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"The Blind Man and the Lame" is a fable that recounts how two individuals collaborate in an effort to overcome their respective disabilities. The theme is first attested in Greek about the first century BCE. Stories with this feature occur in Asia, Europe and North America. While visual representations were common in Europe from the 16th century, literary fables incorporating the theme only began to emerge during the 18th century and the story was eventually claimed, without evidence, to be one of Aesop's Fables. The adaptation by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian gave rise to the French idiom, "''L'union de l'aveugle et le paralytique''" ("the union of the blind man and the lame"), used ironically in reference to any unpromising partnership. ==Western Asian sources== A group of four epigrams in the Greek Anthology concern a blind man and a lame. Plato the Younger states the situation in two wittily contrasting lines: :::A blind man carried a lame man on his back, :::lending him his feet and borrowing from him his eyes. The three others, who include Leonidas of Alexandria and Antiphilus of Byzantium, comment that by combining in this way the two make a perfect whole.〔(III.11, 12, 13, 13b )〕 A West Asian story based on this trope is found in a pseudo-biblical document, the Apocryphon of Ezekiel, in which the two form a partnership to raid an orchard but claim their innocence by pointing out their disabilities. A variation of the story appears in the Jewish Talmud (Sanhedrin 91)〔Richard N. Longenecker, ''The challenge of Jesus' parables'', Grand Rapids, Michigan 2000 (pp.64-5 )〕 and yet another is told in Islamic tradition as occurring during the boyhood of Jesus.〔Muhammad Ata Ur-Rahim, Ahmad Thomson, ''Jesus, prophet of Isam'', Norwich UK, 1977 (p.20 )〕 That the basic situation of the two helping each other was still known in Mediaeval times is suggested by its appearance among the Latin stories in the ''Gesta Romanorum'' at the turn of the 14th century. There an emperor declares a general feast and the lame man proposes the means of getting there to the blind.〔(University of Michigan )〕 In the same century a paralytic boy mounted on a blind man's shoulders appears in a fresco in Lesnovo monastery, seeking a cure for their leprosy and suggesting a similar lesson in co-operation to overcome disabilities.〔Marija T. V’lckova-Laskoska and Dimitri S. Laskoski, "The Blind Man and the Paralytic Boy of Lesnovo: Diagnosis of Borderline Lepromatous Leprosy After 660 Years?", ''Arch Dermatol.'' 2009, (145(9):1047 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Blind Man and the Lame」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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