Aesop’s Fables

No. 414
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Aquila et Sagitta (Latin)

Sagittarius in aquilam collimabat et, missa sagitta, confixit aquilam. Cumque, conversa ad sagittam, aquila eam quoque pennatam suis videret esse pennis, “Multis,” inquit, “suae propriae facultates et res insidias et periculum creant.”

The Eagle and the Arrow (English)

An Archer once feathered an Arrow with a feather that had fallen from an Eagle’s wing. It shortly afterwards happened that with this Arrow he shot the very Eagle that had cast the feather. In her mortal agony the Eagle recognised her property, and exclaimed, “Bitter is it to die, but doubly bitter to find that I have helped to speed the means of death!” (Translation from JBR Collection)

The Latin word, sagitta, means “arrow.” From that comes Sagittarius, “archer.”