Aesop Fables

The Stag and His Reflection

Aesop Fables

Fidy Says

The Stag and His Reflection

One day, a stag was drinking from a crystal clear spring.

He saw himself clearly reflected in the still water.

He admired his magnificent antlers, the way they arched and curved. He loved how powerful they made him look.

But then he looked at his legs. He hated how thin and spindly they looked. He despised the way they looked like stilts with knobbly bits.

“How is it”, he sighed, “that I have such a glorious par of antlers, but am cursed with such ugly, useless legs?”

Just then, he heard a pack of wolves howling nearby.

They had picked up his scent and were closing in.

He raced off, with his legs taking him further and further out of reach of the wolves.

But just as he thought he had escaped into the safety of the forest, his broad antlers caught in the branches of a tree.

Pretty soon, he was surrounded by the wolves, unable to escape.

It was at that point that the stag realised the legs of which he was so ashamed, were in fact his greatest asset. They would have saved him if it weren’t for the useless ornaments on his head.

Moral: We often think too highly of the ornamental and despise the useful

posted in Deer | No Suggested Morals Yet

The Sick Stag

A sick Stag lay down in a quiet corner of its pasture-ground. His companions came in great numbers to inquire after his health, and each one helped himself to a share of the food which had been placed for his use. Pretty soon, the Stag died, not from his sickness, but from the failure of the means of living.

Moral: Evil companions bring more hurt than profit.

posted in Deer | No Suggested Morals Yet

The Fawn and His Mother

A young Fawn once said to his Mother, “You are larger than a dog, and swifter, and more used to running, and you have your horns as a defense; why, then, O Mother, do the hounds frighten you so?”

She smiled, and said: “I know full well, my son, that all you say is true. I have the advantages you mention, but when I hear even the bark of a single dog I feel ready to faint, and fly away as fast as I can.”

Moral: No arguments will give courage to the coward.

posted in Deer | 3 Suggested Morals

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