Life Lessons from 20 Less Popular Fables of Æsop
Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor
1. Mercury & the Woodman - Honesty is the best policy.
A poor Woodman was cutting down a tree near the edge of a deep pool in the forest. It was late in the day and the Woodman was tired. He had been working since sunrise and his strokes were not so sure as they had been early that morning. Thus it happened that the axe slipped and flew out of his hands into the pool.
The Woodman was in despair. The axe was all he possessed with which to make a living, and he had not money enough to buy a new one. As he stood wringing his hands and weeping, the god Mercury suddenly appeared and asked what the trouble was. The Woodman told what had happened, and straightway the kind Mercury dived into the pool. When he came up again he held a wonderful golden axe.
"Is this your axe?" Mercury asked the Woodman.
"No," answered the honest Woodman, "that is not my axe."
Mercury laid the golden axe on the bank and sprang back into the pool. This time he brought up an axe of silver, but the Woodman declared again that his axe was just an ordinary one with a wooden handle.
Mercury dived down for the third time, and when he came up again he had the very axe that had been lost.
The poor Woodman was very glad that his axe had been found and could not thank the kind god enough. Mercury was greatly pleased with the Woodman's honesty.
"I admire your honesty," he said, "and as a reward you may have all three axes, the gold and the silver as well as your own."
The happy Woodman returned to his home with his treasures, and soon the story of his good fortune was known to everybody in the village. Now there were several Woodmen in the village who believed that they could easily win the same good fortune. They hurried out into the woods, one here, one there, and hiding their axes in the bushes, pretended they had lost them. Then they wept and wailed and called on Mercury to help them.
And indeed, Mercury did appear, first to this one, then to that. To each one he showed an axe of gold, and each one eagerly claimed it to be the one he had lost. But Mercury did not give them the golden axe. Oh no! Instead he gave them each a hard whack over the head with it and sent them home. And when they returned next day to look for their own axes, they were nowhere to be found. ~
3. The Fox and the Crow – There is hardly any man living that may not be wrought upon more or less by flattery
4. An Ass, an Ape and a Mole; The Hares and the Frogs – These two fables tell us that we cannot contend with the Orders and Decrees of Providence.
6. The Horse and an Ass – This fable shows the folly and the fate of pride and arrogance.
7. An Husbandman and Stork – Our fortune and reputation require us to keep good company.
8. A Father and his Sons – The breach of unity puts the world in a state of war.
9. The Sick Father and his Children – Good counsel is the best legacy a father can leave
to a child.
10. A Peacock and a Crane – There cannot be a greater sign of a weak mind than a
person’s valuing himself on a gaudy outside.
11. The Stag Looking into the Water – We should examine things deliberately,
and candidly consider their real usefulness before we place our esteem on them.
12. The Gnat and a Bee – Industry ought to be inculcated in the minds of children.
13. A Swallow and a Stork – A wise man will not undertake anything without means answerable to the end.
14. The Satyr and the Traveler – There is no use conversing with any man that carries two faces under one hood.
15. The Eagle, the Cat and the Sow – There can be no peace in any state or family where whisperers and tale bearers are encouraged.
16. The Two Frogs – We ought never to change our situation in life, without duly considering the consequences of such a change.
17. The Discontented Ass – Here is a beautiful verse written about this fable
Who lacks the pleasures of a tranquil mind,Will something wrong in every station find;His mind unsteady, and on changes bent,Is always shifting, yet it is ne’er content.
18. The Fox and the Crow
Never believe flatterers.
19. The Kites and the Swans. The desire for imaginary benefits often involves the loss of present blessings.
And here is a shade of mythology in Aesop in these two fables:
Hercules and the Carter
Prayers and wishes amount to nothing: We must put forth our own honest endeavors to obtain success and the assistance of heaven; and Mercury and the Woodman – Honesty is the best policy.
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In comparison, this is perhaps the most popular fable of Aesop. The Ant and the Grasshopper – “Save for the rainy day.” Action and industry of the wise and a good man, and nothing is so much to be despised as slothfulness.
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Written by a former Greek slave, in the late to mid-6th century BCE, Aesop's Fables are the world's best known collection of morality tales. The fables, numbering 725, were originally told from person-to-person as much for entertainment purposes but largely as a means for relaying or teaching a moral or lesson.
Aesop (/ˈiːsɒp/ EE-sop or /ˈeɪsɒp/ AY-sop; Greek: Αἴσωπος, Aísōpos; c. 620–564 BCE; formerly rendered as Æsop) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables Internet
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