The King’s Son And The Painted Lion
Aesop Fable: The King’s Son And The Painted Lion
A king, whose only son was fond of martial exercises, had
a dream in which he was warned that his son would be
killed by a lion. Afraid the dream should prove true, he
built for his son a pleasant palace and adorned its walls for
his amusement with all kinds of life-sized animals, among
which was the picture of a lion.
When the young Prince saw
this, his grief at being thus confined burst out afresh,
and, standing near the lion, he said: "O you most detestable
of animals! through a lying dream of my father’s, which
he saw in his sleep, I am shut up on your account in this
palace as if I had been a girl: what shall I now do to you?"
With these words he stretched out his hands toward a thorntree,
meaning to cut a stick from its branches so that he
might beat the lion. But one of the tree’s prickles pierced
his finger and caused great pain and inflammation, so that
the young Prince fell down in a fainting fit. A violent fever
suddenly set in, from which he died not many days later.
We had better bear our troubles bravely than try to escape
them.
|
|
|
|
|
