Aesop for Tuesday, January 22

Aesop knew what it was like to be a slave. He had once had two masters. But now

he was a free man. "One of the privileges of a freedman in the ancient republics of Greece, was the permission to take an active interest in public affairs; and Aesop,

like the philosophers Phaedo, Menippus, and Epictetus, in later times,

raised himself from the indignity of a servile condition to a position of high renown.

In his desire alike to instruct and to be instructed, he travelled through many

countries, and among others came to Sardis, the capital of the famous king of Lydia,

 the great patron, in that day, of learning and of learned men. He met at the

court of Croesus with Solon, Thales, and other sages, and is related so to have

pleased his royal master, by the part he took in the conversations held with

these philosophers, that he applied to him an expression which has since passed

into a proverb, 'The Phrygian has spoken better than all.' "

Source: About.com ancient history

The Wolf and the Lamb

 

A hungry wolf one day saw a lamb drinking at a stream below him and wished to find some excuse for eating her.

"What do you mean by muddling the water I am going to drink?" fiercely said he to the lamb.

"Pray forgive me," meekly answered the lamb; "but as the stream runs from you towards me, you will see that I am not to blame."

"That's all very well," said the wolf; "but you know you spoke ill of me behind my back a year ago."

"Nay, believe me," replied the lamb, "I was not then born."

"It must have been your brother, then" growled the wolf.

"It cannot have been for I never had any," answered the lamb.

"I know it was one of your lot," rejoined the wolf, "so make no more such idle excuses."

He then seized the poor lamb, carried her off to the woods, and ate her.
 

The wicked always finds an excuse for his wrong-doing.

Part 1: The Fables of Aesop
Part 2: Aesop for Thursday, January 17
Part 3: Aesop for Friday, January 18
Part 4: Aesop for Monday, January 21