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The Greek version of the story tells of a woodcutter who accidentally dropped his axe into a river and, because this was his only means of livelihood, sat down and wept. . Taking pity on him, the god Hermes (also known as Mercury) dived into the water and returned with a golden
Though the fable is frequently a subject of children's literature, Jerry Pinkney's The Lion & the Mouse (2009) tells it through pictures alone, without the usual text of such books, and won the 2010 Caldecott Medal for its illustrations. [29] The story is updated and adapted to fit the conditions of the Serengeti National Park, in which it is ...
Many other stories contain geese that lay golden eggs, though certain versions change them for hens or other birds that lay golden eggs. The tale has given rise to the idiom 'killing the goose that lays the golden eggs', which refers to the short-sighted destruction of a valuable resource, or to an unprofitable action motivated by greed.
The English writer W. Somerset Maugham reverses the moral order in a different way in his short story, "The Ant and The Grasshopper" (1924). It concerns two brothers, one of whom is a dissolute waster whose hard-working brother has constantly to bail out of difficulties.
The story was likely intended as a literature primer for young readers, but departed from highly moralistic, often religious stories written for the same purpose. Adaptations throughout the 1880s incorporated appealing illustrations in order to hold the reader's attention as interest became more relevant to reading lessons.
The story's popularity was further assured after it appeared in La Fontaine's Fables (I.18). [7] It then began to be applied on a number of domestic items, including buttons, [ 8 ] firebacks, [ 9 ] snuff graters, household china and tiles, [ 10 ] and on wallpaper. [ 11 ]
To emphasise the moral he is drawing, Lessing concludes with the curse, 'Abominable flatterers, may you all be so rewarded with one poison for another!'. [8] An Eastern story of flattery rewarded exists in the Buddhist scriptures as the Jambhu-Khadaka-Jataka. [9] In this, a jackal praises the crow's voice as it is feeding in a rose-apple tree ...
From early Christian times, the story of the ten virgins has been told as a mystery play. St Methodius wrote the Banquet of the Ten Virgins, [32] a mystery play in Greek. Sponsus, a mid-11th-century play, was performed in both Latin and Occitan. The German play Ludus de decem virginibus was first performed on 4 May 1321. There was also a Dutch ...