The Wolf and the Lamb is a well-known fable of

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales c ...

and is numbered 155 in the

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 ...

. There are several variant stories of tyrannical injustice in which a victim is falsely accused and killed despite a reasonable defence.

The fable and its variants

A wolf comes upon a lamb while both are drinking from a stream and, in order to justify taking its life, accuses it of various misdemeanours, all of which the lamb proves to be impossible. Losing patience, the wolf replies that the offences must have been committed by some other member of the lamb's family and that it does not propose to delay its meal by enquiring any further. There are versions of the fable in both the Greek of

Babrius Babrius ( grc-gre, Βάβριος, ''Bábrios''; century),"Babrius" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 21. also known as Babrias () or Gabrias (), was the author of a collection of Greek fables, many of whic ...

and the Latin of Phaedrus, and it was retold in Latin throughout the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. The morals drawn there are that the tyrant can always find an excuse for his tyranny and that the unjust will not listen to the reasoning of the innocent. Aesop in Bayeux

In his 1692 retelling of the fable,

Roger L'Estrange Sir Roger L'Estrange (17 December 1616 – 11 December 1704) was an English pamphleteer, author, courtier, and press censor. Throughout his life L'Estrange was frequently mired in controversy and acted as a staunch ideological defender of Kin ...

used the English proverb "'Tis an easy Matter to find a Staff to beat a Dog" to sum up the sentiment that any arbitrary excuse will suit the powerful. At a slightly earlier date, Jean de la Fontaine began his very similar version of the story with the moral summary of its meaning, ''La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure'' (The strongest side always carries the argument). The line eventually became proverbial in French and was glossed with the alternative English proverb, "Might makes right", as its equivalent.

Ivan Krylov Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (russian: Ива́н Андре́евич Крыло́в; 13 February 1769 – 21 November 1844) is Russia's best-known fabulist and probably the most epigrammatic of all Russian authors. Formerly a dramatist and journali ...

's translation of the French was likewise close and has given the Russian language two proverbs. The first, "The stronger always blames the weaker" ("У сильного всегда бессильный виноват"), is taken from the poem's first line. The second idiomatic usage is provided by the wolf's final reply to the lamb's reasoning, "My need of food is guilt enough of yours" ("Ты виноват уж тем, что хочется мне кушать"), and is used ironically of someone casting around to find blame, no matter what justice demands. A variant story attributed to Aesop exists in Greek sources. This is the fable of the cock and the cat, which is separately numbered 16 in the Perry Index. Seeking a reasonable pretext to kill the cock, the cat accuses it of waking people early in the morning and then of incest with its sisters and daughters. In both cases, the cock answers that humanity benefits by its activities. But the cat ends the argument by remarking that it is now her breakfast time and "Cats don't live on dialogues". Underlying both these fables is a Latin proverb, variously expressed, that "an empty belly has no ears" or, as the Spanish equivalent has it, ''"Lobo hambriento no tiene asiento"'' (a hungry wolf doesn't hang about). The fable also has Eastern analogues. One of these is the Buddhist ''Dipi

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 ...

'' in which the protagonists are a panther and a goat. The goat has strayed into the presence of a panther and tries to avert its fate by greeting the predator politely. It is accused of treading on his tail and then of scaring off his prey, for which crime it is made to substitute. A similar story involving birds is found among

Bidpai The ''Panchatantra'' (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

's Persian fables as "The Partridge and the Hawk". The unjust accusation there is that the partridge is taking up all the shade, leaving the hawk out in the hot sun. When the partridge points out that it is midnight, it is killed by the hawk for contradicting.

