The Farmer and his Sons is a story of Greek origin that is included among Aesop's Fables and is listed as 42 in the Perry Index. [1] It illustrates both the value of hard work and the need to temper parental advice with practicality.
The Farmer and his Sons is a story of Greek origin that is included among Aesop's Fables and is listed as 42 in the Perry Index. [1] It illustrates both the value of hard work and the need to temper parental advice with practicality.
A farmer nearing death calls his sons to him in secret and tells them not to divide the family land since there is a treasure hidden somewhere on it. But afterwards, although they dig it over carefully, they find nothing. However, when the crops (or in some versions the vines) flourish profitably, they realise the valuable hidden meaning of his advice refers to hard work.
The fable is rare in dealing directly with the human situation, rather than through the intermediary of animals. Although it has long been accepted as one of Aesop's, and appeared as his in early European collections, the story has also been ascribed to the philosopher Socrates. [2] The Neo-Latin poets Gabriele Faerno and Hieronymus Osius both wrote poetic versions, as did Jean de la Fontaine in French. [3]
There is no consistency of titling. Greek sources make the father a farmer (Γεωργὸς), while Osius calls him a peasant (rusticus). Caxton's description is labourer, as is La Fontaine's, although the French laboureur has the meaning of an independent husbandman, the term used by Samuel Croxall. The nature of the ground cultivated differs as well. The 15th century illustrations in the Medici Manuscript [4] and in Heinrich Steinhowel's collection make it a vineyard, as it is also described in the poems by Faerno and Osius, but other versions are not always so specific.
The moral of the story appears pithily in La Fontaine's version as le travail est un trésor (work is wealth), as is also made explicit in the Greek (ὁ κάματος θησαυρός ἐστι) and in Faerno's Latin (thesaurus est labor). [5] English versions have been more roundabout and long-winded. Caxton prefaces the story with the opinion that "He that laboureth and werketh contynuelly maye not faylle to haue plente of goodes”. [6] Croxall prefaces his long application with, "Labour and Industry, well applied, seldom fail of finding a Treasure”, [7] while Thomas Bewick's edition contains the verse “Assiduous pains the swelling coffers fill”. [8] However, Bewick's main comment is on the value of the father’s advice and the craft by which he conveyed it. This also is what attracts the attention of Roger L'Estrange: “Good Counsel is the best Legacy a Father can leave to a Child”. [9]
The 15th century manuscript illustration already mentioned combines the sons gathered about their dying father's bed with a view of their toiling in the vineyard. Most subsequent textual treatments of the fable chose either one or the other theme, until the composite treatment in Benjamin Rabier's poster of 1906. [10] However, magic-realist painter Lukáš Kándl prefers to point towards the fable's moral in depicting plants breaking out of the ground, each sheathing a gold-coloured pearl. [11]
Several composers have set La Fontaine's version of the fable, Le laboureur et ses enfants. They include the four-part song by the Belgian harpist Felix Godefroid (1818-1897) [12] and other French examples by Théodore Schloesser (1866), Paul Blanquière (1892) and E. Levasseur (1906). [13] Two more, a setting for three children's voices by Henri Maréchal (Paris, 1900) and for four male voices by Jules Pajot, (Lyon, 1910), precede the more ambitious Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant (2006) by Vladimir Cosma, in which the fable is the final piece in a light-hearted interpretation for narrator and orchestra, in this case in the style of a pavane. [14] The fable is also included in Isabelle Aboulker's Les Fables Enchantées (2004). [15]
There have also been French dramatic treatments, including the three-act comédie rustique of 1935 by H. Frederic Pottecher (1905-2001) [16] and the 1936 one-act version by painter-playwright Henri Brochet (1898-1952). [17]
Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to modern times through a number of sources and continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic media.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom "to cry wolf", defined as "to give a false alarm" in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and glossed by the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning to make false claims, with the result that subsequent true claims are disbelieved.
The Miser and his Gold is one of Aesop's Fables that deals directly with human weaknesses, in this case the wrong use of possessions. Since this is a story dealing only with humans, it allows the point to be made directly through the medium of speech rather than be surmised from the situation. It is numbered 225 in the Perry Index.
