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

366. THE TWO HYENAS
Perry 243 (Chambry 340 *)

They say that the hyena has a double nature: for a period of time the hyena is male, and then later on she is female. The story goes that when a male hyena was treating a female badly, she said to him, 'Listen here: remember how things used to be, and don't forget that I will be a male hyena the next time around!'
The fable is a lesson for someone who is temporarily in a position of authority: people who have been judged in the past can later on be in a position to judge their former teachers.


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.