The Cicada : the Fable

Mr Jean of the Fountain charmed us with the majority of his fables, by the tenuity of observation, it knew well the animals of his tales, such as the Fox, the Wolf, the Cat, the Corbel and so much of others; on the other hand it seems that the Cicada and its song were unknown for him. Before being a recognized storyteller, it had an official load with National Forestry Commission, which enabled him to receive a royal pension. The Fountain knew the ostentation of the castles better that the natural science!

It is not, and, by far, the best of the fables to be learned to your children, because, if it teaches to them to be far-sighted, it defends also powerful vis-a-vis with weak.

The Cicada is confined in the areas of the olive-tree, the Fountain never saw it and heard; for him the famous singer is certainly a grasshopper.

With which returns the responsibility for these strange errors ?

Would the tradition like that it is the Greek fabulist Esope, the author of this apologue?

Is necessary it to show the Fountain of plagiarism, which would explain its errors?.

We saw previously that the Cicada nourishes sap exclusively, with its suçoir.

The fable tells us nonsenses: there are no more Cicadas when breath the north wind; it cannot beg the alms of corn grains and beg to lend flies or small worms to him; it would be unable to eat them.

Reality inverts the roles imagined by the fable. The beggar without delicacy is the ant; the Cicada divides readily nectar with it, and our ant does not hesitate to pirate its beverage. After five to six weeks of jubilation, the singer choit of the tree, exhausted by the life. Plundering always in search of skins, the ant reduces it in crumbs which will enlarge its stock of provisions.

Here true relations between the two insects.

Jean of the Fountain

Esope

Famished cicada

Eaten by a bird

Died of exhaustion

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