A Fox comments on a Viper floating on Thistles (Fence).
Chambry (Viper and Fox)
Note: The Chambry collection is published in Greek. AI was used to translate the Greek to this text:
A viper was lying curled up on a fence made of old thorn-bushes, which stood over a vineyard near the river. But when the river, swollen terribly from constant rains, surged up, the fence was lifted and began drifting away downstream. The viper got tangled in the old brushwood and was carried into the middle of the river. A fox, seeing this, burst out laughing and said: “Bad indeed is the ship, but worthy of its sailor—and the captain worthy of his ship.”
Moral
Even the wicked perish together with the wicked.
How do you think an AI might simplify this fable? Here is one answer, and the illustration above was made from this simplification:
A viper resting on a thorny fence by the river was swept away during a flood. A fox, seeing the viper being carried off with the rotten fence, mocked that both the vessel and the passenger were equally bad and deserved each other.
Moral
Evil people often meet their end in the company of other evildoers.
Perry. #96