Aesop’s Foibles # 8 The Frogs Who Desired A King
The Frogs Who Desired A King
This is Aesop’s tale of frogs who lived in a pond. They lead lives that were peaceful enough and spent their livelong day leaping from one lotus leaf to another and croaking the same gossips with each other day after day. They, as all creatures are, lived under constant fear of the lurking natural dangers that dangles over them. Mother Nature can sometimes be cruel and despotic, but that’s life.
It would have been fine if life continued as it did but it was not to be because the frogs, after a while, became discontented with the tedium that they had to go through each day. So they called out to the mighty god Zeus to send them a king who can change their boring and tiresom existence. Now, the deities during that time were not of the benevolent kind. Zeus who was the mightiest of them all was whimsical and prone to playing cruel pranks to the mortal creatures in their midst.
Zeus was amused by the frogs’ request and playfully a big log crashing down their pond and with a thunderous voice said “Behold your King!” The splashing entrance of their new monarch terrified the frogs and most of them cowered and hid under the lotus leaves and reeds that lined the pond. After a while, seeing that the log just stayed there unmoving except for occasional undulations they swam towards it and climbed up, warily at first but finding that the King was an unmoving, ineffective and unthreatening ruler they all burst in exhuberant and anarchic show of disrespect.
They again troubled Zeus with a request to find them another king since this one was ineffectual and did not help improve their lot. Annoyed by this constant show of discontent Zeus sent a stork who in no time at all gobbled up most of the frogs in the pond. The frogs who survived the slaughter cried out to Zeus to send them another king but to this the god of gods refused.
The simple moral of this fable is “be careful with what you wish for”. How aptly this fable applies to us Filipinos except that in our case after rejecting the harmless but ineffective ruler Zeus sent us hungry storks in succession, each one more avid and rapacious than the ones before. The moral lesson to us is “wala kayong kadaladala”.
No wonder Some of the frogs finding the situation unbearable leapfrogged to other ponds where they stayed, although as second class reptiles, but unthreatened by the spectre of a gigantic stork whose appetite for frog’s legs is insatiable.
Hi Pmel, I see that you
Submitted by ed_roa on October 30, 2008 - 3:55pm.
Hi Pmel,
I see that you have been reading up on Aesop's foibles. It has been almost a year I think that I have posted these series, slamat naman at may nagkainteres pa ring bumasa.
On why Zeus of all gods, well Aesop was Greek and Zeus was the chief god in Greek mythology.
I do enjoy reading them time and again. :)
Submitted by Pmel on October 30, 2008 - 9:13pm.
It's interesting to see how it would have been understood in the eyes of a Filipino. Something I've always wondered about.
I am ashamed ... I admit I failed to realize that simple fact of Aesop being Greek and the connection of it to the Greek God, Zeus.
What I do wonder is if you could rewrite this story into a Filipino version instead of just trying to offer a different view of the story. You seem to have grasped the themes and moral lessons. Why not?I know for a fact that Akira Kurosawa took Shakespeare's King Lear and embedded it into the story of a Feudal Lord in Japan, thus creating the movie, Ran. You should see it!!! It's one of his masterpiece! :D
I'm just saying. :)
Interesting. :)
I have however a slight difficulty trying to picture Zeus meddling with affairs of frogs. Was that intentional? Perhaps, a different kind of god would do? ^^;