no need of witnesses. For here is Rhodes right here – make the jump.’

  This fable shows that as long as one can prove something by doing, talk is superfluous.

  52

  The Middle-aged Man and His Mistresses

  A middle-aged man who was going grey had two mistresses, one young and the other old. Now she who was advanced in years had a sense of shame at having sexual intercourse with a lover younger than herself. And so she did not fail, each time that he came to her house, to pull out all of his black hairs.

  The young mistress, on her part, recoiled from the idea of having an old lover, and so she pulled out his white hairs.

  Thus it happened that, plucked in turn by the one and then the other, he became bald.

  That which is ill-matched always gets into difficulties.

  NOTE: A hetaira was a ‘female companion’, a courtesan or concubine, as opposed to a legal wife. The English word ‘mistress’ does not adequately convey the full social meaning if we wish to be precise about ancient Greek society. Similarly, the man is described as a mesopolios, a form of mesaipolios, which means ‘half-grey’ but is also the word used by association to mean ‘middle-aged’ in Greek.

  53

  The Shipwrecked Man

  A rich Athenian was sailing with some other travellers. A violent tempest suddenly arose, and the boat capsized. Then, while the other passengers were trying to save themselves by swimming, the Athenian continually invoked the aid of the goddess Athena [patroness of his city], and promised offering after offering if only she would save him.

  One of his shipwrecked companions, who swam beside him, said to him:

  ‘Appeal to Athena by all means, but also move your arms!’

  We also invoke the gods, but we mustn’t forget to put in our own efforts to save ourselves. We count ourselves lucky if in making our own efforts, we obtain the protection of the gods. But if we abandon ourselves to our fate, the daimons alone can save us.

  NOTE: The daimons were semi-divine beings intermediate between men and the gods, who might come to the aid of men from time to time if whimsy took them, or they might even be persuaded by promises of offerings.

  54

  The Blind Man

  A blind man was in the habit of recognizing by touch every creature which he held in his hands, saying what kind it was.

  Then, one day, somebody handed him a wolf-cub. He felt it and was unsure:

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘if it be the young of a wolf or a fox, or one of the other animals of the same family. But what I do know is that it is not to be put among a flock of sheep.’

  It is thus that a wicked nature is often recognized by its exterior.

  55

  The Cheat

  A poor man, being very ill and getting worse, promised the gods to sacrifice to them one hundred oxen if they saved him from death. The gods, wishing to put him to the test, restored him to health very quickly. Soon he was up and out of bed.

  But, as he didn’t really have any oxen, he modelled one hundred of them out of tallow and burned them on an altar, saying:

  ‘Receive my votive offering, oh gods!’

  But the gods, wanting to trick him in their turn, sent him a dream saying that if he would go to the seashore it would result in one thousand Athenian drachmas for him. Unable to contain his joy, he ran to the beach, where he came across some pirates who took him away and sold him into slavery. And they did indeed obtain one thousand Athenian drachmas for him.

  This fable is well applied to a liar.

  56

  The Charcoal Burner and the Fuller

  A charcoal burner who carried on his trade in a certain house noticed that a
fuller had established himself nearby. So he went to see him and urged him to come and live with him. He said they were so close that they could live with much less expense if they shared a single dwelling.

  But the fuller replied:

  ‘That is out of the question! For whatever I will clean you will blacken with soot.’

  This fable shows that one cannot unite dissimilar natures.

  57

  The Men and Zeus

  They say that the animals were made first, that God [Zeus] granted to some strength, to others speed and to others wings. But that man remained naked, and said:

  ‘Me alone you have left without favour.’

  Zeus replied:

  ‘You have not taken notice of the gift I have granted you. And yet you have the most: for you have got the power of speech, which is mighty with the gods and with men. It is mightier than the powerful, swifter than the fastest.’

  And then, recognizing the gift of God, man went on his way, in reverence and gratitude.

  All men have been favoured by God, who has given them language; but certain of them are indifferent to such a gift, and prefer to envy the animals who are devoid of both feelings and speech.

  58

  The Man and the Fox