A Man used to steal and store goods from neighbors. Jupiter turned him into an Ant but his behavior did not change.
At the root, people stay the same even if they look like they are changing.
L’Estrange version
The ant, or pismire, was formerly a husband-man, that secretly filch’d away his neighbour’s goods and corn, and stor’d all up in his own barn. He drew a general curse upon his head for’t, and Jupiter, as a punishment, and for the credit of mankind, turn’d him into a pismire; but this change of shape wrought no alteration, either of mind or of manners; for he keeps the same humour and nature to this very day.
Moral
That which some call good husbandry, industry and providence, others call raking, avarice, and oppression: so that the vertue and the vice, in many cases, are hardly distinguishable but by the name.
Gherardo Image from 1480
Formica Transformata
Quae nunc formica est, dicitur homo fuisse agricola, assuetus furari et clam surripere vicinorum messes et sata. Unde indignati, Dii eum in hanc bestiolae naturam transformarint, quae, inveteratae consuetudinis haud oblita, formam hominis, non mores suos, exuerit. Ut antea, huc et illuc per campos excurrit, furtim grana suffuratura vicinorum.
Moral
Adeo Naturam et mores suos dediscere difficile est.
Perry #166
