The Dog and the Wolf
The Dog and the Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 346 in the Perry Index.[1] It has been popular since antiquity as an object lesson of how freedom should not be exchanged for comfort or financial gain. An alternative fable with the same moral concerning different animals is less well known.
Freedom is sweet
A famished wolf meets a well-fed dog and compliments him on his sleek appearance. The dog describes his life of ease and invites the wolf to join him. As they go on their way, the wolf asks why the fur about the dog's neck is worn away. He replies that it is merely caused by the collar he has to wear at home. The wolf then leaves him, declaring that a full belly is a poor price to pay for liberty.
That the fable dates from before Aesop's time is suggested by a single line surviving from a poem by Archilochos in which the question is asked 'what has caused the scruff of his neck to become so worn'.[2] It is conjectured that this refers to some early version of the fable, which is well attested in later Greek sources, including the collection of Babrius, as well as in the Latin collection of Phaedrus. The fable was also well known in the Middle Ages, was included in William Caxton's collection, and was made the subject of a Neo-Latin poem by Hieronymus Osius.[3] In William Somervile's retelling, the moral is lengthened into a panegyric of Britain's sturdy independence.[4] The "application" in Thomas Bewick's The Fables of Aesop (1818), however, observes more cautiously that "liberty in a state of society does not consist in doing whatsoever we please" and therefore "a certain portion of individual liberty must be given up for the good of the whole".[5]
The story was also made the subject of one of La Fontaine's Fables (Le loup et le chien, I.5), in which Master Wolf, on learning the forfeit necessary, "took to its heels and is running yet".[6] In modern times the text has been set for piano and high voice by the French composer Isabelle Aboulker.[7]
The wild animal and the beast of burden
A fragmentary proverbial saying attributed to Ahiqar occurs in an Aramaic document dating from the 6th century BCE: A man one day said to the onager (wild ass), "Let me ride upon thee, and I will maintain thee ..." Said the wild ass, "Keep thy maintenance and thy fodder and let me not see thy riding."[8] Since the onager is an Asian animal, it suggests that this region may have been the origin of the alternative fable recorded as 183 in the Perry Index. In this the wild ass at first congratulates a grazing pack-animal's sleek condition but eventually is grateful for his own freedom after seeing the other being driven along beneath a load.[9] A later 'Christianised' version[10] is now numbered as the independent fable 411 in the Perry Index. There the onager jeers at a donkey, only to be eaten by a lion since it is not guarded by a human.[11]
References
- ^ Aesopica site
- ^ Gert-Jan van Dijk, Ainoi, logoi, mythoi Leiden NL, pp. 147–148
- ^ Phryx Aesopus Fable 58
- ^ Robert Anderson, The Poets of Great Britain, Vol. 8, pp. 514–515
- ^ "The Dog and the Wolf", pp. 287–288
- ^ Elizur Wright's translation
- ^ A performance on YouTube
- ^ Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Hendrickson 2010, Vol. 2, p. 507
- ^ Aesopica site
- ^ F.R.Adrados, History of the Graeco-Latin Fable III, p. 254
- ^ Aesopica site
External links
- Illustrations in books from the 15th–20th century.
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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