Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
349. THE FROG AND THE OX
Perry 376 (Phaedrus
1.24)
A poor man perishes when he tries to imitate rich and powerful people.
There was once a frog who noticed an ox standing in the meadow. The frog
was seized by a jealous desire to equal the ox in size so she puffed herself
up, inflating her wrinkled skin. She then asked her children if she was
now bigger than the ox. They said that she was not. Once again she filled
herself full of air, straining even harder than before, and asked her
children which of the two of them was bigger. 'The ox is bigger,' said
her children. The frog was finally so indignant that she tried even harder
to puff herself up, but her body exploded and she fell down dead.
Note: Another version of this story (Babrius
28) begins with the ox stepping on one of the little frogs, crushing
it underfoot, which is what brings the ox to the frog's attention.
 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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