Aesop’s Fable: The Lion and the Fox
A substitute for scrolling.
I have been trying to detach from my phone for a while now, it is not the easiest thing to do I must admit. How did I ever live without one?
Enter Aesop’s Fables. This, apparently, was one of Da Vinci’s favourite books, in fact a copy of it was one of the things he left for Salai when he died, if I remember correctly. I find it mind-blowing that I’m now reading a book that’s over 2000 years old! The same stories that Da Vinci adored. I keep this book, and books like it – meaning short stories or others that I can dip in and out of, like a coffee table book – around the house for whenever I have a minute or two to kill.
The other day, I came across this one titled The Fox and the Lion.
A fox had never seen a lion before, and when he finally encountered one for the first time, he was so terrified that he almost died of fright. When he met him the second time, he was still afraid but managed to conceal his fear. When he saw him for the third time, he was emboldened that he went up to him and began having a familiar conversation with him.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
Ironically, I wasn’t, ahem, familiar with the expression which, I would guess, was not on the original Aesop’s but rather added long after by someone else (publisher, editor perhaps?), so I was a bit puzzled. I asked my husband if he could illuminate this for me, but we both ended up even more puzzled. He believed the word ‘contempt’ was confusing and he would’ve preferred disrespect, for example when you get too chummy with your boss, you could end up disrespecting them. Which makes sense to me, but why did they choose ‘contempt’? Is it one of those where the word means something else altogether in the olden days (can’t leave the linguist in me well alone, haha)? So off I went to ask the big G, no not God, Google.
According to “the net”, the meaning of the expression is that the more acquainted one becomes with a person, the more one knows about their shortcomings, hence the easier it is to dislike them, for example couples whose relationship broke down. While that makes perfect sense to me, I was more familiar with the opposite; that you cannot love without knowing, or as we Indonesians would say tak kenal maka tak sayang – literally means no ken, no love.
In the context of the fable, I would imagine the lion straight away eats the fox, he is after all the ultimate predator, and here’s a fox approaching him, pretty much offering himself as an elevenses, might as well bring the lion a cuppa. So, ‘contempt’ feels odd to me. I think that the fox wouldn’t have time to feel contempt – what with the fight or flight response deployed, being busy trying to stay alive.
I thought, maybe I was looking at it wrong, that maybe the one that felt the contempt was the lion, not the fox. The lion felt the contempt because he was underestimated, insulted even, by the fox – a commoner in his kingdom who dared to be chummy with the king. The result is of course the fox being the day’s snack for the lion. But that doesn’t feel right either. It feels to me that because the sense of familiarity was initiated by the fox, then the contempt should be felt also by him.
To match the meaning of the expression with the story to me, it would read as follows: the fox finally gets to know the lion better and he found out that the lion, or lions, would eat foxes – his “people”. Thus, he found out about the lion’s shortcoming. For this to work though, I have to fight my instinct to think that a lion would jump at the first sight of a meal. It feels rather counterintuitive.
If I were to change the expression, it would be something along the lines of “Familiarity tells Fear to vamoose, or eff-off”, okay… maybe something a bit catchier than that, would be fun to illustrate that too, don’t you think?
I know, I’m overthinking this. It’s not really important that the story feels counterintuitive as long as the wisdom is delivered, right? But is it delivered? What if “familiarity breeds contempt” wasn’t what Aesop was trying to say? The weird stuff my brain wonders about, huh?
So, how would you interpret this fable?
Hey Faye… here you are 😊
Not being overly studious I tend to regard things instinctively. I would say it means that when confronting your fears the reality is often less frightening than first thought. One is aware of the danger but approaching with caution is often a good thing. Not sure where the 'familiarity breeds contempt' comes in.
I agree with you that Aesop was meaning " "familiarity breeds contempt" However, it is very close to the meaning. My understanding of the Fable is about becoming familiar with someone's true colours. If someone is always late you may not feel contempt for them but this flaw in their character may make you less likely to to rely on them to be on time. But you would never assume a person has this character flaw on meeting them. Familiarity can bring love and respect but it also can bring contempt. It depends on the person who you are becoming familiar with. In a friendship it can also imply that getting to know each very well and becoming too comfortable can cause you to miss treat each other and take each other for granted. This can generate a contempt for each other. However, it is a good fable about having prejudices or the lack of prejudices. To assume good intent when there isn't any or to assume evil intent where there is none.