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

452. THE LIZARD AND THE SNAKE
Perry 552 (Phaedrus App. 25)

A lizard happened to be looking the other way when a snake grabbed her from behind. The snake then opened his gaping maw to swallow the lizard but the lizard grabbed a little twig that was lying near by and blocked the snake's greedy mouth with this clever obstacle, holding the twig turned firmly sideways between her teeth. The snake thus failed to capture his quarry and the lizard got away.

Note: There is a promythium appended to the fable in Perotti's Appendix: 'Where the skin of the lion doesn't fit, one must wear the fox's habit; in other words, where force is not enough, cleverness must be used instead.' This saying was proverbial in Greek (e.g., Plutarch, Life of Lysander 7).

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.