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

231. THE DOGS AND THE LION SKIN
Perry 406 (Syntipas 19)

Some dogs found a lion's skin and were tearing it to shreds, when a fox saw them and said, 'If that lion were still among the living, you would see that his claws are stronger than your teeth!'
This fable is for people who attack a man of renown when he has fallen from his position of power and glory.

Note: Compare the Biblical proverb, 'A living dog is better than a dead lion' (Ecclesiastes 9:4).

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.