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Aesop's Fables: Steinhowel

6.6. De homine et ligneo deo
(Perry 285)

[See an illustration from a 1501 edition.]

Homo nequam, si quando prodest, id non efficit nisi coactus. De hoc audi fabulam. Homo quidam deum ligneum domi habens eum oravit, ut boni quippiam sibi tribueret, sed quanto magis orabat, eo res domi angustior erat. Demum ille concitus ira deum cruribus capit et caput parieti percutit illi. Exciso igitur capite multum auri exiliit, quod homo colligens ait: Perversus nimium es atque perfidus, qui dum in honore te habui, nihil equidem profuisti, percussus vero ac verberatus boni plurimum contulisti! Fabula significat, quod homo nequam si quando prodest, id efficit vi coactus.


Steinhowels Asop, ed. Hermann Osterley (1873). Some of these fables have digitized text; others have only page images. The digital page images are from Google Books. You can also consult the illustrated 1501 edition of Steinhowel's Aesop. Note that Book 7 contains poems from Avianus, so there is no text or page image for the fables in Book 7.