The Farmer and the Viper
Encyclopedia
The Farmer and the Viper is one of Aesop's Fables
, numbered 176 in the Perry Index
. It has the moral that kindness to the evil will be met by betrayal and is the source of the idiom 'to nourish a viper in one's bosom'.
who finds a viper
freezing in the snow. Taking pity on it, he picks it up and places it within his coat. The viper, revived by the warmth, bites his rescuer, who dies realising that it is his own fault. In an alternative version, the farmer brings the viper home to warm by the fire. When it threatens his wife and children, he kills it with an axe. It is the latter version that Jean de la Fontaine
uses in Le villageois et le serpent (Fables VI.13); this ends with the detail that the farmer cuts the snake in three and the parts struggle to re-unite themselves.
The Russian fabulist Ivan Krylov
adapts the story to address contemporary circumstances in his “The Peasant & The Snake”. Written at a time when many Russian families were employing French prisoners from Napoleon I
's invasion of 1812 to educate their children, he expressed his distrust of the defeated enemy. In his fable the snake seeks sanctuary in a peasant home and pleads to be employed 'to embrace the kitten, caress a maid love-smitten,' or to look after the young. The peasant replies that he cannot take the risk of endangering his family and kills the snake.
A Hausa
tale from the north of Nigeria
has certain details similar to Aesop in its treatment of ingratitude for favours rendered. A farmer hides a hunted snake by allowing it to creep up his anus
. When the snake refuses to leave its comfortable quarters, a heron helps him to expel it. The man then asks how to neutralise the poison that the snake has left and the heron tells him to make a medicine of six white fowl. The man ties it up to make the first of his victims but his wife frees it. On leaving, the heron pecks out one of her eyes. The story-teller ends with the remark that 'if you see the dust of a fight rising, you will know that a kindness is being repaid'.
it appeared as In sinu viperam habere (to have a snake in the breast) and in Erasmus' 16th century collection of proverbial phrases, the Adagia
, as Colubrum in sinu fovere (to nourish a serpent in one's bosom). The usual English form is 'to nourish a snake (or viper) in one's bosom', a phrase used by Geoffrey Chaucer
(Merchant's Tale, line 1786), William Shakespeare
(Richard II 3.2.129–31,) John Milton
(Samson Agonistes, line 763) and John Dryden
(All for Love 4.1.464–66), among the foremost.
's short story Egotism or The Bosom-Serpent
(1843) reinterprets the phrase used of Delilah
in Milton's dramatic poem Samson Agonistes
. Milton was alluding to cherishing the proverbial 'snake in the bosom', in this case the woman who had betrayed him. In Hawthorne's story a husband separated from his wife, but still dwelling upon her, becomes inturned and mentally unstable. The obsession that is killing him (and may even have taken physical form) vanishes once the couple are reconciled.
Khushwant Singh
's short-story "The Mark of Vishnu" (1950) gives the story an Eastern background. A Brahmin
priest, assured in the belief that a cobra
has a godly nature and will never harm others if treated courteously, is nevertheless killed by the snake when trying to heal and feed it.
In popular music, "The Snake" (1968) by Al Wilson
tells of a tender-hearted woman who finds a dying, half-frozen snake on the side of the road. Taking the snake home, she revives it and hugs it. The snake later bites her, then says to her as she lies dying in disbelief, "Silly woman, you knew I was a snake before you brought me in!"
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
, numbered 176 in the Perry Index
Perry Index
The Perry Index is a widely-used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC...
. It has the moral that kindness to the evil will be met by betrayal and is the source of the idiom 'to nourish a viper in one's bosom'.
The story
The story concerns a farmerFarmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
who finds a viper
Viperidae
The Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes found all over the world, except in Antarctica, Australia, Ireland, Madagascar, Hawaii, various other isolated islands, and above the Arctic Circle. All have relatively long, hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of venom. Four...
freezing in the snow. Taking pity on it, he picks it up and places it within his coat. The viper, revived by the warmth, bites his rescuer, who dies realising that it is his own fault. In an alternative version, the farmer brings the viper home to warm by the fire. When it threatens his wife and children, he kills it with an axe. It is the latter version that Jean de la Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
uses in Le villageois et le serpent (Fables VI.13); this ends with the detail that the farmer cuts the snake in three and the parts struggle to re-unite themselves.
