The Elephant and the Ape of Jupiter

The Elephant and the Ape of Jupiter

In “The Elephant and the Ape of Jupiter,” an elephant and a rhinoceros quarrel over which of them should take precedence, and they arrange to settle the matter by fighting. When news arrives that Jupiter’s ape, Gill, is descending through the air with a caduceus, the elephant assumes that the celestial messenger has been sent to witness their important battle. Proudly, he goes to meet Gill and waits for him to present his credentials, but the ape offers only a brief greeting and says nothing about the contest. The elephant finally raises the subject himself, describing the dispute between Elephantis and Rhinocer as a momentous war that Jupiter and his court must know about. Gill, however, says he has never heard even the names of these realms in heaven. Embarrassed, the elephant asks what the ape has come to do. Gill explains that he has been sent to divide a blade of grass between two ants. He adds that the gods care for everything, but that the elephant’s affair has never come before them, since they view the small and the great with equal eyes.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1693 · Genre: Fable, Animal Fable, Allegory · 555 words

First lines

'Twixt elephant and beast of horned nose / About precedence a dispute arose, / Which they determined to decide by blows. / The day was fix'd, when came a messenger / To say the ape of Jupiter / Was swiftly earthward seen to bear / His bright caduceus through the air. / This monkey, named in history Gill, / The elephant at once believed / A high commission had received / To witness, by his sovereign's will, / The aforesaid battle fought. / Uplifted by the glorious thought, / The beast was prompt on Monsieur Gill to wait, / But found him slow, in usual forms of state, / His high credentials to present. / The ape, however, ere he went, / Bestow'd a passing salutation. / His excellency would have heard / The subject matter of legation: / But not a word! / His fight, so far from stirring heaven, -- / The news was not received there, even! / What difference sees the impartial sky / Between an elephant and fly? / Our monarch, doting on his object, / Was forced himself to break the subject. / 'My cousin Jupiter,' said he, / 'Will shortly, from his throne supreme, / A most important combat see, / For all his court a thrilling theme. ' / 'What combat? ' said the ape, with serious face. / 'Is't possible you should not know the case? -- ' / The elephant exclaim'd -- 'not know, dear sir, / That Lord Rhinoceros disputes / With me precedence of the brutes? / That Elephantis is at war / With savage hosts of Rhinocer? / You know these realms, not void of fame? ' / 'I joy to learn them now by name,' / Return'd Sir Gill, 'for, first or last, / No lisp of them has ever pass'd / Throughout our dome so blue and vast. ' / Abash'd, the elephant replied, / 'What came you, then, to do? -- ' / 'Between two emmets to divide / A spire of grass in two. / We take of all a care; / And, as to your affair, / Before the gods, who view with equal eyes / The small and great, it hath not chanced to rise. '

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French fable · verse narrative · seventeenth-century literature · classical mythology · Jupiter · caduceus · talking animals · elephant · rhinoceros · ape messenger · ants · animal quarrel

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The Elephant and the Ape of Jupiter is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1693 CE.

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