This particular scene, of which Jordaens painted many versions, illustrates a moralizing fable from "Aesop's Fables". The story begins with a man and a satyr. One cold day, as they talked, the man put his fingers to his mouth and blew on them. When the satyr asked the reason for this, the man said that he did it to warm his hands. Later on, when they sat down to eat, the man raised his dish of hot food towards his mouth and blew on it. When the satyr again inquired the reason, he said that he did it to cool the food. The satyr then informs the man, "I can no longer consider you as a friend, a fellow who with the same breath blows hot and cold." The moral of this story is the duality of human nature, although some believe that Jordaens chose this story not for his interest in its moral lesson, but for his interest in rendering a peasant scene.