The Russian fabulist Ivan Krylov
Ivan Krylov
Ivan Andreyevich Krylov is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work, often satirizing the incompetent bureaucracy that was stifling social progress in his time.-Life:Ivan Krylov was born in...
adapts the story to address contemporary circumstances in his “The Peasant & The Snake”. Written at a time when many Russian families were employing French prisoners from Napoleon I
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's invasion of 1812 to educate their children, he expressed his distrust of the defeated enemy. In his fable the snake seeks sanctuary in a peasant home and pleads to be employed 'to embrace the kitten, caress a maid love-smitten,' or to look after the young. The peasant replies that he cannot take the risk of endangering his family and kills the snake.
A Hausa
Hausa people
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
tale from the north of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
has certain details similar to Aesop in its treatment of ingratitude for favours rendered. A farmer hides a hunted snake by allowing it to creep up his anus
Human anus
The human anus is the external opening of the rectum. Like other animals, its closure is controlled by sphincter muscles...
. When the snake refuses to leave its comfortable quarters, a heron helps him to expel it. The man then asks how to neutralise the poison that the snake has left and the heron tells him to make a medicine of six white fowl. The man ties it up to make the first of his victims but his wife frees it. On leaving, the heron pecks out one of her eyes. The story-teller ends with the remark that 'if you see the dust of a fight rising, you will know that a kindness is being repaid'.
Proverbial use
Aesop's fable was widespread in Classical times and allusions to it became proverbial. In CiceroCicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
it appeared as In sinu viperam habere (to have a snake in the breast) and in Erasmus' 16th century collection of proverbial phrases, the Adagia
Adagia
Adagia is an annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs, compiled during the Renaissance by Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Erasmus' collection of proverbs is "one of the most monumental ... ever assembled" Adagia (adagium is the singular form and adagia is the plural) is an...
, as Colubrum in sinu fovere (to nourish a serpent in one's bosom). The usual English form is 'to nourish a snake (or viper) in one's bosom', a phrase used by Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
(Merchant's Tale, line 1786), William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
(Richard II 3.2.129–31,) John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
(Samson Agonistes, line 763) and John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
(All for Love 4.1.464–66), among the foremost.
Modern versions
Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
's short story Egotism or The Bosom-Serpent
Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent
"Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author originally intended for the story to appear in a collection entitled Allegories of the Heart. It was first published in the March, 1843 edition of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review...
(1843) reinterprets the phrase used of Delilah
Delilah
Delilah appears only in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges 16, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall...
in Milton's dramatic poem Samson Agonistes
Samson Agonistes
Samson Agonistes is a tragic closet drama by John Milton. It appeared with the publication of Milton's Paradise Regain'd in 1671, as the title page of that volume states: "Paradise Regained / A Poem / In IV Books / To Which Is Added / Samson Agonistes"...
. Milton was alluding to cherishing the proverbial 'snake in the bosom', in this case the woman who had betrayed him. In Hawthorne's story a husband separated from his wife, but still dwelling upon her, becomes inturned and mentally unstable. The obsession that is killing him (and may even have taken physical form) vanishes once the couple are reconciled.
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country....
's short-story "The Mark of Vishnu" (1950) gives the story an Eastern background. A Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
priest, assured in the belief that a cobra
Cobra
Cobra is a venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. However, not all snakes commonly referred to as cobras are of the same genus, or even of the same family. The name is short for cobra capo or capa Snake, which is Portuguese for "snake with hood", or "hood-snake"...
has a godly nature and will never harm others if treated courteously, is nevertheless killed by the snake when trying to heal and feed it.
In popular music, "The Snake" (1968) by Al Wilson
Al Wilson (singer)
Al Wilson was an American soul singer best known for the million-selling #1 hit, "Show and Tell". He is also remembered for his Northern soul anthem, "The Snake".-Career:...
tells of a tender-hearted woman who finds a dying, half-frozen snake on the side of the road. Taking the snake home, she revives it and hugs it. The snake later bites her, then says to her as she lies dying in disbelief, "Silly woman, you knew I was a snake before you brought me in!"
External links
- 15th-20th century illustrations of "The countryman and the snake" from books