<< Home Page | Oxford (Gibbs) Index

Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

341. THE JACKDAW AND THE EAGLE
Perry 2 (Babrius 137)

When an eagle seized a sleek and glossy lamb from the flock and carried it off in his talons as a feast for his chicks, the jackdaw decided to do the same thing. Accordingly, he swooped down and clutched at a lamb but his claws got tangled in the wool on the lamb's back and he could not escape. The jackdaw said, 'It serves me right for being such a fool! Why should I, who am only a jackdaw, try to imitate eagles?'

Note: For a different ending to this fable, see Fable 342 (following).

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.