The Fisherman and the Little Fish
A small fish pleads for release; the fisherman refuses.
The Fisherman and the Little Fish is a fable attributed to Aesop, numbered 18 in the Perry Index. It appears in Greek in the work of Babrius and in Latin in that of Avianus. The story was later given further currency in La Fontaine's Fables (V. 3).
Quick Facts
- Perry index number
- 18
- Greek recorder
- Babrius
- Latin recorder
- Avianus
Facts from the source article.
Artistic interpretations
In English book illustrations, the fisherman is nearly always shown sitting on a riverbank, staring at the fish. This same image appears on 18th- and 19th-century tiles and china from both England and France. The fable was also one of the miniatures commissioned in 1837 from Punjabi court painter Imam Baksh Lahori by a French enthusiast, though the treatment is not original. Several French composers have set La Fontaine’s Le petit poisson et le pêcheur to music. These include René Falquet (born 1934), Dominique Preschez (born 1954)—whose 1995 work Trois fables en une for small orchestra and soprano includes it as the third piece—and Alexandros Markeas (born 1965), whose La Fontaine des malchanceux for narrator, children’s choir, and orchestra dates from 2005/6.
More in Aesop's Fables
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