Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
47. THE STAG, THE HORSE AND THE MAN
Perry 269 (Aristotle,
Rhetoric 1393b)
There was a horse who was the sole owner of a meadow. Then a stag came
and wreaked havoc in the meadow. The horse wanted to get revenge, so he
asked a certain man if he would help him carry out a vendetta against
the stag. The man agreed, provided that the horse took the bit in his
mouth so that the man could ride him, wielding his javelin. The horse
consented, and the man climbed on his back but instead of getting his
revenge, the horse simply became a slave to the man.
Note: In some versions of this story, it is a boar, not a stag, who
provokes the horse's reckless anger (e.g., Phaedrus
4.4). There is an interesting version of this story in a fragment
of the Greek historian Conon (cited in van Dijk 7T3), and the fable
is also found in Horace,
Epistles 1.10.34 ff.
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.
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