Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

1. DEMADES AND THE ATHENIANS 

Perry 63 (Chambry 96)

The orator Demades was trying to address his Athenian audience. When he failed to get their attention, he asked if he might tell them an Aesop's fable. The audience agreed, so Demades began his story. 'The goddess Demeter, a swallow, and an eel were walking
together down the road. When they reached a river, the swallow flew up in the air and the eel jumped into the water.' Demades then fell silent. The audience asked, 'And what about the goddess Demeter?' 'As for Demeter,' Demades replied, 'she is angry at all of you for preferring Aesop's fables to politics!'
So it is that foolish people disregard important business in favour of frivolities.

Note : Demades (d. 319 B.C.E.) was an Athenian orator and diplomat. Demeter was a Greek agricultural goddess and was of special importance to the Athenians because of the cult of the Eleusinian Mysteries (see Fable 559).

2. DEMOSTHENES AND THE ATHENIANS 

Perry 460 (pseudo-Plutarch, Lives of the Ten Orators 848a)

They say that during an assembly in Athens, Demosthenes was prevented from making his speech, so he told the audience he wanted to say just a few words. When the audience had fallen silent, Demosthenes began his tale. 'It was summertime, and a young man had hired a donkey to take him from Athens to Megara. At midday, when the sun was blazing hot, the young man and the donkey's driver both wanted to sit in the donkey's shadow. They began to jostle one another, fighting for the spot in the shade. The driver maintained that the man had rented the donkey but not his shadow, while the young man claimed that he had rented both the donkey and all the rights thereto.' Having told this much of the story, Demosthenes then turned his back on the audience and began to walk away. The Athenians shouted at him to stop and begged him to finish the story. 'Indeed!' said Demosthenes. 'You want to hear all about the donkey's shadow, but you refuse to pay attention when someone talks to you about serious matters!'

Note: Demosthenes (d. 322 B.C.E.) was a renowned orator of fourth-century Athens. Megara is a Greek city on the Saronic Gulf to the west of Athens. The 'donkey's shadow' was an ancient cliche for something of trivial importance (see, for example, Plato, Phaedrus 260c and Aristophanes, Wasps 191).

3. THE WOLF, THE DOG AND THE COLLAR 

Perry 346 (Babrius 100)

A comfortably plump dog happened to run into a wolf. The wolf asked the dog where he had been finding enough food to get so big and fat. 'It is a man,' said the dog, 'who gives me all this food to eat.' The wolf then asked him, 'And what about that bare spot there on your neck?' The dog replied, 'My skin has been rubbed bare by the iron collar which my master forged and placed upon my neck.' The wolf then jeered at the dog and said, 'Keep your luxury to yourself then! I don't want anything to do with it, if my neck will have to chafe against a chain of iron!'

Note: Caxton (3.15) adds this epimythium: 'Therfore there is no rychesse gretter than lyberte / For lyberte is better than alle the gold of the world.'

4. THE ONAGER, THE DONKEY AND THE DRIVER 

Perry 183 (Chambry 264)

An onager saw a donkey standing in the sunshine. The onager approached the donkey and congratulated him on his good physical condition and excellent diet. Later on, the onager saw that same donkey bearing a load on his back and being harried by a driver who was beating the donkey from behind with a club. The onager then declared, 'Well, I am certainly not going to admire your good fortune any longer, seeing as you pay such a high price for your prosperity!'

Note: The onager, or wild ass, once roamed the plains of central Asia. The word onager is from the Greek onos, 'donkey', and agros, 'field'.

5. THE DONKEY, THE ONAGER AND THE LION 

Perry 411 (Syntipas 30)

An onager saw a donkey labouring under a heavy load and he made fun of the donkey's enslavement. 'Lucky me!' said the onager. 'I am free from bondage and do not have to work for anyone else, since I have grass near at hand on the hillsides, while you rely on someone else to feed you, forever oppressed by slavery and its blows!' At that very moment a lion happened to appear on the scene. He did not come near the donkey since the donkey's driver was standing beside him. The onager, however, was all alone, so the lion attacked and devoured him.
The story shows that people who are obstinate and insubordinate come to a bad end because they get carried away by their own sense of stubbornness and refuse to ask others for assistance.