[UA] Parables, Archetypes and the yellow brick road

[Timothy Ferguson]

----- Original Message -----
From: <wild at park.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2001 12:54 AM
Subject: Re: [UA] Parables, Archetypes and the yellow brick road


> On Fri, 09 February 2001, "Nick Wedig" wrote:
>

> So?  Lots of things can be read on more than one level, and parables have
been around for a very long time.  Aesop's Fables don't come with a
disclaimer that they're examples of moral behaviour either, and you don't
have to read them as such if you don't want to.

The originals are far more interesting than what we are -told- are Aesop's
fables.  Aesop was an ancient Helle, right?  So he has this parable where a
guy gives charity to some poor man, and the gods -strike the rich man down-.
The rich man then says "Hey, I was relieving suffering...what did I do?" and
the gods say "How can a man have so little love for his family that he gives
his wealth away to strangers?"  Charity, you see, was a sin, because it
opposed true love of one's own family.

There's another where a man is devoted to his plain wife, and she feels bad
about how plain she is and for years prays to the goddess of love to make
her beautiful.  Finally the goddess gets jack of being heckled all night by
this woman and turns up to smite her.  "What have I done?  I was one of your
most fervent devotees!  Why have you not made me beautiful?" and the goddess
answers, "Because I hate your husband for believing you already are.".

As a final one, Aesop argued that it was wrong to sack politicians found
guilty of stealing public money.  He believed that given all politicians
steal public money, it was best to keep the ones who had already done it,
than get new ones.  He called this the parable of the fox and the ticks.  A
fox is near death from the ticks that drain his blood and a bird offfers to
take them off.  The fox declines saying that if they are removed he will
simply get new fleas who, being less sated, will drain him dry.

Aesop, in the original versions, is sublime.


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