The Eagle and the Fox story
The Eagle and the Fox is a fable of friendship betrayed and revenged. Counted as one of Aesop’s Fables, it is numbered 1 in the Perry Index. The central situation concerns an eagle that seizes a fox’s cubs and bears them off to feed its young. There are then alternative endings to the story, in one of which the fox exacts restitution while in the other it gains retribution for its injury.
5 total · 5 major
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| betrayal | major | The eagle suddenly betrayed the fox. |
| friendship | major | The fox and the eagle had long been friends. |
| hubris | major | The eagle thought itself safe from the fox as it was high up in a tree, but the fox was cunning and burned down the tree. |
| mercy | major | In mercilessly ignoring the entreaties of the fox, the eagle sealed its own doom. |
| the desire for vengeance | major | The fox burned down the eagle's tree in an act of vengeance. |