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The Fisherman and His Pipe is a fable which goes back at least as far as the Histories of Herodotus and at some point it became part of the corpus of Aesop's fable (number 11 in the Perry Index).

Early versions

Herodotus

The fable is recorded by Herodotus in his Histories, written from the 450s to the 420s BC. Cyrus the Great, had asked the Ionians to revolt against the Lydian king Croesus. The Ionians rejected the request. Later when Lydia had been subjugated by Cyrus, they sent ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis saying that would now willingly submit to him and asking for similar terms to those they had from Croesus. Cyrus listened attentively to their proposals, and answered them by a fable:

"There was a certain piper," he said, "who was walking one day by the seaside, when he espied some fish; so he began to pipe to them, imagining they would come out to him upon the land. But as he found at last that his hope was vain, he took a net, and enclosing a great draught of fishes, drew them ashore. The fish then began to leap and dance; but the piper said, 'Cease your dancing now, as you did not choose to come and dance when I piped to you.'"^[1]

Jesus

A similarity has been seen between the fable and words of Jesus recorded in Matthew's and Luke's gospels:^[2]^[3]

"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

'We played the pipe for you,

and you did not dance;

we sang a dirge,

and you did not mourn.'

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her deeds."^[4]

La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine adapted the fable as "Les Poissons et le Berger qui Joue de la Flute". ^[5]

Notes

^ Herodotus Histories Book 1, 141
^ Culbertson, Philip L. (1995). A word fitly spoken : context, transmission, and adoption of the parables of Jesus. Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of New York Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-0791423110.
^ Ehrhardt, Arnold (1964). The Framework of the New Testament Stories. Harvard University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0674317000.
^ Matthew 11:11-19(also Luke 7:31-36)
^ Les Poissons et le Berger qui joue de la flûte, in wikisource

External links

[1] Herodotus Histories Book 1, 141

[2] Culbertson, Philip L. (1995). A word fitly spoken : context, transmission, and adoption of the parables of Jesus. Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of New York Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-0791423110.

[3] Ehrhardt, Arnold (1964). The Framework of the New Testament Stories. Harvard University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0674317000.

[4] Matthew 11:11-19(also Luke 7:31-36)

[5] Les Poissons et le Berger qui joue de la flûte, in wikisource

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