The Lion Beaten by the Man

A picture shows a lone man throwing a fully grown lion to the ground, and the crowd celebrates the apparent human victory. The lion rebukes their boasting, admitting that the picture gives the man the victory but suggesting it may be deceptive. If lions possessed the art of making pictures, he says, their own champion might be shown defeating the man.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Allegory · 124 words

First lines

A picture once was shown, / In which one man, alone, / Upon the ground had thrown / A lion fully grown. / Much gloried at the sight the rabble. / A lion thus rebuked their babble: -- / 'That you have got the victory there, / There is no contradiction. / But, gentles, possibly you are / The dupes of easy fiction: / Had we the art of making pictures, / Perhaps our champion had beat yours! '[1]

[1]: Aesop.

• Open reader

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Genres

• Fable — A brief moral tale featuring a speaking lion and a pointed lesson about human self-glorification and biased representation.
• Didactic Literature — The poem instructs readers to question apparently authoritative depictions of victory and to recognize that accounts are shaped by their creators.
• Allegory — The man and lion represent opposing groups whose power and status can be distorted by whoever controls the means of representation.
• Satire — La Fontaine mocks the crowd's pride and the human tendency to celebrate flattering stories without considering the perspective of the defeated.

Tags

fable · verse narrative · French classic · seventeenth century · Aesopic tradition · moral allegory · lion · man · human-animal conflict · picture · visual representation · artistic bias

What this Textopian page supports

The Lion Beaten by the Man is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Fable
• Author: Jean de La Fontaine
• Date: 1668 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Didactic Literature, Allegory, Satire, Animal Literature
• Length: 124 words
• Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs

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• Work identity for The Lion Beaten by the Man by Jean de La Fontaine
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• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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More by Jean de La Fontaine

• To Monseigneur the Dauphin (1668)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1668)
• The Raven and the Fox (1668)
• The Frog that Wished to be as Big as the Ox (1668)
• The Two Mules (1668)
• The Wolf and the Dog (1668)
• The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company with the Lion (1668)
• The Wallet (1668)
• All works by Jean de La Fontaine