strength to withstand the storm made the oak think it was better than the reed in early greek versions and the 5th-century latin version by avianus.
strength to withstand the storm made the oak think it was better than the reed in early greek versions and the 5th-century latin version by avianus.
what makes the oak think it is better than the reed in early greek versions and the 5th-century latin version by avianus?
strength to withstand the storm
there are early greek versions of this fable and a 5th-century latin version by avianus. they deal with the contrasting behaviour of the oak, which trusts in its strength to withstand the storm and is blown over, and the reed that 'bends with the wind' and so survives. most early sources see it as a parable about pride and humility, providing advice on how to survive in turbulent times. this in turn gave rise to various proverbs such as 'better bend than break' and 'a reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall', the earliest occurrence of which is in geoffrey chaucer's "troilus and criseyde" (ii.1387-9). it so happens that there is an overlap here with the old chinese proverb 'a tree that is unbending is easily broken'. the saying originally occurred in the religious classic, the "tao te ching", with the commentary that 'the hard and strong will fall, the soft and weak will overcome'.
the oak and the reed
the best-known myth surrounding proserpina is of her abduction by the god of the underworld, her mother ceres' frantic search for her, and her eventual but temporary restitution to the world above. in latin literature, several versions are known, all similar in most respects to the myths of greek persephone's abduction by the king of the underworld, named variously in greek sources as hades or pluto. "hades" can mean both the hidden underworld and its king ('the hidden one'), who in early greek versions of the myth is a dark, unsympathetic figure; persephone is "kore" ('the maiden'), taken against her will; in the greek eleusinian mysteries, her captor is known as pluto; they form a divine couple who rule the underworld together, and receive eleusinian initiates into some form of better afterlife. renamed thus, the king of the underworld is distanced from his consort's violent abduction. in the early 1st century ce, ovid gives two poetic versions of the myth in latin: one in book 5 of his "metamorphoses" (book 5) and another in book 4 of his "fasti". an early 5th century latin version of the same myth is claudian's "de raptu proserpinae"; in most cases, these latin works identify proserpina's underworld abductor and later consort by the roman god of the underworld's traditional latin name, dis.
proserpina