The Astrologer who Fell into a Well
"The Astrologer who Fell into a Well" is a fable based on a Greek anecdote concerning the pre-Socratic philosopher Thales of Miletus. It was one of several ancient jokes that were absorbed into Aesop's Fables and is now numbered 40 in the Perry Index.[1] During the scientific attack on astrology in the 16th–17th centuries, the story again became very popular.
The fable and its interpretation
The story of Thales falling into a well while gazing at the stars was originally recorded in Plato's Theaetetus (4th century BCE).[2] Other ancient tellings sometimes vary the person or the rescuer but regularly retain the rescuer's scoffing remark that it would be better to keep one's mind on the earth.[3] The Roman poet Ennius summed up the lesson to be learned from the story in the line Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat, caeli scrutantur plagas ("No one regards what is before his feet when searching out the regions of the sky") and was twice quoted by Cicero to this effect.[4]
Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) reports the story as follows in his commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics:
When Thales was leaving his house to look at the stars he fell into a ditch; while he was bewailing the fact an old woman remarked to him: "You, O Thales, cannot see what is at your feet and you expect to see what is in the heavens?"[5]
The anecdote was repeated as an amusing story in the English jest book Merry Tales and Quick Answers (1530). In this the philosopher
fell plumpe into a ditche over the eares. Wherefore an olde woman that he kepte in his house laughed and sayde to him in derision: O Thales, how shuldest thou have knowlege in hevenly thinges above, and knowest nat what is here benethe under thy feet?[6]
Meanwhile, Andrea Alciato was mounting a more serious attack on astrology in his Book of Emblems, the first of many editions of which appeared in 1531. In that first edition there was an illustration of the astrologer, head in air, about to trip over a block on the ground.[7] The accompanying Latin poem referred to the story of Icarus and later editions used instead an illustration of his fall from the sky. However, the emblem is titled "Against Astrologers" and the poem concludes with the warning 'Let the astrologer beware of predicting anything. For the imposter will fall headlong, so long as he flies above the stars.'[8] The English emblem compiler Geoffrey Whitney followed Alciato's lead in including the story and an equally fierce attack in his Choice of Emblemes (1586).[9] At much the same time, John Lyly's play, Gallathea (first performed in 1588) features a sub-plot involving a phony alchemist and a sham astronomer who, in gazing up at the stars, falls backward into a pond.
The Neo-Latin poet Gabriele Faerno also included the story of the stumbling astrologer in his collection Centum Fabulae (1554), but concluded with the more philosophical point, 'How can you understand the world without knowing yourself first?'[10] As with several others, it was from this source that Jean de la Fontaine included the plot among his Fables (II.13). His poem is remarkable in confining the story to a mere four-line allusion before launching into a 45-line denunciation of astrology (with a side-swipe at alchemy too).[11] But the battle against superstition had been won by the time that Charles Denis included a mere digest of La Fontaine's poem in his Select Fables (1754). His conclusion is that speculation about the future is idle; how many folk, he asks,
Let, for want of due repair,
A real house fall down,
To build a castle in the air?[12]
Samuel Croxall is even more curt in his Fables of Aesop (1732). The moral of the tale, he concludes, is "mind your own business".[13]
References
- ^ "The Astronomer and the Tracian Woman". mythfolklore.net.
- ^ "Plato, Theaetetus, section 174a". tufts.edu.
- ^ Andrados F. R., History of the Graeco-Latin Fable vol. 3, Brill 2003, pp. 57–58
- ^ "Cicero: de Re Publica I". thelatinlibrary.com.
- ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1993). Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Litzinger, C.I. Notre Dame, IN: Dumb Ox Books. p. 378. ISBN 1-883357-51-9.
- ^ Tales (1831). "The Hundred merry tales: or Shakspeare's jest book. [on large paper, cm.17]". google.co.uk.
- ^ Memorial web edition
- ^ "Alciato Emblem 104 (English)". mun.ca.
