HOME | Phaedrus: Previous Page - Next Page

III.13. Apes et Fuci Vespa Iudice

Parallels: For parallel versions, see Perry 504.

Apes in alta fecerant quercu fauos.
Hos fuci inertes esse dicebant suos.
Lis ad forum deducta est, uespa iudice;
quae, genus utrumque nosset cum pulcherrime,
legem duabus hanc proposuit partibus:
"Non inconueniens corpus et par est color,
in dubium plane res ut merito uenerit.
Sed, ne religio peccet inprudens mea,
aluos accipite et ceris opus infundite,
ut ex sapore mellis et forma faui,
de quis nunc agitur, auctor horum appareat."
Fuci recusant, apibus condicio placet.
Tunc illa talem rettulit sententiam:
"Apertum est quis non possit et quis fecerit.
Quapropter apibus fructum restituo suum."
Hanc praeterissem fabulam silentio,
si pactam fuci non recusassent fidem.

Here is the poem in a more prose-like word order for easy reading:

Not yet available.

Here is the poem with meter marks:

Not yet available.

Translation:

The bees had built their honeycombs up high in an oak tree but the lazy drones insisted that the honeycombs were theirs. The case went to court, with the wasp presiding. Given that the judge was well acquainted with both the bees and the drones, she made the following proposal to the two parties: 'Your bodies are not dissimilar and your colouring is the same, which makes this an undeniably difficult decision. Of course, I want to be absolutely scrupulous, avoiding any hasty judgments. So, please take these hives and fill them full of waxen cells. The taste of the honey and the shape of the combs will reveal which party is actually responsible for the honeycombs in question.' While the drones refused to comply with this request, the proposal greatly pleased the bees. Thereupon the judge pronounced the following sentence: 'It's clear who was incapable of making those honeycombs, and who it was that made them. Accordingly, I return to the bees the fruit of their labours.'

I would not have included this fable except for the fact that the drones refused the chance to prove their credibility.

The Bees and the Drone (trans. C. Smart)

Up in a lofty oak the Bees

Had made their honey-combs: but these

The Drones asserted they had wrought.

Then to the bar the cause was brought

Before the wasp, a learned chief,

Who well might argue either brief,

As of a middle nature made.

He therefore to both parties said:

"You're not dissimilar in size,

And each with each your color vies,

That there's a doubt concerning both:

But, lest I err, upon my oath,

'Hives for yourselves directly choose,

And in the wax the work infuse,

That, from the flavor and the form,

We may point out the genuine swarm."

The Drones refuse, the Bees agree-

Then thus did Justice Wasp decree:

" Who can, and who cannot, is plain,

So take, ye Bees, your combs again."

This narrative had been suppress'd

Had not the Drones refused the test.

Illustration:

Not yet available.