 |
 |
Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)324. THE MONKEY AND THE DOLPHIN It is common to take Maltese dogs and pet monkeys on long sea voyages
in order to relieve the boredom of the passage. A man who was planning
to make such a voyage had brought his monkey along with him but when the
ship had reached Cape Sounion (which is a sea promontory near Athens),
they were met by a fierce winter storm. The ship was capsized and everyone
was thrown into the water. The monkey also started swimming and was spotted
by a dolphin, who thought the monkey was a man. The dolphin swam up under
the monkey and carried him through the water. When they were approaching
Piraeus, the Athenian harbor, the dolphin asked the monkey if he was originally
from Athens. The monkey said that he was, and that he happened to be from
an illustrious family. The dolphin then asked if he knew Piraeus. The
monkey thought that Piraeus must be a person's name, so he said that,
yes, Piraeus was a near and dear friend of his. The dolphin was infuriated
by the monkey's lying words, so he plunged the creature into the water
and killed him.  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.
|
