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The Lion in Love is a cautionary tale of Greek origin which was counted among Aesop's Fables and is numbered 140 in the Perry Index.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=THE LION AND THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER )〕 Its present title is a translation of the one given by Jean de la Fontaine after he retold it in his fables. Since then it has been treated frequently by artists. It has also acquired idiomatic force and as such has been used as the title of several literary works. ==The fable and its interpretation== A lion falls in love with a peasant's daughter and asks the father's permission to marry her. Unwilling to refuse outright, the man sets the condition that the animal should first have its claws clipped and its teeth filed. When the lion complies, the man clubs it to death, or in milder accounts simply drives it away, since it now can no longer defend itself. Though the story was included in early collections of Aesop's fables, including those of Babrius and Aphthonius of Antioch, its earliest relation is as part of a war leader's speech in the 1st century BCE ''Bibliotheca historica'' of Diodorus Siculus, where it is described without ascription as an "old story".〔G. J. Van Dijk, ''Ainoi, Logoi, Mythoi'', Brill 1997 (p.280-3 )〕 Significantly, the fable is interpreted there as a warning against ever letting down one's guard where an enemy is concerned and Aphthonius too comments that "If you follow the advice of your enemies, you will run into danger". By the time the fable reappeared in Europe after the Renaissance it was being reinterpreted as a caution against being led astray by passion. The Neo-Latin poem ''Leo procus'' of Hieronymus Osius ends with the reflection "By love the cleverest , sometimes, / are led astray, the strongest tamed".〔''Phryx Aesopus'', (fable 216 )〕 A century later, Francis Barlow's illustration of what he titles ''Leo Amatorius'' is summed up in the couplet "Love asailes with powerfull charmes, / and both our Prudence and our strength disarmes".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=109. Leo amatorius (1687), illustrated by Francis Barlow )〕 La Fontaine titled his poem ''Le lion amoureux'' and ended with the sentiment "O love, O love, mastered by you, / prudence we well may bid adieu" (IV.1).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=the Lion in love, the Shepherd and the sea, the Fly and Ant, the Gardener and his Lord )〕 One of the factors influencing this interpretation was the development of the Renaissance emblem associated with the Latin sentiment ''Amor vincit omnia'' (Love conquers all). In a medal struck in 1444, Pisanello pictures a lion fawning on winged Cupid.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Leonello d'Este )〕 This was reprised in the ''Emblemata amatoria'' (1607/8) of Daniël Heinsius as a Cupid astride a rampant lion,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=EPU - Daniël Heinsius, Emblemata amatoria (1607/8) - Omnia vincit amor () )〕 accompanied in one edition by a poem in French in which Love boasts that "the lion is conquered by my taming arrow".〔Wikimedia〕 The interpretation is that even the fiercest nature can be tamed by love, but the reference to a lion inevitably brings to mind the well known instance of his fatal subjection to love in the fable. In illustrations during the following centuries, the lion fawns on his lady love in the same attitude as in Pisanello's medal, as for instance on the plate from the La Fontaine series of Keller & Guerin at the Luneville potteries.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=DEUX ASSIETTES ANCIENNES LUNEVILLE KELLER ET GUERIN )〕 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 Lion in Love (fable)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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