“A man had a hen that laid a golden egg for him each and every day.
The man was not satisfied with this daily profit, and instead he foolishly grasped for more.
Expecting to find a treasure inside, the man slaughtered the hen.
When he found that the hen did not have a treasure inside her after all,
he remarked to himself, ‘While chasing after hopes of a treasure,
I lost the profit I held in my hands!’
–Aesop’s Fables (Chambry edition), Index Chambry 287 = Perry 87
Ὄρνιν τις εἶχε καλὴν χρυσᾶ ὠὰ τίκτουσαν· νομίσας δὲ ἔνδον αὐτῆς ὄγκον χρυσίου εἶναι καὶ θύσας εὗρεν οὖσαν ὁμοίαν τῶν λοιπῶν ὀρνίθων. Ὁ δὲ ἀθρόον πλοῦτον ἐλπίσας εὑρεῖν καὶ τοῦ μικροῦ κέρδους ἐστερήθη. Ὅτι τοῖς παροῦσιν ἀρκείσθω τις καὶ τὴν ἀπληστίαν φευγέτω.”
(Hellenistic statue claimed to depict Aesop, Art Collection of Villa Albani, Rome)
Αἴσωπος, Aisōpos, (620–564 BC). Greek historian Herodotus claimed that Aesop (c. 620-560 BC) was a slave first owned by Xanthus on Isle of Samos and later by Iadmon who gave him freedom because he was such a skilled storyteller (Herodotus, Waterfield & Dewald,1998).
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