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Wolf, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf's right to eat him. He thus addressed him: "Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me." "Indeed," bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, "I was not then born." Then said the Wolf, "You feed in my pasture." "No, good sir," replied the Lamb, "I have not yet tasted grass." Again said the Wolf, "You drink of my well." "No," exclaimed the Lamb, "I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me." Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations."
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.
Instead of simply seizing and devouring a lamb that has wandered from the flock, the wolf challenges him with a series of false accusations, looking for a way to justify making a meal of him. The lamb is able to prove that each of the charges the wolf makes against him is unjustified: he has not, and in fact could not have, insulted the wolf a year earlier, eaten from the wolf’s field, or drunk from the wolf’s fountain since he is less than a year old and still gets all his nourishment from his
mother. But although the lamb successfully proves his innocence, at the end of the fable the wolf devours the lamb anyhow, saying “You are not going to make this wolf go without his dinner, even if you are able to easily refute every one of my charges!” In this fable, then, power, wickedness and malice triumph over weakness, innocence and honesty.
In Aesop’s fable of the Wolf and Lamb
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.
Instead of simply seizing and devouring a lamb that has wandered from the flock, the wolf challenges him with a series of false accusations, looking for a way to justify making a meal of him. The lamb is able to prove that each of the charges the wolf makes against him is unjustified: he has not, and in fact could not have, insulted the wolf a year earlier, eaten from the wolf’s field, or drunk from the wolf’s fountain since he is less than a year old and still gets all his nourishment from his
mother. But although the lamb successfully proves his innocence, at the end of the fable the wolf devours the lamb anyhow, saying “You are not going to make this wolf go without his dinner, even if you are able to easily refute every one of my charges!” In this fable, then, power, wickedness and malice triumph over weakness, innocence and honesty.
Hesiod’s Works and Days
Here the lesson, made explicit by Hesiod in the text that immediately follows, is that “He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for he does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame.” In other words, might makes right, the weak suffer at the whim of the stronger, and rebellion by the weak is futile and only brings more pain and the potential for destruction. Hesiod goes on to explicitly parallel this fable to his own situation, with himself in the role of the singing nightingale, and addresses the fable to “princes who themselves understand.”
The water snake, the viper and the frogs (Aesop)
There was a viper who used to go to a certain spring in order to drink but he was driven away by a water-snake who was furious that the viper would not just stay on his own turf instead of encroaching on the water-snake's territory. Their dispute grew more and more fierce and finally the two of them decided to fight it out, agreeing that both the water and the land would be awarded to the winner. When the day for the fight had been decided, the frogs came to the viper and, since they hated the water-snake, they offered to be his allies and come to his aid during the battle. But when the battle began and the viper grappled with the water-snake, the frogs just sat there croaking, since they were not able to do anything else. In the end, the viper was victorious but he was furious with the frogs since they had failed to come to his aid as they had promised and, what was worse, they had sat there singing songs while he was doing battle. The frogs then said to the viper, 'But you should have known that we had nothing to offer you except the sound of our voices!'
The fable shows that when you need someone to lend a hand, mere words are no help at all.
This fable tells of a growing dispute between a water snake and a viper, which they agree to resolve through battle. The frogs, hating the water snake who preys on them, come to the viper and offer to be his allies in the battle, and the viper accepts their offer. But once the battle begins, all the frogs are able to do on the viper’s behalf is sit around watching the fight and croaking. In the end the viper defeats the water snake anyway, but is angry with the frogs for singing rather than offering aid. The frogs reply, “But you should have known that we had nothing to offer you except the sound of our voices!”
Here, in addition to the lesson that those with greater strength prevail, we learn that it is important to choose allies who are strong and that it is foolish to rely on those who have nothing to offer but their voices.
The Caged Bird and the Bat
The Bat replied, "It is no use your doing that now when you are a prisoner: if only you had done so before you were caught, you might still have been free."
Precautions are useless after the crisis.
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