The calamities that befall the hapless creatures of Aesop’s Fables! The fox can’t reach his grapes, then gets attacked by biting flies, and loses his tail in a trap. And things don’t go much better for the hare, who is chased relentlessly by a hound, barely escaping with his life—only to be beaten in a race by a lowly tortoise. Misfortune turns to mayhem when a wolf is killed by his sweetheart’s father, a sheepdog preys on his own flock, and the mouse and his friend the frog are eaten by a hawk. On the brighter side, a tiny ant saves her new friend the dove from a hunter’s arrow, a bat persuades two different weasels not to eat her, and a kid goat uses his wits to escape from the jaws of a hungry wolf.
Treachery is everywhere. A fox proclaims peace among all creatures in order to lure a cock from a tree; one crow cheats another out of his dinner; a lion pretends to be a doctor in order to trap a horse. Then, there’s the wolf who dresses in sheep’s clothing to ravage a flock from the inside—and the moral of the story is . . .
For nearly three thousand years, Aesop’s Fables have amused people of all ages as they provide commonsense lessons in the conduct of everyday life. The colorful characters and brief tales, by turns amusing and frightening, deliver a how-to course in applied moral philosophy.
