Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
266. THE GOAT AND HIS REFLECTION
Perry 695 (Romulus
Mon. 32)
It often happens that the weak and the poor try to rebel against the
high and mighty. Listen to a fable about such an event.
A wolf was chasing the billy goat of the herd, intending to capture him.
The goat climbed up on a tall cliff where he was safe, so the wolf besieged
the goat from the bottom of the cliff. After two or three days, when the
wolf had grown hungry and the goat had grown thirsty, they each went away:
the wolf left first in order to look for food and then the goat went away
to find a drink of water. When he had quenched his thirst, the goat noticed
his reflection in the water and said, 'Oh what fine legs I have and what
a beautiful beard and what great horns! Just let that wolf try to make
me run away: this time I will defend myself! I will not let that wolf
have any power over me!' Behind the goat's back, the wolf had been listening
in silence to every word the goat said. Then, as he plunged his teeth
deep into the goat's flank, the wolf asked, 'What is this you are saying,
brother goat?' The goat, when he realized he was trapped, said, 'O my
lord wolf, I admit my mistake and beg your forgiveness! After a goat has
something to drink, he says things he shouldn't.' But the wolf showed
no mercy and devoured the goat.
The fable warns us that weak and poor people should not try to rebel
against the high and mighty.
 Source:
Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura
Gibbs.
Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New
cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.
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