July 4, 2012
THE SLAVE AND THE LION
An aesop fable.....
In ancient Rome a Greek slave named Androcles escaped from his master, by whom he had been most cruelly treated, and
ran into a nearby forest.
As he wandered about the dense forest in search of food and shelter, he discovered a cave, which he entered and found to be unoccupied.
Actually it was a lion's den, and almost immediately, the lion himself appeared.
Androcles gave himself up for lost. But, to his utter astonishment, the lion, instead of springing upon him and devouring him,
came up to him and fawned upon him, at the same time whining and lifting up his paw.
The paw was swollen and inflamed, and when the slave took it in his hand to examine it he found a large thorn embedded in
the ball of the friendly lion's foot. He removed it and dressed the wound as well as he could: and in course of time it healed up
completely.
The lion's gratitude was unbounded; he looked upon the man as his friend, and they shared the cave for some time and slept
side by side.
One day, however, some soldiers were walking in the woods and saw Androcles. He was recognized as a runaway and they
carried him off in chains to his former master, who resolved to make an example of him, and ordered that he should be thrown
to the lions at the next public spectacle in the colosseum.
In those days, as punishment, law breakers were sentenced to die in the amphitheater where hungry lions were set upon them while huge crowds watched for sport.
On the fateful day the lions were let loose into the arena; one of them was especially huge and ferocious.
Then Androcles was cast in among them. But to the amazement of the spectators, the huge lion after one glance bounded up
to him and lay down at his feet with every expression of affection and delight! It was his old friend of the cave! And all the other
lions left the slave unharmed as well.
The people had expected to see the man get eaten and could not understand what was happening. They demanded to know
why the lion had not eaten the man.
"I am a man," said Androcles. "Yet you treated me badly and made me your slave. I helped the lion, and he has become my
friend. He treats me better than people have treated me. We love each other like brothers."
The audience clamored that Androcles should be spared: "live and be free" they shouted, "and the lion too."
The Roman emperor, marveling at such gratitude and fidelity in a beast, decreed that both should receive their liberty.
Gratitude is the sign of a noble soul.....in the noble lion, king of the beasts......and people.
Ella and Dylan Paci with a friendly Washington, D.C. lion.
Spoiler: A fable is a story with animals figuring in the telling. Fables have a moral. Fairytales are fantasy stories of people and no talking animals. Fairytales don't necessarily have a moral.
Aesop was Greek and lived, so they report, 620 to 564 BCE. He didn't write all the tales, but wrote down all the stories which were told in the ancient world from many cultures; though there is no surviving evidence of his writing.
The fables were embellished and changed over time to suit the customs of the times. I have continued that tradition here with internet sources and images.
The colosseum in Rome was built more than 500 years after the time of the story of the slave and the lion. So the colosseum photos are for illustration purposes.
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Posted by ronpaci at 5:05 PM