Friday, August 19, 2011

Image: Ostreum et Aquae Gutta


M0590 - M0591 - M0592
591. Ostreum et Aquae Gutta. Tenuis gutta, cum in vastos ponti sinus devolveretur, ab aethere alto cadens, “Heu, ego tantula,” inquit, “quid voragini tantae prodesse possum, primo fluctu scilicet exhaurienda et funditus interitura?” Dum gutta sic misella sortem suam deprimit, ostreum, ore patulo dehiscens, summis undis emergit et hanc delapsam excipit, penitus recondit, et induratam perficit. Quae gutta fuerat, exstitit demum unio, ac deinde ad illud honoris fastigium evectus est ut regis caput ornaret. Qui se fatentur humiles, extollit Deus.



M0591 (not in Perry). Source: Desbillons 9.32 (adapted into prose). This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; it appears original to Desbillons, as he cites no source. For another story of transformation, see the fable of the butterfly, #667.