It is said that when Æsop was being taken to the rock Hyampia, there to be sacrificed, he predicted that the hand of retributive Justice would smite his persecutors for their inhumanity; and, reciting the fable of The Eagle and the Beetle, he warned them that the weakest may procure vengeance against the most powerful in requital of injuries inflicted. 'A hare, being pursued by an eagle, retreated into the nest of a beetle, who promised her protection. The eagle repulsed the beetle, and destroyed the hare before its face. The beetle, remembering the wrong done it, soared to the nest of the eagle and destroyed her eggs. Appealing to Jupiter, the god listened to the petition of his favourite bird, and granted her leave to lay her eggs in his lap for safety. The beetle, seeing this, made a ball of dirt, and, carrying it aloft, dropped it into the lap of the god, who, forgetting the eggs, shook all off together.'
The Piper turned Fisherman was spoken by Cyrus (King of Persia) at Sardis to the Ionians and Æolians on the occasion of their sending ambassadors, offering to become subject to him on the same terms as they had been to Crœsus. But he, when he heard their proposal, told them this story: 'A piper seeing some fishes in the sea, began to pipe, expecting that they would come to shore; but finding his hopes disappointed, he took a casting-net, and enclosed a great number of fishes, and drew them out. When he saw them leaping about, he said to the fishes: "Cease your dancing, since when I piped you would not come out and dance."' Cyrus told this story to the Ionians and Æolians because the Ionians, when Cyrus pressed them by his ambassador to revolt from Crœsus, refused to consent, and now, when the business was done, were ready to listen to him. He therefore, under the influence of anger, gave them this answer.[47]
The fable of The Horse and the Stag was rehearsed by Stesichorus to the citizens of Himera[48] with a view to stimulating them to beware of the encroachments of Phalaris the Tyrant, whom they had chosen general with absolute powers, and were on the eve of assigning him a body-guard. 'The stag, with his horns, got the better of the horse, and drove him clean out of the pasture where they used to feed together. So the horse craved the assistance of man; and in order to receive the benefit of his help, suffered him to put a bridle on his neck, a bit in his mouth, and a saddle upon his back. By this means he entirely defeated his enemy. But guess his chagrin when, returning thanks, and desiring to be dismissed, he received for answer: "No! I never knew before how useful a drudge you were; and now that I have found what you are good for, you may depend upon it I will keep you to it." Look to it, then' (continued Stesichorus), 'lest in your wish to avenge yourselves on your enemies you suffer in the same way as the horse; for already, through your choice of a commander with independent power, you have the bit in your mouths; but if you assign him a body-guard, and permit him to mount into the saddle, you will become, from that moment forth, the slaves of Phalaris.'
When the Athenians, with the ingratitude which sometimes blinds a whole people to the merits of their best friends, would have betrayed Demosthenes into the hands of Philip, King of Macedonia, the orator, as watch-dog of the State,[49] brought them to a better frame of mind by a recital of The Wolves and the Sheep. 'Once on a time, the wolves sent an embassy to the sheep, desiring that there might be peace between them for the time to come. "Why," said they, "should we be for ever waging this deadly strife? Those wicked dogs are the cause of it all; they are incessantly barking at us and provoking us; send them away, and there will no longer be any obstacle to our eternal friendship and peace." The silly sheep listened; the dogs were dismissed, and the flock, thus deprived of their best protectors, became an easy prey to their treacherous enemy.'
On another occasion, when the populace were wrangling and disputing on matters of comparatively small moment whilst neglecting more important concerns, the same orator warned them of the danger they were in of losing the substance in fighting for the shadow. 'A youth,' said he, 'one hot summer day, hired an ass to carry him from Athens to Megara. At mid-day the heat of the sun was so intense that he dismounted, and sat down to repose himself in the shadow of the ass. The driver of the ass thereupon disputed with him, declaring that he had a better right to the shade than the other. "What!" said the youth, "did I not hire the ass for the whole journey?" "Yes," replied the other, "you hired the ass, but not the ass's shadow." While they were wrangling and fighting for the place, the ass took to his heels and ran away.'
FOOTNOTES:
[42] 'Rhetoric,' book ii., chap. xx.
[43] 'A variant of it, or something very like it, was discovered twelve years ago by M. Maspero in a fragmentary papyrus, which he dates about the twentieth dynasty (circa 1250 B.C.).'—Jacobs: 'History of the Æsopic Fable,' p. 82.
[44] Act I., Scene i.
[45] Judges ix. 8-15.