- ^ "Whitney 28". mun.ca.
- ^ Faerno, Gabriello (1743). "Imaginibus in aes incisis, notisque illustrata. Studio Othonis Vaeni ..." google.co.uk.
- ^ Laura Gibbs (9 September 2010). "Bestiaria Latina: English Aesop". englishaesop.blogspot.co.uk.
- ^ Denis, Charles (1754). "Select fables". google.co.uk.
- ^ Aesop (March 2003). Fables of Aesop. Kessinger. ISBN 9780766151666.
External links
- Works related to The Astronomer at Wikisource
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Fables
- The Ant and the Grasshopper
- The Ass and his Masters
- The Ass and the Pig
- The Ass Carrying an Image
- The Ass in the Lion's Skin
- The Astrologer who Fell into a Well
- The Bear and the Travelers
- The Belly and the Members
- The Bird-catcher and the Blackbird
- The Bird in Borrowed Feathers
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
- The Cat and the Mice
- The Cock and the Jewel
- The Cock, the Dog and the Fox
- The Crow and the Pitcher
- The Crow and the Snake
- The Deer without a Heart
- The Dog and Its Reflection
- The Dog and the Wolf
- The Dove and the Ant
- The Eagle and the Fox
- The Farmer and the Stork
- The Farmer and the Viper
- The Fir and the Bramble
- The Fisherman and the Little Fish
- The Fowler and the Snake
- The Fox and the Crow
- The Fox and the Grapes
- The Fox and the Lion
- The Fox and the Mask
- The Fox and the Sick Lion
- The Fox and the Stork
- The Fox and the Weasel
- The Fox and the Woodman
- The Frog and the Ox
- The Frogs Who Desired a King
- The Goat and the Vine
- The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs
- The Honest Woodcutter
- The Horse and the Donkey
- The Horse that Lost its Liberty
- The Lion and the Mouse
- The Lion, the Bear and the Fox
- The Man with Two Mistresses
- The Mischievous Dog
- The Miser and his Gold
- The Moon and her Mother
- The Mountain in Labour
- The Mouse and the Oyster
- The North Wind and the Sun
- The Oak and the Reed
- The Old Man and Death
- The Old Woman and the Doctor
- The Rose and the Amaranth
- The Satyr and the Traveller
- The Sick Kite
- The Snake and the Crab
- The Snake in the Thorn Bush
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- Town Mouse and Country Mouse
- The Travellers and the Plane Tree
- The Trees and the Bramble
- The Two Pots
- The Walnut Tree
- Washing the Ethiopian White
- The Weasel and Aphrodite
- The Wolf and the Crane
- The Wolf and the Lamb
- The Woodcutter and the Trees
- The Young Man and the Swallow
- An ass eating thistles
- The Bear and the Gardener
- Belling the Cat (also known as The Mice in Council)
- The Blind Man and the Lame
- The Boy and the Filberts
- Chanticleer and the Fox
- The Dog in the Manger
- The drowned woman and her husband
- The Elm and the Vine
- The Fox and the Cat
- The Gourd and the Palm-tree
- The Hawk and the Nightingale
- The miller, his son and the donkey
- The Monkey and the Cat
- The Priest and the Wolf
- The Scorpion and the Frog
- The Shepherd and the Lion
adaptations
- Aesop's Film Fables
- The Grasshopper and the Ants
adaptations
- Demetrius of Phalerum
- Phaedrus
- Babrius
- Avianus
- Dositheus Magister
- Alexander Neckam
- Adémar de Chabannes
- Odo of Cheriton
- John Lydgate
- Kawanabe Kyōsai
- Laurentius Abstemius
- Roger L'Estrange
- Gabriele Faerno
- Hieronymus Osius
- Marie de France
- Robert Henryson
- Jean de La Fontaine
- Ivan Krylov
- Nicolas Trigault
- Robert Thom
- Zhou Zuoren