801. Serapis et Parricida. Decubuerat ad ruinosum parietem quidam facinoribus parricidii pollutus, ut ibi somnum caperet. Huic oblatus per quietem Serapis, monuit eum ut fugeret atque discederet et alibi obdormisceret. Paruit ille et surrexit atque abiit, cum statim paries ille corruit. Mane gratias agens hic diis ob conservatam ab ipsis vitam suam cum gaudio rem divinam fecit, quasi parricidae numini divino cari essent. Rursum autem Serapis dormienti suam speciem ostendit et “Censesne tu,” inquit, “sceleste, mihi curae esse improbos atque malos? Immo si tu nunc isto pacto obiisses mortem, fuisset ea singularis doloris et infamiae expers. Quam ideo nunc effugisti, quia servaris crucis merito supplicio.”
M0801 (not in Perry). Source: Camerarius 499; the story is from a poem in the Greek Anthology attributed to the fourth-century poet Palladas. This fable is not included in Perry’s catalog. Serapis was a Greco-Egyptian god whose worship was promoted by the Greek rulers of Egypt in the Ptolemaic period. For another fable about ineluctable fate, see #933.
