The Father and His Sons
A father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among
themselves. One day, he told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done
so, he placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered his
sons to break the bundle in pieces. They tried with all their strength, but were not able to
do it.
He next opened the bundle, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put
them into his sons' hands, upon which they broke the sticks easily.
He then said, "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other,
you will be as this bundle, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies. But if you are
divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."
The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild Sow
An eagle made her nest at the top of a lofty oak; a cat, having found a convenient
hole, moved into the middle of the trunk; and a wild sow, with her young, took shelter in
a hollow at its foot. The cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony.
To carry out her design, she climbed to the nest of the eagle, and said,
"Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too, unfortunately. The wild sow, whom
you see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, so she may on its fall seize
our families as food for her young."
Having thus frightened the eagle out of her senses, she crept down to the cave of
the sow, and said, "Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you go out with
your litter to find food, the eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs."
Having instilled these fears into the sow, she pretended to hide herself in the
hollow of the tree. When night came she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for
herself and her kittens, but feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day.
Meanwhile, the eagle, full of fear of the sow, sat still on the branches, and the
sow, terrified by the eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave. And thus they both,
along with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded ample provision for the cat
and her kittens.
The Trees and the Axe
A man came into a forest and asked the trees to provide him a handle for his
axe. The trees consented to his request and gave him a young ash-tree.
No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his axe from it, than he began to
use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the forest. An old oak,
lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar,
"The first step has lost us all. If we had not given up the rights of the ash, we might yet
have retained our own privileges and have stood for ages."
Exercise A: Learning Strange Words
Does the language of these fables seem old-fashioned? It is.
Aesop was a Greek who lived centuries before Christ. So the earliest copies we
have of his fables are written in a Greek which sounds very old-fashioned. But this
particular translation into English was made in the late 1800s by George Fyler
Townsend. Even though Townsend’s version is more modern than Aesop’s, many of
the words and phrases Townsend used probably sound unusual to you. Are there any
you haven't heard before?
When you see a new word, you can either look it up in a dictionary, try to pretend
it doesn't matter, or guess what it means. You'll make a better guess if you use the rest
of the sentence to figure out the meaning.
For each of these phrases or sentences, write what you think each bold word or
phrase means. Use the rest of the phrase or sentence to help you guess.
1. A father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves.
2. He placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession.
3. The cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony.
4. She crept down to the cave of the sow, and said, "Your children are in great danger;
for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food, the eagle is prepared to
pounce upon one of your little pigs."
5. And thus they both, along with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded
ample provision for the cat and her kittens.
6. He began to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the
forest.
Now look up the words you don't know. How were your guesses?
What do you think of this different style of writing? On a separate page, write
what you like or don't like about it. Include your opinion of which sounded better,
Townsend's phrases or your translations.
Exercise B: Detail Check
1. What did the father ask his sons to bring him?
2. When the sons brought something to their father, he said to break it. Did they?
3. How were they able to break the thing?
4. Who moved into the top of the oak? The middle? The bottom?
5. Why did the sow refuse to leave her cave?
6. When the eagle and sow and their families died, what did the cat and her family do
with their bodies?
7. Why did the hunter want a tree?
8. Did the trees give him one? If so, which one?
9. When the old oak “lamented,” whom did he lament to?
10. List two concrete details (sights, sounds, smells, etc.) that help these stories come to
life.
Exercise C: Deeper Meanings
1. In the end, the sons broke all the sticks. Why couldn't the break the bundle? What
did the father want them to learn from this?
2. If the eagle and the sow had talked to each other, they might have found out how
the cat had lied to them. Why didn't they talk to each other?
3. What makes you think the eagle and the sow weren't best friends before they
moved into the tree?
4. What do you think the trees hoped to accomplish by giving the man the young ashtree?
5. Which sentence would Aesop be most likely to agree with? Circle that sentence's
letter, then explain your choice.
a. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice someone so the rest will stay safe.
b. If someone warns you of a danger, never investigate it yourself.
c. Unity is important, but not as much as getting your own way.
d. To know your neighbor and live in peace is a greater gift than gold.
