246. Asinus et Tempora Anni. Media hieme asinus, frigoris impatiens, ver tepidum tenerasque herbas desiderabat. Vere tamen redeunte, redibant etiam hominum et iumentorum labores. Deinde asinus, laboris impatiens, veris etiam odium suscepit, et multis precibus aestatis adventum orabat. Aestas autem maiores secum labores attulit. Tunc asinus, “O si autumnus rediret,” quotidie exclamabat. Autumni autem labores omnium gravissimi erant: poma in urbem, messes in horrea erant portanda. Itaque hiberna frigora autumni laboribus potiora videbantur. Non enim tempora anni vitam reddunt beatiorem, sed labores libenter suscipere.
Click here for a
SLIDESHOW of all the Medici Aesop images. This is an illustration for a different fable but it works well for the story of the donkey who labors all year long, too!
M0246 (not in Perry). Source: Potts & Darnell p. 6. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; it is based on Abstemius 66, and Perry omitted most of Abstemius’s fables. Compare the fable of the donkey with different masters, #769.
