161. Cervus et Cornua Eius. Cervus ad fontem stabat, sitiens, ut biberet aquam. Hic dum in aqua videt effigiem suam, tenuitatem crurum vituperat, laetatur vero forma cornuum. Repente venatores adsunt eumque persequuntur. Quamdiu per campum fugam facit, pernicitate pedum evadit. Cum vero imprudens attingisset silvam, cornua sunt implicita ramis. Comprehensus deinde, cum luctu haec verba edidit, “Heu misero mihi, qui iis quae vituperaram servatus sum; quibus autem gloriatus fueram, perii.”
Click here for a
SLIDESHOW of all the colored Steinhowel images. If you look closely, you can see the pool of water where the stag had been admiring its reflection earlier.
M0161 = Perry074. Source: Syntipas 15 (translated into Latin). This is Perry 74. Compare the story of the rabbit who envied the deer’s horns, #163. Horns also cause trouble for the ox; see #282. See also the story of the mule admiring its reflection, #256. Read a
Fabula Facilis version of this fable.
