Legenda: Vulpes et Uva

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Vulpes et Uva

Scroll down to find: Overview, Study Guide, Verse, Audio, and Segmented Prose Text

The story of The Fox and The Grapes is a poem by Phaedrus. It is written in iambic trimeter. (You can also read a version of this story by Caspar von Barth, in dactylic hexameter.)

You can find this poem, Phaedrus 4.3, along with other poems by Phaedrus, at the aesopica.net website. The Perry number for this fable is Perry 15.

This is one of the most famous of Aesop's fables and it lives on in the cliche - "Sour grapes!" - even if many people do not remember the story that goes along with that saying.

You can see a 1501 woodcut illustration for this fable at the University of Mannheim website.

You can find translations of two different versions of this fable (including Phaedrus's poem) in Aesop's Fables, by Laura Gibbs (Oxford University Press, 2003).

There is also a translation of this poem into English verse by Christopher Smart which you can also read at the aesopica.net website.

Use this Study Guide to organize your learning activities.

Here is the poem (click "play" icon for brief audio sample):

Fame coacta vulpes alta in vinea
uvam adpetebat, summis saliens viribus.
Quam tangere ut non potuit, discedens ait:
"Nondum matura es; nolo acerbam sumere."
Qui, facere quae non possunt, verbis elevant,
adscribere hoc debebunt exemplum sibi.

The following version puts the words in a more prose-like order so that it will be easier for you to read:

Fame coacta, vulpes uvam adpetebat in alta vinea, saliens summis viribus.	Additional grammar commentary to be added... meanwhile, if you have questions, use the Comments? Questions? Suggestions? link at the top or bottom of this page if you have a query. You might also want to look at these Tips on Using Segmented Texts.
Ut hanc tangere non potuit, discedens ait:
"Nondum matura es; nolo acerbam sumere."
Hi, qui verbis elevant haec, quae facere non possunt, debebunt sibi adscribere hoc exemplum.