Fables of Aesop, The | Annotated Tale

COMPLETE! Entered into SurLaLune Database in September 2018 with all known ATU Classifications. Aesop Fables have Perry classification numbers which have been included in the End Notes to each of the tales. They were also used in the ATU field when no ATU classification was available for a fable. Note that Aesop as an author and Greece as the geographic location for these fables are loose categorizations due to the murky nature of Aesop's Fables in general. Read the Introductory materials to this collection to learn more. For convenience, Aesop and Greece have been used in the classifications for convenience despite the inaccuracies involved.



Avaricious and Envious

TWO neighbours came before Jupiter and prayed him to grant their hearts’ desire. Now the one was full of avarice, and the other eaten up with envy. So to punish them both, Jupiter granted that each might have whatever he wished for himself, but only on condition that his neighbour had twice as much. The Avaricious man prayed to have a room full of gold. No sooner said than done; but all his joy was turned to grief when he found that his neighbour had two rooms full of the precious metal. Then came the turn of the Envious man, who could not bear to think that his neighbour had any joy at all. So he prayed that he might have one of his own eyes put out, by which means his companion would become totally blind.

Vices are their own punishment.

Notes

(Av. xvii.)

Avian 22. Probably Indian, occurring in the Panchatantra. It has been recovered among the Indian folk of to-day by Major Temple in his delightful Wide Awake Stories, p. 215; very popular in the Middle Ages, occurring as a fabliau, and used in the Monks' sermons. (See the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Crane, 196.) Hans Sachs used it, and Gower, Conf. Amani. ii. 2. Chamisso made it the basis of his tale Abdullah.

SurLaLune Note

Perry 580

Bibliographic Information

Tale Title: Avaricious and Envious
Tale Author/Editor: Aesop
Book Title: Fables of Aesop, The
Book Author/Editor: Aesop & Jacobs, Joseph
Publisher: Macmillan & Co.
Publication City: London
Year of Publication: 1902
Country of Origin: Greece
Classification: Perry 580








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