Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
27. JUPITER AND THE FROGS
Perry 44 (Ademar
21)
While the frogs were hopping about in the freedom of their pond they
began shouting to Jupiter that they wanted a king who could hold their
dissolute habits in check. Jupiter laughed and bestowed on the frogs a
small piece of wood which he dropped all of a sudden into their pond.
As the wood splashed lightly into the water, it terrified the timid frogs.
They plunged into the mud and hid there a long time until one frog happened
to raise her head cautiously up out of the water. After studying the king,
she summoned the other frogs. Putting aside their fear, the frogs all
raced over and began jumping on the piece of wood, rudely making fun of
it. When the frogs had showered their king with shame and scorn, they
asked Jupiter to send them another one. Jupiter was angry that they had
made fun of the king he had given them, so he sent them a water-snake,
who killed the frogs one by one with her piercing sting. As the water-snake
was happily eating her fill, the useless creatures ran away, speechless
in their fright. They secretly sent a message to Jupiter through Mercury,
begging him to put a stop to the slaughter but Jupiter replied, 'Since
you rejected what was good in order to get something bad, you better put
up with it - or else something even worse might happen!'
Note: Jupiter
and Mercury
are the Roman names for Zeus and Hermes, respectively (see Fable
10 and its note).
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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