The Wolf Meets the Dog
(Phaed. 3.7)
Lupus ad Canem
dulcis sit libertas breviter .
macie lupus
forte ; dein, invicem
ut restiterunt, , “ sic, , nites?
aut fecisti ?
ego, qui sum longe fortior, pereo fame.”
canis simpliciter: “Eadem est condicio tibi,
praestare domino si officium potes.”
“Quod?” inquit ille. “Custos ut sis liminis,
a furibus tuearis et noctu domum.
adfertur ultro panis; de mensa sua
dat ossa dominus; frusta iactat ,
et quod fastidit quisque .
sic sine labore venter impletur meus.”
11 “Ego vero sum paratus: nunc patior nives
imbresque in silvis asperam vitam trahens.
quanto est mihi sub tecto vivere,
et otiosum largo satiari cibo!”
“Veni ergo mecum.” dum procedunt, aspicit
lupus a catena collum detritum cani.
“Unde hoc, amice?” “ est.” “Dic, , tamen.”
“Quia videor , alligant me interdiu,
luce ut quiescam, et vigilem nox cum venerit:
crepusculo solutus qua visum est vagor.”
“, abire si quo est animus, est ?”
“Non plane est” inquit. quae laudas, canis;
nolo, liber ut non sim .”
The Wolf Meets the Dog
How sweet liberty is, I shall summarily reveal.
A wolf, ground down by hungry poverty, happened upon a well-fed dog;
then, after they’d greeted one another in turn and
when they had come to a stand before one another, the wolf said:
“Do tell: how is it that you are in such splendid condition
or on what food have you gotten so large?
I, who am by far stronger, am wasting away with hunger.”
The dog said plainly: “That same situation is there for you,
if you are able to offer like service to a master.”
“What is that?” said the former. “That you be a guard for his threshold
and protect his house from thieves at night.
[It is thought that a line or more is here missing.]
Moreover, bread is brought to me; from his own table,
my master gives me bones; the family tosses scraps
and each person whatever bit he dislikes.
And so my stomach is filled without any effort.”
“Well, I’m certainly ready for that,” said the wolf, “at present, I endure snows
and rains as I live a tough life in the woods.
How much more agreeable is it for me to live under a roof,
and to be sated at my leisure with plentiful food.”
“Come with me then.” As they proceed,
the wolf notices the dog’s neck, worn by a chain.
“What’s the cause of this, friend?” asked the wolf. “It’s nothing,” he replied. “Tell me, please, all the same,” replied the wolf.
“Because I seem wild,” said the dog, “they keep me tied up during the day,
so that I stay quiet while it is light, and keep watch when night comes.
At dusk I wander about unbound, wherever seemed best to me.”
“Come now,” said the wolf, “if you want to go off somewhere, are you at liberty to do so?”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “Enjoy what you praise, dog,” replied the wolf,
“I do not even want to be a king, if that means I am not free to do as I please.”
From: The Aesopic Fables
Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabularum Aesopiarum
Phaedrus' corpus of five books is the first known collection of fables in antiquity meant to be read and enjoyed on its own literary merit. Previously, such volumes were primarily reference books for rhetorical use (see the Aisopeia of Demetrius of Phaleron, 4th C BCE; cf. Αἰσωπείων ἀ, Diog. Laert. 5.80; Phaedrus himself presumably made use of one such book, if not that of Demetrius). This work, like that of Babrius, was written in verse, perhaps as a way to set it apart from earlier collections that were designed to be mined for material and influence, and the meters no doubt added respect and literary elevation that prose could not. In this way, fable went from material with which to make literature to literature itself. Fables had, naturally, appeared before in literature, especially in collections of verse, but primarily as a vehicle through which to make some greater point. The pure book of literary fables seems to have started with Phaedrus.
The first three books of his fables were written and published under Tiberius, the final two later, probably in the author's old age (cf. Phaed. 5.10.10). Stylistically, the poet was a fan of brevitas and colloquial speech. His poems are written in iambic senarii, the meter of Roman comedy. The fables irregularly make use of promythia (a sort of introductory, topical/categorical statement) and epimythia (gnomic statements that summarize the moral of a story). Over time, Phaedrus produced more “original” stories that lack an obvious Aesopic inspiration; topics are not only bestial, but historical, mythical, anecdotal, and generically droll.
By: Phaedrus
(-15 - 50)
Phaedrus—or perhaps Phaeder—is the first author we know to have produced a published collection of Aesopic fables meant to be read one after another, purely for literary enjoyment. Not much can be said with certainty about his life or person. A testimony in the principle manuscript reports that he was a freedman of Augustus; everything else we can hope to ascertain about Phaedrus and his life comes from his own work. He was Greek speaking and claimed a Greek literary heritage (Phaed. 3 prologue). If the prologue to his third book can be taken at face-value, he was “all but born in a school” near the Pierian Mount. He published his first book under Tiberius (Phaed. 2.5) and was not successful during his own lifetime. In his writings he complains of endless poverty and an icy reception in Roman literary circles (he is not mentioned in our extant authors until Marital, 3.20.5). He was indicted by Sejanus (Phaed. 3 prologue 40ff). We don't know the precise nature of this suit, but the outcome seems to have been against the poet. Despite persecution, the self-proclaimed unpopular pauper wrote into his old-age, producing five books of “fabulous” verse. He died most probably in the middle of the 1st C CE.