Perry 187: Doctor Lion and the Horse

Today's fable is Perry 187, the story of the lion who pretended to be a doctor, and the sly horse who managed to escape. At del.icio.us, you can see a complete list of the versions of this fable type that I have collected. Sometimes the fable is told with a wolf instead of a lion as the doctor, and a donkey instead of a horse. I like the versions with the lion best, simply because of the unintended irony which resonates between this fable about how the lion was outsmarted by the horse pretending to have a thorn in his paw and how a lion in another story - Androcles and the lion - really did have a thorn in his paw!

Here is the version from Steinhowel. What I especially like about this version is the way it teaches a quite cynical lesson: what you can learn from this fable is how to be a successful, blood-thirsty lion, unlike this failed lion, who let his prey get away!

Quicumque artem ignorant, illi se perdunt. Sic nobis haec fabula refert. Equum pascentem vidit leo fortissimus in prato. Hunc enim ut frangeret, se subtiliter approximavit ac veluti familiaris, qui se diceret medicum. Equus persensit dolum sed non repudiavit officium. Tamen mente ad locum invenit cito ingenium; finxit se stirpem calcatam habere; levato pede, Frater, inquit, succurre; gratulor quia venisti liberare me, nam in stirpem calcavi. Leo patiens accessit, fraudem dissimilans, stirpem extracturus. Cui velociter equus calces turbulentes dedit. Cadit corpus hostile leonis et iacuit amens diutius in terra. At ubi vires resumpsit, memor sui factus, nusquam vidit equum. Intellexit caput et faciem et totum se laesum fuisse, et ait: Digne haec passus sum, qui semper lanius veniebam; huic etiam medicus fallax et familiaris accessi, qui inimicus venire debui. Ideo quod es, esto; mentiri noli.

Here it is written out in segmented style to make it easier to follow, while respecting the Latin word order:

Quicumque
artem ignorant,
illi
se perdunt.
Sic nobis haec fabula refert.
Equum pascentem vidit
leo fortissimus
in prato.
Hunc enim ut frangeret,
se subtiliter approximavit
ac veluti familiaris,
qui se diceret medicum.
Equus
persensit dolum
sed non repudiavit officium.
Tamen mente
ad locum invenit cito
ingenium;
finxit
se stirpem calcatam habere;
levato pede,
Frater, inquit, succurre;
gratulor
quia venisti liberare me,
nam in stirpem calcavi.
Leo patiens accessit,
fraudem dissimilans,
stirpem extracturus.
Cui
velociter equus
calces turbulentes dedit.
Cadit corpus hostile leonis
et iacuit amens diutius in terra.
At ubi vires resumpsit,
memor sui factus,
nusquam vidit equum.
Intellexit
caput et faciem et totum se
laesum fuisse,
et ait:
Digne haec passus sum,
qui semper lanius veniebam;
huic etiam
medicus fallax et familiaris accessi,
qui inimicus venire debui.
Ideo
quod es,
esto;
mentiri noli.

The image is from an edition of Croxall's Aesop, which is online at Google Books:

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