μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Don't drive away the flies. Wounded animal (man) refuses to have the flies driven away since they are now sated and their places will be taken by fierce and hungry flies.

The wise and the foolish. · Wise and unwise conduct. · Choices. · Choice between evils. · view the constellation · filed as J215.1

Filed across the traditions
  • Spanish Exempla Keller.
  • general Pauli (ed. Bolte) No. 186
  • general Wienert FFC LVI 60 (ET 228), 115 (ST 255)
  • general Halm Aesop No. 36
  • general Jacobs Aesop 215 No. 64
  • general Scala Celi 21a No. 132
  • general Alphabet No. 97
  • general Oesterley Gesta Romanorum No. 51
  • general Krappe Bulletin Hispanique XXXIX 32
Within the index

Filed under Present evil preferred to change for worse.

4 finer motifs beneath it
Don't set a hungry guard over food. Parrot set to guard figs eats his fill. When replaced he calls attention to the fact that he is now full and therefore safer than another hungry parrot King refuses to exile gossipers. They would defame him among strangers. At home they serve to test the king's patience and to reform his life Do not pluck off the well-fed leeches. Wolf told not to do so lest hungrier ones take their places as he swims Old man chooses to be annoyed by occasional and loud chirp of swallows than by never-ending but soft chirp of sandpipers
Filed beside it
Oxen decide not to kill butchers, since inexpert killers might replace them Heathcock prefers home with hardships to travel in foreign lands Monk goes to wilderness to escape work on material things. Finds that he must work to live and returns to monastery
Carried in tale types

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “wounded” · wander