Chapter XIII: Androcles and the Lion

This well-known story occurs first in the fables of Phaedrus, though not in the extant form, only being preserved in the mediaeval prose version known as _Romulus_. It is also referred to in Appian, Aulus Gellius, and Seneca (see the references in my _History of AEsop_, p. 243, Ro. III., i.). It is told in Caxton's _Esope_, p. 62, from whom I have borrowed a few touches. He calls his hero Androclus, whereas Painter, in his _Palace of Pleasure_, ed. Jacobs, i., 89-90, calls the slave Androdus. We moderns, including Mr. Bernard Shaw, get our "Androcles" from Day's _Sanford and Merton_. It also occurs in _Gesta Romanorum_, 104, edit., Oesterley, who gives a long list of parallels in almost all the countries of Europe.

Benfey, in the introduction to his edition of _Pantschatantra_, i., 112, contends that the story is of Oriental origin, showing Buddhistic traits in the kindly relations between the slave and the lion; but the parallels he gives are by no means convincing, though the general evidence for Oriental provenance of many of Phaedrus' fables gives a certain plausibility to this derivation. From our present standpoint this is of less importance since Androcles, though it has spread through Europe and is current among the folk, is clearly of literary origin and is one of the few examples where we can trace such literary spread.