Moral applications

Down the centuries, interpreters of the fable have applied it to injustices prevalent in their own times. The 15th-century ''Moral Fables'' by Scottish poet

Robert Henryson Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renai ...

depict widespread social breakdown. The Lamb appeals to natural law, to Scripture, and to statutory law, and is answered by the Wolf with perversions of all these. Then Henryson in his own person comments that there are three kinds of contemporary wolves who oppress the poor: dishonest lawyers; landowners intent on extending their estates; and aristocrats who exploit their tenants. A political application of the fable to international relations is an 1893 ''Punch'' cartoon published when Britain and France were both thinking of extending their colonial influence into

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and were looking for excuses to do so. A wolf in French Army uniform eyes the Thai lamb across the

Mekong River The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annual ...

. Much earlier, the fable's presence in the borders of the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry (see above) has suggested a similar political comment being made by the English embroiderers to express their dissent and horror at the 1066 Norman invasion of Britain.

Artistic applications

The story was among those included in La Fontaine's ''Fables'' (I.10) and was set to music by several French composers, including *

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (19 December 1676 – 26 October 1749) was a French musician, best known as an organist and composer. He was born, and died, in Paris. Biography Clérambault came from a musical family (his father and two of his sons ...

at the start of the 18th century. *Alfred Yung (1836-1913), a setting for two equal voices (1862) * Louis Lacombe, among his ''Fables de La Fontaine'' (Op. 72 1875) *

Charles Lecocq Alexandre Charles Lecocq (3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his opérettes and opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to Jacques Offenbach in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870 ...

in ''Six Fables de Jean de la Fontaine'' for voice and piano (1900) *

André Caplet André Caplet (23 November 1878 – 22 April 1925) was a French composer and conductor of classical music. He was a friend of Claude Debussy and completed the orchestration of several of Debussy's compositions as well as arrangements of sever ...

in ''Trois Fables de Jean de la Fontaine'' for voice and piano (1919) * Marie-Madeleine Duruflé (1921-1999) in ''6 Fables de La Fontaine'' for female a cappella choir (1960) * Isabelle Aboulker in ''Les Fables enchantées'' (1979) * Claude Ballif, the last of his ''Chansonettes : 5 Fables de La Fontaine'' for small mixed choir (Op.72, Nº1 1995) *Sacha Chaban, a setting for orchestra and recitation (2012) La Fontaine's fable in Catalan translation is part of Xavier Benguerel i Godó’s ''Siete Fabulas de La Fontaine'' for recitation with orchestral accompaniment. But it was

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

's German translation, ''Fabel Vom Wolf und Lämmlein'' that Hans Poser set for male choir and accompaniment in his ''Die Fabeln des Äsop'' (0p.28, 1956). A ballet based upon the fable was choreographed in 2004 by Béatrice Massin for the composite presentation of Annie Sellem, ''Les Fables à La Fontaine''. This was interpreted to the Baroque music of

Marin Marais Marin Marais (; 31 May 1656, in Paris – 15 August 1728, in Paris) was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colomb ...

. The fable was also the subject of several paintings by

Jean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry (; 17 March 1686 – 30 April 1755) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. His son, Jacques-Ch ...

, including one over the door in the Grand Cabinet du Dauphin in the Palace of Versailles (1747) and a canvas currently held in the Museums of Metz. In the 19th century it was made the subject of a statue by Hippolyte Heizler (1828-71), currently in the Le Mans botanical garden, in which the wolf looks down threateningly at the diminutive lamb. Later the fable figured on two French stamps: first was a 1938 portrait of La Fontaine with the tale illustrated in a panel below it; there was also a six-stamp strip issued in 1995 to commemorate the third centenary of La Fontaine's death, in which the lamb is shown as startled by the wolf's reflection in the water. In 1977 Burundi issued a four-stamp block of fables where the designs are based on

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravin ...

's illustrations, of which this fable is one.Creighton University
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References

External links

* *"The Wolf and the Lamb"
book illustrations
*"The Cat and the Cock"
book illustrations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf and the Lamb Aesop's Fables La Fontaine's Fables Jataka tales Fictional wolves Fictional sheep Literary duos Sheep in art Animals in Buddhism Big Bad Wolf Metaphors referring to wolves ATU 100-149

The fable and its variants

Moral applications

Artistic applications

See also

References

External links