410. Aquila et Vulpes. Dum vulpis proles foris excurrebant, ab aquila comprehensae, matris fidem implorabant. Accurrit vulpes aquilamque rogat ut captivam prolem dimittat. Aquila, nacta praedam, ad pullos subvolat. Vulpes, correpta face quasi nidum incendio absumptura esset, insequitur. Trepidans aquila, “Parce,” inquit, “mihi parvisque liberis, et tuum quidquid habeo reddidero.” Per aquilam potentis atque audacis animi homines intellegendi sunt; per vulpem, pauperculi.
Click here for a
SLIDESHOW of all the Barlow images. Look in the background and you can see the first stage of the story, when the eagle first snatched the baby foxes.
M0410 = Perry001. Source: Barlow’s Aesop 10. This is Perry 1. In other versions of the story, the eagle does not return the little foxes, and her own chicks are burned to death. Compare the story of the monkey mother’s revenge on the bear, #109, or the fable of the beetle and the eagle, #690.
