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

40. ZEUS AND THE OAK TREES
Perry 302 (Babrius 142)

Once upon a time the oak trees came to Zeus and lodged a complaint, 'O Zeus, founder of our species and father of all plant life, if it is our destiny to be chopped down, why did you even cause us to grow?' Zeus smiled and replied, 'It is you yourselves who supply the means of your destruction: if you didn't create all the handles, no farmer would have an axe in his house!'

Note: There is a similar Greek proverb: 'the ox supplies his own whip' (Erasmus, Adages 1.2.77).


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.