Lion's share

The Phaedrus version

By the 12th century, the fable had already spawned multiple versions, as shown by Marie de France’s Ysopet, which contains two tales under the heading "The Lion Goes Hunting." In one, the lion hunts with a wild ox and a wolf; the three animals split the kill and ask the lion to divide it. In the other, a goat and a sheep join the lion, and their deer is split into four portions. In both stories, the lion first takes shares by claiming a legal right, then keeps the rest through intimidation. Later, La Fontaine’s Fables gives a version with a heifer, a goat, and a lamb dividing a kill into four parts.

The lion takes each share because he is king, the strongest, the bravest, and threatens to kill anyone who touches the fourth. A Latin reference to Aesop appears near the start of the Common Era, when a Roman lawyer used the phrase societas leonina (a leonine company) to describe an unequal business arrangement like the fable’s. In the early 1800s, Jefferys Taylor turned the story into a poem about a commercial partnership, titled "The Beasts in Partnership."

The Babrius version

The phrase "lion's share" originates from fables about a lion who takes most of a hunt's spoils. In an extended Greek version by Babrius, a lion and a wild donkey hunt together, the lion known for strength and the donkey for speed. The lion divides their catch into three parts.

He takes the first because he is king of the beasts, the second because they are equal partners, and then tells the donkey to run away quickly rather than dare touch the third. Babrius's moral is: "Measure yourself! Do not engage in any business or partnership with a man more powerful!"

A more cynical version appeared in the Middle Ages. Here, a fox joins the lion and donkey on the hunt. The donkey divides the catch into three equal portions.

The lion becomes angry, kills the donkey, and eats him. The fox then piles everything together, leaving only a tiny bit for herself, and tells the lion to choose. When the lion asks how she learned to share this way, the fox replies, "From the donkey's misfortune." This variation is numbered 149 in the Perry Index and was used by Neo-Latin writers like Gabriele Faerno and Hieronymus Osius, and in English by Geoffrey Whitney.

The 13th-century Persian poet Rumi gave this alternative fable a spiritual reading in his Masnavi. He began by guiding the reader to interpret it in a spiritual sense. In Rumi's version, the lion's companions are a wolf and a fox. The lion orders the wolf to divide the catch.

When the wolf divides it into three parts, the lion tears off the wolf's head, just as the lion tore the donkey to pieces in Aesop's fable. Rumi's specialty is explaining his characters' motives. Here, the lion says it is an act of grace to kill the wolf because the wolf did not recognize superiority when he saw it.

When the fox is tested the same way, he does not keep even a morsel for himself. He explains that he learned wisdom from the wolf's fate and thanks the lion for the privilege of going second. This allows Rumi to conclude that people are lucky to be living now, with the examples of past generations to guide them. Rumi's fox then worships at the lion's feet, addressing him as "O king of the world," and is rewarded for this devotion with everything he had resigned to the divine king.

Other related Eastern fables

Fables where a powerful creature takes everything for itself and fables where a judge uses their authority to cheat are closely related. In fact, both belong to the same category, type 51 in the Aarne–Thompson classification system. One example comes from the 10th-century Arabic Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity, which describes a story said to be from India.

In it, a group of foxes cannot agree on how to share a dead camel, so they ask a passing wolf to divide it fairly. The wolf starts to do so but then decides to keep the entire camel for himself, since he is stronger. However, the foxes appeal to a lion, who rules in their favor, kills the wolf, and gives the camel back to them.

This tale blends into an Indian variant called the Dabbhapuppha Jataka, which uses different animals but the same basic idea of an unfair division. Here, a jackal offers to settle a dispute between two otters fighting over a fish they caught together. The jackal gives them the head and tail and runs off with the main part of the fish. Beyond criticizing the greed that causes conflict, the story is skeptical about how the powerful twist laws to benefit themselves, ending with a satirical verse.

Because it involves an outside arbitrator, this fable shares features with another of Aesop's tales, The Lion, the Bear and the Fox. In that story, a lion and a bear attack a kid at the same time and then fight over it. When they are both too worn out to move, a fox steals their prize and leaves them to think, "How much better it would have been to have shared in a friendly spirit."