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The Eagle and The Beetle

The fable tells the story of an eagle that kills a hare that was under the protection of a beetle. In revenge, the beetle destroys the eagle's eggs each time it lays them by rolling them out of the nest. Finally, the eagle lays its eggs in Zeus' lap for protection, but the beetle tricks Zeus into dropping the eggs by rolling a ball of dung onto his lap. The moral is that even the weakest can find a way to avenge a wrong, so one should be mindful of how they treat others.

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Indranil Pathak
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434 views2 pages

The Eagle and The Beetle

The fable tells the story of an eagle that kills a hare that was under the protection of a beetle. In revenge, the beetle destroys the eagle's eggs each time it lays them by rolling them out of the nest. Finally, the eagle lays its eggs in Zeus' lap for protection, but the beetle tricks Zeus into dropping the eggs by rolling a ball of dung onto his lap. The moral is that even the weakest can find a way to avenge a wrong, so one should be mindful of how they treat others.

Uploaded by

Indranil Pathak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The story of the feud between the eagle and the beetle is one of Aesop's

Fables and often referred to in Classical times. It is numbered 3 in the Perry


Index and the episode became proverbial. Although different in detail, it can be
compared to the fable of The Eagle and the Fox. In both cases the eagle believes
itself safe from retribution for an act of violence and is punished by the destruction of
its young.
The fable and its variations

A hare that is fleeing from an eagle begs a beetle for shelter. The beetle pleads that
the right of asylum is guaranteed by Zeus but the eagle, being the bird of Zeus,
arrogantly disregards this and tears the hare to pieces. In revenge, the beetle climbs
to the eagle’s nest and rolls out its eggs, following it up the higher it builds. Finally
the eagle lays its eggs in the lap of Zeus but the beetle flies about the god’s head, or
in some versions rolls a ball of dung onto him, causing the god to leap up and let the
eggs fall to the ground. There are alternative accounts in which the episode of the
hare does not appear at all and the feud is related as being of long standing and
consisting of raids on each other's nesting places. The story was told by William
Caxton of a weasel and an eagle while Gilles Corrozet tells the story of an ant and
an eagle in his emblem book.
In ancient times the story became the basis for an ironical Greek proverb, ‘the dung
beetle serving as midwife to the eagle, taken from a line of Aristophanes Lysistrata.
This was recorded by Erasmus in his Adagia (1507), along with a Latin alternative, a
dung beetle hunting an eagle), used of a weaker person taking on a powerful
adversary. Where Erasmus told the story at length, Andrea Alciato devoted a short
Latin poem to yet another variation in his Emblematum Liber (1534) under the title A
mimumus timiendum (Even the least are to be feared). There he explained that
“though inferior in physical strength, it is superior in strategy. It hides itself secretly in
the eagle’s feathers without being felt, in order to attack its enemy’s nest across the
lofty skies. It bores into the eggs and prevents the hoped-for offspring from
developing.
The story
An Eagle was chasing a hare, which was running for it dear life and
Was at her wits' end to know where to turn for help. Luckily she espied a
Beetle, and begged it to aid her. So when the Eagle came up the Beetle
warned her not to touch the hare, which was under its protection. But the
Eagle never noticed the Beetle because it was so small, seized the hare and
ate her up. The Beetle was bitter about this total neglect and let down it
got from the eagle and decides to revenge someday as it keeps an eye on
the Eagle's nest.
Whenever the Eagle laid an egg, the beetle climb up to where the egg is
and rolled it out of the nest and broke it.
At last the Eagle got so worried over the loss of her eggs that she went up
to Jupiter, who is the special protector of Eagles, and begged him to give
her a safe place to nest in; so he let her lay her eggs in his lap. But the
Beetle noticed this and made a ball of dirt the size of an Eagle's egg, and
flew up and deposited it in Jupiter's lap. When Jupiter saw the dirt, he
stood up to shake it out of his robe, and, forgetting about the eggs, he
shook them
Out too, and they were broken just as before. Ever since then, they say,
Eagles never lay their eggs at the Season when Beetles are about.

Moral lesson
Always be mindful of how you treat others, you may have all it takes to win
the war but do have a rethink because sometimes even the weakest may
find means to avenge a wrong.

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