Phoebus and Boreas
Phöbus and Boreas (French Phébus et Borée ) is the third fable in the sixth book of the collection of fables Fables Choisies, Mises En Vers by the French poet Jean de La Fontaine .
La Fontaine often used narratives instead of arguments . The moral of this fable says: In order to bend others to your will, it is better to adapt your demands to the needs of others. The argument here is that of the carrot and the stick , which means: seduction is more effective than aggression.
Once upon a time, the wind god Boreas and the sun god Phoebus (also called Helios ) saw a wanderer on his travels who had put on warm clothes as a precaution. The two gods made a wager as to which of them could use his strength to make the wanderer take off his clothes. The wind came first and blew very hard to tear the hiker's clothes off, which, however, caused him to wrap his coat more tightly around himself. Then the sun came out, and by its warming rays alone it made the man voluntarily take off his clothes - it didn't even have to get excessively hot.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean de La Fontaine: Phoebus Et Borée. In: Fables Choisies, Mises En Vers. Pp. 96-98 , accessed on March 21, 2020 (French).
- ^ Seymour Benjamin Chatman : Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film . Cornell University Press, 1990, ISBN 978-0-8014-9736-0 , pp. 11–12 (English, google.de [accessed on March 21, 2020]).
- ^ A b Jean de La Fontaine, Ernst Dohm (translator): Lafontaine's fables. Pp. 262–264 , accessed March 21, 2020 .