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

43. THE EAGLE AND THE ARROW
Perry 276 (Aphthonius 32)

A story about an archer, showing that it is bitter to be betrayed by one of your own.
An archer aimed at an eagle and let loose an arrow. The eagle was struck and as he turned and looked at the shaft which was tipped with his own feathers, he said, 'Many are betrayed by the very things that they themselves have wrought.'

Note: The proverbial motif of the eagle shot by his own feathers is also found in Aristophanes, Birds 808. For another fable about birds shot down with their own feathers, see Fable 488.


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.