Chapter 205
Pursued by an eagle, a hare took refuge in the nest of a beetle, whom he begged to save him. The beetle felt compassion for the hare and pleaded with the eagle not to kill the poor creature. In the name of mighty Jupiter, the beetle requested that the eagle respect his intercession and the laws of hospitality even though he was nothing but a tiny insect. However, the eagle became furious and gave the beetle a flap with his wing. In cold blood he seized the hare with his enormous talons and devoured him right on the spot.
When the eagle flew away, the beetle followed him to find out where his nest was. Then he crawled in and rolled the eagle’s eggs out, one by one, breaking them in the process. Grieved and enraged to think that anyone would do such an audacious thing, the eagle built his next nest in a higher place. But there, too, the beetle managed to get to it and destroyed the eggs as he had done before.
The eagle was now at a loss as to what to do. So he flew up to Jupiter, his lord and king, and placed the third brood of eggs as a sacred deposit in his lap, begging him to guard them for him. However, the beetle made a little ball of dirt and flew up with it to Jupiter and dropped it on his lap. When Jupiter saw the dirt, he stood up right away to shake it off, forgetting the eggs, which were again broken as they rolled off his lap. The beetle now informed Jupiter that he had done this to gain revenge on the eagle, who had not only wronged him but had acted with impiety toward Jove himself. Therefore, when the eagle returned, Jupiter told him that the beetle was the wronged party and that his complaint was not without justification. Nevertheless, Jupiter did not want the race of eagles to be humiliated, so he advised the beetle to arrange a peaceful settlement with him. But the beetle would not agree to this, and Jupiter was compelled to change the eagle’s breeding time to another season when there are no beetles to be seen.
Nothing can protect the oppressor from the curse of the oppressed.
