About the fox and the raven
The fox and the raven is a fable that is attributed to the Greek poet Aesop . Phaedrus composed a Latin version ( Vulpes et corvus , Phaedrus, Fables 1, 13) in the iambic senar .
action
A raven found a piece of cheese and was retreating onto a branch to eat it when a fox came by. The fox, who would like to have the cheese himself, flatters the raven, calls him beautiful and the king of birds. Finally the fox asks the raven to sing for him.
Carelessly made by the flattery of the fox, the raven begins to sing. When it opens its beak, the cheese falls out and the fox catches it and eats it. Then he laughs and says: beware of flatterers!
interpretation
This fable is one of the best known of the Aesopian fables and is generally understood as a warning against flatterers; however, this is by no means the only interpretation. Odo von Cheriton gives the story a theological interpretation: virtue, i. e. the nourishment of the soul (i.e. the piece of cheese) loses who is seduced by the devil (i.e. the fox) into the pursuit of vain glory (symbolized by singing).
Cultural meaning
References to the fable can be found in numerous later European works of art and poetry.
For example, a representation of the fable appears in the border of the Bayeux Tapestry. It shows the moment when the raven opens its beak and the cheese falls out. It is the commentary on the scene that shows Harald Godwinson at a meal before his trip across the Canal, during which he is deep in a serious conversation with another man. Between them lies a circular object - in terms of shape and color it resembles the object that the raven falls out of its beak in the border border below. The scene is usually interpreted in such a way that Harald is talking about the succession to the English throne.
Jean de La Fontaine published a poetic adaptation of the fable. On this basis, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote an ironic modification of the topic under the title The Raven and the Fox in the 18th century , in which the flattery is not rewarded but punished: Since the piece of meat dropped by the raven was poisoned, the Fuchs eventually die in agony from it.
The moral of the fox and the raven is told to this day. There is an episode of Sesame Street in which this fable is implemented.
supporting documents
literature
- August Hausrath: Aesopian fables . Tusculum series. Leipzig 1970. Greek-German.
swell
- ↑ http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/odo/70.htm Odo's interpretation (lat.)
- ↑ Egon Wamers (ed.): The last Vikings - The Bayeux Tapestry and archeology. Archaeological Museum Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-88270-506-5 , p. 50 and p. 51