The Horse that Lost its Liberty
The fable of how the horse lost its liberty in the course of settling a petty conflict exists in two versions involving either a stag or a boar and is numbered 269 in the Perry Index.[1] When the story is told in a political context, it warns against seeking a remedy that leaves one worse off than before. Where economic circumstances are involved, it teaches that independence is always better than compromised plenty.
The horse, the hunter and the stag
A horse disputes ownership of a meadow with a stag but cannot drive it off by force. It therefore calls in the aid of a man, who bridles the horse and rides on its back. But then, seeing how useful the horse is to him, he refuses to unbridle it afterwards. The story is related as an example of telling a fable in Aristotle’s work on rhetoric[2] and is there ascribed to the poet Stesichorus. The fable was also told by the Roman poet Horace, widening its significance as an example of how one should be content with little rather than losing personal liberty in quest of more.[3]
William Caxton included the story in his collection of The Fables of Aesop (1484) under the title “Of the hors, of the hunter and of the hert”[4] as teaching the moral given by Aristotle that None ought to put hym self in subiection for to auenge hym on other. Samuel Croxall cites Horace’s conclusion that one should never yield one’s liberty to another for reasons of avarice.[5] The fable was told as “The horse seeking vengeance on the stag (Le cheval s'étant voulu venger du cerf) in La Fontaine's Fables[6] and ends on the reflection that without personal liberty all other purchases are valueless:
- (C'est l'acheter trop cher, que l'acheter d'un bien
- Sans qui les autres ne sont rien).
The horse and the boar
The alternative version of the fable concerns a boar that muddies the horse’s watering hole or else flattens his pasture. Seeking vengeance, the horse requests a man to hunt down the boar. In the end the man reflects that he has not only gained a prey but a slave as well. This was related by Phaedrus and concludes that those with quick tempers ought not to put themselves in the power of another.[7] The story would be appreciated by Phaedrus who, like Aesop too, was once a slave himself. Roger L'Estrange told both the boar version[8] and the stag version[9] as illustrating the need to be careful that the remedy is not worse than the original offence.
There is a possible West Asian source for the story of losing one’s independence in quest of a better life, which was the context of Horace’s interpretation. This is in a fragmentary proverbial saying in the 6th century BCE Aramaic version of the story of Ahiqar in which an onager (wild ass) stoutly rejects the suggestion that it should be bridled. “A man one day said to the onager, Let me ride upon thee, and I will maintain thee. Said the wild ass, Keep thy maintenance and thy fodder and let me not see thy riding."[10]
References
- ^ Aesopica
- ^ The Art of Rhetoric, Book II, ch.21
- ^ Horace, Epistles 1.10, 34ff , Christopher Smart, The Works of Horace Translated into Verse, London 1767 Volume 4, p.81
- ^ Aesopica
- ^ Fable 34
- ^ IV.13
- ^ IV.4
- ^ Fable 56
- ^ Fable 57
- ^ Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Hendrickson 2010, J.M. Lindenberger’s note, Vol.2, p.507
- v
- t
- e
Fables
- The Ant and the Grasshopper
- The Ass and his Masters
- The Ass and the Pig
- The Ass Carrying an Image
- The Ass in the Lion's Skin
- The Astrologer who Fell into a Well
- The Bear and the Travelers
- The Belly and the Members
- The Bird-catcher and the Blackbird
- The Bird in Borrowed Feathers
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
- The Cat and the Mice
- The Cock and the Jewel
- The Cock, the Dog and the Fox
- The Crow and the Pitcher
- The Crow and the Snake
- The Deer without a Heart
- The Dog and Its Reflection
- The Dog and the Wolf
- The Dove and the Ant
- The Farmer and the Stork
- The Farmer and the Viper
- The Fir and the Bramble
- The Fisherman and the Little Fish
- The Fowler and the Snake
- The Fox and the Crow
- The Fox and the Grapes
- The Fox and the Lion
- The Fox and the Mask
- The Fox and the Sick Lion
- The Fox and the Stork
- The Fox and the Weasel
- The Fox and the Woodman
- The Frog and the Ox
- The Frogs Who Desired a King
- The Goat and the Vine
- The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs
- The Honest Woodcutter
- The Horse and the Donkey
- The Horse that Lost its Liberty
- The Lion and the Mouse
- The Lion, the Bear and the Fox
- The Man with Two Mistresses
- The Mischievous Dog
- The Miser and his Gold
- The Moon and her Mother
- The Mountain in Labour
- The Mouse and the Oyster
- The North Wind and the Sun
- The Oak and the Reed
- The Old Man and Death
- The Old Woman and the Doctor
- The Rose and the Amaranth
- The Satyr and the Traveller
- The Sick Kite
- The Snake and the Crab
- The Snake in the Thorn Bush
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- Town Mouse and Country Mouse
- The Travellers and the Plane Tree
- The Trees and the Bramble
- The Two Pots
- The Walnut Tree
- Washing the Ethiopian White
- The Weasel and Aphrodite
- The Wolf and the Crane
- The Wolf and the Lamb
- The Woodcutter and the Trees
- The Young Man and the Swallow
- An ass eating thistles
- The Bear and the Gardener
- Belling the Cat (also known as The Mice in Council)
- The Blind Man and the Lame
- The Boy and the Filberts
- Chanticleer and the Fox
- The Dog in the Manger
- The drowned woman and her husband
- The Elm and the Vine
- The Fox and the Cat
- The Gourd and the Palm-tree
- The Hawk and the Nightingale
- The miller, his son and the donkey
- The Monkey and the Cat
- The Priest and the Wolf
- The Scorpion and the Frog
- The Shepherd and the Lion
adaptations
- Aesop's Film Fables
- The Grasshopper and the Ants
adaptations
- Demetrius of Phalerum
- Phaedrus
- Babrius
- Avianus
- Dositheus Magister
- Alexander Neckam
- Adémar de Chabannes
- Odo of Cheriton
- John Lydgate
- Kawanabe Kyōsai
- Laurentius Abstemius
- Roger L'Estrange
- Gabriele Faerno
- Hieronymus Osius
- Marie de France
- Robert Henryson
- Jean de La Fontaine
- Ivan Krylov
- Nicolas Trigault
- Robert Thom
- Zhou Zuoren