Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
600. THE LION, THE FOX AND THE DEER
Perry 336 (Babrius
95)
There was a lion who had fallen ill and was lying in a stony ravine,
his sluggish limbs stretched out upon the ground. A friendly fox kept
him company, and one day the lion said to her, 'I suppose you want me
to survive, so listen: I've got a craving for the deer who lives in that
dense thicket of pines there in the wilds of the forest. At the moment
I no longer have the strength to go hunting after deer myself, but if
you would agree to lay a trap with that honeyed speech of yours, the deer
could be within my grasp.' The sly fox went off and found the deer in
the wild woodlands, gambolling in a meadow of tender grass. The fox prostrated
herself before the deer and greeted her, saying that she had come to relay
some auspicious information. 'As you know,' the fox said, 'the lion is
my neighbour, but he is very sick and about to die, so he has been thinking
about who will be king of the beasts after he is gone. The boar is an
idiot, the bear is lazy, the leopard is impulsive, the tiger is a loner
who keeps to himself... but he thinks that the deer would make a most
worthy ruler, since she has an impressive appearance and lives a long
time. And the antlers of the deer can scare away all kinds of snakes,
why, the antlers of the deer are like trees, not at all like the horns
of a bull! Need I say more? You have been duly elected: you will rule
over the beasts of the hills. When that finally happens, O Mistress, remember
that it was the fox who was the first to inform you. That is why I came
here, and now good-bye, my dear. I need to hurry back to the lion so that
he won't be looking for me again; he relies on my advice in absolutely
everything. And I think it would be good if you also obeyed that venerable
old head. You need to come to his bedside and comfort him in his trouble.
Even little things can sway the thoughts of those who are in the last
hours of life; the souls of the dying can be seen in their eyes.' This
is what the sly fox said to the deer, and the deer's heart swelled at
the sound of those deceitful words. She came to the hollow cave of the
beast, with no idea of what lay in store for her. The lion recklessly
sprang up from his bed and launched a hasty attack, but he only managed
to slash the deer's ears with his pointed claws as the wretched creature
ran straight out the door and disappeared into the depths of the woods.
The fox wrung her hands in frustration, since her efforts had proved utterly
futile. As for the lion, he groaned and chewed at thin air, equally beset
by both hunger and despair. Once again he summoned the fox and asked her
to find yet another trick to use to catch the deer. The fox plumbed the
very depths of her cunning and then said, 'This is a difficult task indeed.
But nevertheless I will carry out your command!' The fox then set off
after the deer, keen as a hound on the trail, devising elaborate traps
and all kinds of mischief. Whenever she ran into a shepherd, the fox would
ask if he had happened to see a bleeding deer on the run. And when the
shepherd had indeed caught a glimpse of the deer, he would point the fox
in the right direction. She finally found the deer concealed in the shade,
where she had stopped to catch her breath. The fox stood and stared at
the deer, eyebrows raised, the very incarnation of shamelessness. A shiver
ran down the deer's spine and her legs quivered as she angrily said to
the fox, 'Oh you abominable creature! If you dare to come near me or utter
so much as a single word, you will live to regret it! Go find some other
simpletons that you can outfox; pick someone else to be king and put him
on the throne!' But the fox was undaunted and said to the deer, 'Can you
really be so mean spirited? So overcome by fear? So suspicious of your
friends? The lion only wanted what was good for you! In an attempt to
rouse you from your former idleness, he tugged at your ear, as a father
might do on his deathbed. He wanted to bestow on you every precept you
would need in order to take charge of such a kingdom, but you could not
even withstand the touch of his feeble hand! Instead, you violently turned
aside, inflicting a serious wound on yourself. As for the lion, at this
moment he is even more upset than you are. Now that he has found you to
be so untrustworthy and scatter-brained, he says that the wolf will be
appointed king. Alas alack, what a wicked master he will be! What shall
I do then? You are the one who has brought these evils upon all of us.
But come, you must be more brave in the future and not let yourself be
as easily frightened as some sheep from the flock. I swear these things
to you by all the leaves on the trees and by every spring of water: I
want to serve you and only you! There is nothing hostile about the lion's
behaviour; his heartfelt wish is to make you queen of all the animals!'
With these coaxing words, the fox persuaded the tawny deer to enter once
again into that very abode of death. As soon as the lion had the deer
trapped in the depths of his den, he enjoyed a full course meal, greedily
devouring the flesh of the deer, drinking the marrow from her bones and
feasting on her entrails. The fox, meanwhile, stood there waiting; after
having delivered the deer, she was craving a share in the spoils. She
stealthily grabbed the brains of the deer which had fallen to the ground
and gobbled them up: this, then, was the booty which that sly boots got
for her work. The lion, meanwhile, had made an inventory of all the deer's
parts, and the brains were nowhere to be found. He searched around his
couch and all over the house. Then the fox confounded the truth of the
matter and said, 'That deer had no brains, so don't waste your time looking
for them. What kind of brains do you expect from a creature who would
come not once but twice into the den of a lion?'
Note: Babrius has taken a traditional Aesopic joke about the heart
as a seat of intelligence (see the preceding two fables for similar
examples) and expanded the story at unprecedented length, anticipating
in many ways the later medieval beast epic. The belief about the power
of the deer's antlers to drive away snakes, as well as her long life,
were popular legends in Greece and Rome, although these details are
extraneous to the actual plot of this story. A story with the same plot
but different characters -- lion, jackal, and donkey -- comprises Book
4 of the Panchatantra.
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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