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The situation of the Eagle Wounded by an Arrow vaned with its own feathers is referred to in several ancient Greek sources and is listed as fable 276 in the Perry Index.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=THE EAGLE AND THE ARROW )〕 It is generally applied to the misery of realising that one has contributed to one's own injury. ==The fable and its variations== The earliest mention of the fable is a brief reference in The Myrmidons, a lost tragedy of Aeschylus written in the 5th century BCE. Here it is said to be of Libyan origin and is generally supposed to refer to the personal blame felt by Achilles for the death of his friend Patroclus.〔G.J. van Dyck, ''Ainoi, Logoi, Mythoi'' , Brill 1997, (pp.169 ff )〕 There are widespread references to it afterwards〔Francisco Rodríguez Adrados, ''History of the Graeco-latin Fable'' vol.3, Brill 2003, (p.587 )〕 and, although it is not generally ascribed to Aesop, it does appear among the collection of his fables by Babrius under the title "The Archer and the Eagle".〔''Fables of Æsop and Babrius'', verse translation by J.B. Rose, Dover 1870, (p.87 )〕 The fable did not appear in mediaeval collections of fables reliant on Latin sources but began to be noticed in Europe during the 17th century. In Roger L'Estrange's collection of fables by Aesop and others (1692) it is recorded as follows: 'An Eagle that was watching upon a Rock once for a Hare, had the ill Hap to be struck with an Arrow. This Arrow, it seems was feather’d from her own Wing, which very Consideration went nearer her Heart, she said, than Death itself.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=48. THE EAGLE AND ARROW (Sir Roger L'Estrange) )〕 When the situation appeared in La Fontaine's Fables, it was under the more generalised title of "The bird wounded by an arrow" (II.6) and a wider lesson is drawn from the incident. The dying bird blames humans for using its own parts against itself and claims that they have learnt this cruelty from the way they treat each other.〔Norman Shapiro, ''50 Fables of La Fontaine'', University of Illinois 1997, (p.23 )〕 A contemporary French emblem book took a different view, however, starting from the perception that the bird in the poem was on the look-out for a hare. If another hunter brings it down while so engaged then, according to Daniel de la Feuille's ''Devises et emblêmes'' (1691), it is a case of poetic justice, of having inflicted on itself the harm it was trying to inflict on others. Illustrated under the Latin title ''Capiens capior'' (the preyer become prey), it shows a sparrow hawk perched on a hare with an arrow through its own neck.〔(Emblem Project Utrecht )〕 The fable had also travelled eastwards and reappeared in the 11th century in the ''Diwan'' (poetical works) of Nasir Khusraw. His poem against pride relates how an eagle soars through the air, vaunting itself. When it is brought down by a hunter and recognises its own feathers on the arrow, the realisation comes that it has been injured by its own means.〔A translation by Henri Massé is included in (Anthologie persane (XIe-XIXe siècles)'' )〕 Pieter de la Court was to give the story this interpretation in his ''Sinryke Fabulen'' (1685), making the point that those who thrust themselves into prominence become the mark for others to harm.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Sinryke fabulen : verklaart en toegepast tot alderley zeede-lessen, dienstig om waargenoomen te werden in het menschelijke en burgerlijke leeven )〕 The point is underlined by the Latin tag beneath the illustration of the injured bird, an adaptation of proverbial lines from the 4th century Latin poet Claudian: ''Vivitur exiguo melius'', natura beatis / omnibus esse dedit, ''si quis cognoverit uti'' (it is better to live on little, (has provided for all to do so happily, ) could one but know it).〔''In Rufinum'' 1, 215-6, cited in ''5000 proverbi e motti latini'', Milan 1990〕 The Greek origin of the fable was not lost sight of in France and Pierre de Frasnay (1676-1753) provided a four-line poetic version in his ''Mythologie ou recueil des fables grecques, ésopiques et sybaritiques'' (Orléans 1750). The moral he draws from the story of ''L'aigle blessé d'une flèche'' is that one should not be too self-reliant, for that too is an avenue that leads to harm.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mythologie, Ou Recueil Des Fables Grecques, Esopiques Et Sybaritiques )〕 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 Eagle Wounded by an Arrow」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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