The Ass and the Pig is one of
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to ...
(
Perry Index
The Perry Index is a widely used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. The index was created by Ben Edwin Perry, a professor of classics at the Un ...
526) that was never adopted in the West but has Eastern variants that remain popular. Their general teaching is that the easy life and seeming good fortune of others conceal a threat to their welfare.
Eastern and Western variations
The earliest Latin version of this tale is in a poem by
Phaedrus and concerns a pig that was fattened on barley and then sacrificed. The left-over grain was given to the ass, who refused it because of the fate that had overtaken the one it had previously fed. The kind of skewed logic in operation here, seeming to confuse cause and effect, is often found in the fables and led
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his for ...
to characterise such stories as 'Aesop's jests'. Its function, however, is to fix attention on the distinction in
practical philosophy The modern division of philosophy into theoretical philosophy and practical philosophyImmanuel Kant, ''Lectures on Ethics'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 41 ("On Universal Practical Philosophy"). Original text: Immanuel Kant, ''Kant’s Gesa ...
between the immediate and the ultimate good. An unsolicited meal is the immediate good in this story, but the ultimate good is to consider where acceptance of an immediate advantage might lead. Phaedrus himself does just this. He tells the story in the poem's first six lines and follows them with six more lines of personal reflections upon it. 'This fable taught me caution and I have avoided risky business ventures ever since - but, you say, 'those who grab wealth get to keep it'. Just remember how many of them are eventually caught and killed! Clearly, the ones who have been punished constitute the larger crowd. A few people may profit from reckless behaviour, but many more are ruined by it.'
![Medieval pig slaughter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Medieval_pig_slaughter.jpg)
Although this story was not taken up by later authors, another concerning an ox and a heifer had a little more currency and is given a separate number in the Perry Index (300). In this a bullock compares his own carefree existence with that of an ox compelled to labour in the fields. Shortly afterwards the owner releases the ox from his yoke but binds the bullock and leads him away to be sacrificed. Then the ox informs the victim, 'It was for this reason that you were allowed to live in idleness.' The common feature between Phaedrus' story and this involves the survival of a
working animal
A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for ...
while the one that leads a life of ease meets an early and violent death. In his edition,
Samuel Croxall
Samuel Croxall (c. 1690 – 1752) was an Anglican churchman, writer and translator, particularly noted for his edition of Aesop's Fables.
Early career
Samuel Croxall was born in Walton on Thames, where his father (also called Samuel) was vicar ...
includes this fable under the title "The Wanton Calf" and draws from it the lesson that those who despise the honest poor are often criminals who eventually pay for their way of life. Phaedrus had similarly made the link between grasping the immediate advantage and criminality. The moral is further summed up by the short poem that
Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 17538 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating ch ...
adds in his reprinting of Croxall's fable:
:::::Thus oft the industrious poor endures reproach
:::::From rogues in lace, and sharpers in a coach;
:::::But soon to Tyburn sees the villains led
:::::While he still earns in peace his daily bread.
A much earlier Indian version of the story makes the relationship between the two Aesopic tales a little clearer. It appears in the Buddhist scriptures as the ''Munika-
Jataka
The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, th ...
'' and is accompanied by a frame story in which a monk regrets the life of ease he has left and is tempted back. His situation is made clear to him by the relation of an animal fable (supposedly of a former birth) in which a young ox complains to his elder brother of the easy lot of the farmyard pig. Soon afterwards the pig is slaughtered for a marriage feast and the ox finds comfort in the reflection that a simpler diet is at least a guarantee of survival. Although different pairs of animals are involved in largely different situations, and although the conclusions that their authors draw from them differ too, their trend is always the same. In an unstable world, a life of humble drudgery has its rewards.
The Jataka tale travelled westwards in a variety of new versions. Much the same story, with asses in the place of oxen, appears as a
Midrash
''Midrash'' (;["midrash"]
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...
in the Jewish Great Commentary on Esther 3.2. It reappears in a much changed form in the
One Thousand and One Nights as the tale of "The Ass, the Ox and the Labourer". Here an ox complains to an ass of its hard life and is advised to play sick; this it does to such effect that the ass is put to work in its place. In order to avoid any more such labour, the ass informs the ox that he has overheard their master giving orders for the ox to be butchered the following day, which brings a speedy end to its pretended illness.
A version of this story eventually reached Europe and is recorded in the 13th century by
Odo of Cheriton
Odo of Cheriton (1180/1190 – 1246/47) was an English preacher and fabulist who spent a considerable time studying in Paris and then lecturing in the south of France and in northern Spain.
Life and background
Odo belonged to a Norman family whic ...
. Envious of the easy life of the pig, an ass pretends to be sick, is put on a convalescent diet and soon begins to fatten. When the pig is slaughtered, however, it takes fright and returns to work.
[John C. Jacobs, ''The Fables of Odo of Cheriton'', New York 1985, fable 48, p.107]
available online at Google Books
/ref> It may be coincidental that Odo's commentary on the story echoes the Jataka in picturing how the clergy may be seduced by the luxuries of lay life. Another element that the last two stories have in common is also shared with Phaedrus' story of "The Ass and the Pig". Association of a better diet with fattening before slaughter leads the animals who benefit from it to renounce such luxuries and the dangers they bring for a life of secure sufficiency. In this they share the same conclusion as the fable of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
"The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" is one of Aesop's Fables. It is number 352 in the Perry Index and type 112 in Aarne–Thompson's folk tale index. Like several other elements in Aesop's fables, 'town mouse and country mouse' has become a ...
.
References
Aesop's Fables
Jataka tales
Fictional donkeys
Fictional pigs
Pigs in literature
Animals in Buddhism
Indian folklore
Indian fairy tales
Indian literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ass and the Pig