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The Righteous are Bold as a Lion

The Lion, the Cow, the goat and the sheep

Annelie van Steenbergen, text and illustrations

‘The righteous are bold as a lion. It is not good for a poor person to associate with rich rulers, for the powerful are never fair to the poor.’

Annelie van Steenbergen – Lion, Cow, Goat and Sheep

That is the moral of the sixth fable [1] of Aesopus, the ancient Greek who used stories to tell people how to behave and how not to behave. This fable is about a group of friends who go hunting together, after which the loot is claimed in its entirety by one of them, the most powerful and strongest. According to Aesopus, it follows that one should not get involved with the high lords.

The fable describes an unlikely group of friends, namely a lion, a cow, a goat and a sheep. Had this lion, the slain leader and King of the Animals, been able to read the recommendations of the Roman politician Cicero about right and wise policies, and moreover acted upon them, this story might have ended quite differently.

For us, however, it is soon clear which of these four characters will predominate, and in advance we can imagine that thefriendship will not last long.
Aesopus tells it as if it were the most natural thing in the world: ‘One day the cow, the goat and the sheep went hunting with the lion. They caught a deer.’
There is no mention of how they managed this, it is an accomplished fact: they caught a deer. Then, of course, the catch had to be divided.

The question that occurs to the reader is what three vegetarian ruminants should do with a quarter deer. Here, too, Aesopus gives no definitive answer. He is not concerned with the usefulness of the wages earned, but with the justice of distribution. Once it comes to distribution, the lion appropriates the entire deer by invoking his position as superior. To begin with, he addresses them gently as if they are on the same level: “My lords and dear friends. Then to show them his claws and point them in their place. ‘You should know that the first part belongs only to me because I am a gentleman, the second because I am the strongest, the third because I have run faster than you.’ And should the friends object, there follows as a final argument a warning that will surely make them change their minds: ‘And whoever dares to touch the fourth part will be my mortal enemy.’
All the friends can do now is to walk away and be glad that they got off so graciously. If they are wise they will embrace the moral lesson of Aesopus: don’t get involved with rich rulers.

Perhaps Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) was also troubled by the composition of the members of the hunting companions when he engaged in the same fable some two thousand years later.[2] He put the story in rhyme and made minor changes to it, starting with the title. Instead of speaking of the lion, the cow, the goat and the sheep, he speaks of “The heifer, the goat and the sheep in company with the lion. In ‘Compagnieschap’ suggests they are running a company, as if they were a trading community for a business deal.
He situates the action “in long past days,” and the initiative comes from the heifer, the goat and the sheep. Indeed, they themselves decide to go hunting with the ruler of their territory. The agreement is clear:

“Loss and profit, it’s all in the game,
sharing is caring: all fair it will be.”

Annelie van Steenbergen – the right of the strongest and of the smartest

The foursome goes out and scatters to increase their chances of being caught. The goat is skillful enough to set a snare. A red deer runs headfirst into the trap and dies of suffocation. The goat calls in her companions and the lion is the first to arrive at the carcass. Through Aesopus, we already know how it ends. Again, all begins well:

“The lion counts on his nails: ‘With us four we share.’
and immediately tears the deer into four equal pieces”

Then, it soon goes awry:

“‘That first portion is for me,
Because I am King,’ so he speaks: ‘dear friends,
That you will surely find fair.'”

The second piece he appropriates with reference to the right of the strongest. The third piece also belongs to him because he is the bravest of all, and finally he threatens to immediately strangle whoever dares to refuse him the fourth piece. This is also the end of the fable.
What can his companions say? De la Fontaine refrains from commenting. No moralistic advice, the reader must draw his own conclusions.

And so we return to Cicero and his conception of good action. Marcus Tullius Cicero (160 BC – 43 BC) was an orator and lawyer in ancient Rome, who was politically active. He must have thought no doubt, mistakenly, that everything used to be better, and at the end of his life wrote a philosophical message to his son Marcus to impress upon him, and through him all people, the importance of taking one’s responsibility, in other words, how one should behave in society in order to reverse for the better what he saw as the moral decay of his time. This book he called De officiis, often translated as On Duties. However, Paul Silverentand translated it in 2019 as Decency [3]. An obligation is imposed from without, decency comes from within.

The behavior of our lion would be downright indecent in the eyes of Cicero. Had the lion been a king in the true sense of the word, a true king of animals as he is portrayed in many stories, that is, as a shining example of such high qualities as strength and courage, he would have made a different decision. After all, a king should work for the good of the people and his or her country without profit. He or she owes that to his or her nobility, noblesse oblige.

Annelie van Steenbergen – the power of the people

And not only a king, but everyone, according to Cicero, has his role to fulfill. Your role is determined by your place in society and your talents, which entail responsibilities that must be fulfilled and contribute to friendship, justice and charity.
According to Cicero, one should try to avoid embarrassing or honorless acts and, above all, not be guided by gut feelings. Most lose sight of justice especially when the desire for power, status and fame takes over. And the very worst trait is the desire for self-enrichment, especially among community leaders. Decency need not be immediately in the eye, he says, one need not be praised for it, it can be praiseworthy anyway, merely because it is at least decent.

In the case of our lion, fair justice would not only be commendable, but in the long run it would be in his best interest. To demonstrate this, Cicero quotes the Latin poet Ennius:

“Those they fear hate them; those who are feared by all will soon find death.”[4]

Indeed, no position of power can withstand the hatred of the masses. Cicero asserted that nothing is more suitable to protect and maintain the position of power than affection. Those who instill fear in others forfeit the sympathy, respect and trust, indispensable to being a good leader.
If the lion played this prank on his peers, his rivals would kill him or at least abandon him, so in this case he abused his position of power. The result, as Aesopus teaches the reader of his fable, is that the friends no longer deal with their so-called companion the lion. They leave him alone; he is henceforth dependent on his own little circle. But even there he will have to adhere to the basic values and norms that prevail in his community in order not to fall into loneliness and exclusion.

Thus such a small story by a narrator from far before our era is a good occasion to delve for a moment into such themes as responsibility, community spirit, friendship, courage and self-control, and even into the political question of the distribution of goods.

Noten

[1] Het leven en de fabels van Esopus (2016, p. 169). Teksteditie met inleiding, hertaling en commentaar door Hans Rijns en Willem van Bentum. Hilversum: Verloren.
[2] Jean de La Fontaine (nagevolgd door J.J.L. ten Kate) (1875, ?, 1e druk, pp. 18-19). De fabelen van La Fontaine. Geïllustreerd met platen en vignetten door Gustave Doré. Fabel VI, Eerste boek. Amsterdam: Gebroeders Binger.
[3] Cicero (2019). Fatsoen (Oorspronkelijke titel De officiis), vertaald en toegelicht door Paul Silverentand. Amsterdam: Athenaeum – Polak & Van Gennep.
[4] Cicero (2019, p. 125) Fatsoen (Oorspronkelijke titel De officiis), vertaald en toegelicht door Paul Silverentand. Amsterdam: Athenaeum – Polak & Van Gennep.

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