The Dog and Its Reflection is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 133 in the Perry Index. The Greek language original was retold in Latin and in this way was spread across Europe, teaching the lesson to be contented with what one has and not to relinquish substance for shadow. There also exist Indian variants of the story. The morals at the end of the fable have provided both English and French with proverbs and the story has been applied to a variety of social situations.
The Farmer and the Stork is one of Aesop's Fables which appears in Greek in the collections of both Babrius and Aphthonius and has differed little in the telling over the centuries. The story relates how a farmer plants traps in his field to catch the cranes and geese that are stealing the seeds he has sown. When he checks the traps, he finds among the other birds a stork, who pleads to be spared because it is harmless and has taken no part in the theft. The farmer replies that since it has been caught in the company of thieves, it must suffer the same fate. The moral of the story, which is announced beforehand in the oldest texts, is that associating with bad companions will lead to bad consequences.
The Cock and the Jewel is a fable attributed to Aesop and is numbered 503 in the Perry Index. As a trope in literature, the fable is reminiscent of stories used in Zen such as the kōan. It presents, in effect, a riddle on relative values and is capable of different interpretations, depending on the point of view from which it is regarded.
The Fox and the Sick Lion is one of Aesop's Fables, well known from Classical times and numbered 142 in the Perry Index. There is also an Indian analogue. Interpretations of the story's meaning have differed widely in the course of two and a half millennia.
Speaking of The Snake and the Crab in Ancient Greece was the equivalent of the modern idiom, 'Pot calling the kettle black'. A fable attributed to Aesop was eventually created about the two creatures and later still yet another fable concerning a crab and its offspring was developed to make the same point.
The Crow or Raven and the Snake or Serpent is one of Aesop's Fables and numbered 128 in the Perry Index. Alternative Greek versions exist and two of these were adopted during the European Renaissance. The fable is not to be confused with the story of this title in the Panchatantra, which is completely different.
The Dog and the Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 346 in the Perry Index. It has been popular since antiquity as an object lesson of how freedom should not be exchanged for comfort or financial gain. An alternative fable with the same moral concerning different animals is less well known.
The Fox and the Weasel is a title used to cover a complex of fables in which a number of other animals figure in a story with the same basic situation involving the unfortunate effects of greed. Of Greek origin, it is counted as one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 24 in the Perry Index.
The Fox and the Woodman is a cautionary story against hypocrisy included among Aesop's Fables and is numbered 22 in the Perry Index. Although the same basic plot recurs, different versions have included a variety of participants.
The Ass and his Masters is a fable that has also gone by the alternative titles The ass and the gardener and Jupiter and the ass. Included among Aesop's Fables, it is numbered 179 in the Perry Index.
The Dove and the Ant is a story about the reward of compassionate behaviour. Included among Aesop's Fables, it is numbered 235 in the Perry Index.
The Old Man and Death is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 60 in the Perry Index. Because this was one of the comparatively rare fables featuring humans, it was the subject of many paintings, especially in France, where Jean de la Fontaine's adaptation had made it popular.
Hercules and the Wagoner or Hercules and the Carter is a fable credited to Aesop. It is associated with the proverb "God helps those who help themselves", variations on which are found in other ancient Greek authors.
The Ape and the Fox is a fable credited to Aesop and is numbered 81 in the Perry Index. However, the story goes back before Aesop’s time and an alternative variant may even be of Asian origin.
The Fisherman and his Flute appears among Aesop’s Fables and is numbered 11 in the Perry Index. Wide variations on the theme have existed over the centuries.
The Eagle and the Fox is a fable of friendship betrayed and avenged. Counted as one of Aesop’s Fables, it is numbered 1 in the Perry Index. The central situation concerns an eagle that seizes a fox’s cubs and bears them off to feed its young. There are then alternative endings to the story, in one of which the fox exacts restitution, while in the other it gains retribution for its injury.
The Fly and the Ant is one of Aesop’s Fables that appears in the form of a debate between the two insects. It is numbered 521 in the Perry Index.
Books illustration from the 15th to the 19th centuries
