Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
584. THE BALD MAN AND HIS TWO MISTRESSES
Perry 31 (Phaedrus
2.2)
There are all kinds of stories showing us how women habitually strip
a man of his possessions, regardless of whether they are in love with
him or he with them.
There was a woman who had a middle-aged man as her lover and although
she was no spring chicken herself, she concealed her age with exquisite
grace. There was also a beautiful young girl who had caught the man's
fancy. Both women wanted to seem a suitable partner for him, so they began
plucking out his hair in turn. The man imagined that his looks were being
improved by their attentions but in the end he went bald, since the young
girl plucked out every one of his gray hairs, while the older woman plucked
out all the black ones.
Note: See also the first-century B.C.E. historian Diodorus Siculus,
Library of History 33.7. L'Estrange
comments: ' 'Tis a much harder Thing to please two Wives, than two Masters;
and he's a bold Man that offers at it.'
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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