Misadventures in the Land of Fables #57
THE COCKEREL AND THE JEWEL
It goes like this:
A cockerel or rooster pecks for seeds scattered in the farmyard dirt. He finds instead a diamond and has this to say about it: “If your owner had found you, no doubt they’d have felt more delight than I who have no use for you. I’m hungry and would rather have one seed of barleycorn.”
What are we to make of this?
(The cockerel we assume casts the jewel aside and continues his search for food, though I have always imagined him swallowing it, setting up the possibility of a sequel where it re-emerges with his excreta.)
Alex Andreou, in his podcast on Aesop and his fables, notes that the moral commonly ascribed to this fable misinterprets the action: the rooster is criticised for not appreciating the jewel. I was surprised by this observation because, of the versions I’m familar with (Jacobs, L’Estrange, Townsend, and Gibbs) only one makes that particular mistake. However, a little more digging (in the fertile dirt of wikipedia) reveals that this mistake was indeed common and possibly because popularise by appearing early in a textbook of Latin grammar.
The fable seems to have mistaken have been (mis-)understood as example of the advice given by Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 7:6″
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
Thus the jewel, like the pearl, is taken to represent wisdom and the rooster a fool, or heathen, unable to recognize its value. But there are so many problems with this interpretation. The jewel has not been offered to the rooster; it has been discarded or lost. The bird does recognize its value, only noting that it has no value to him. When you are hungry, it is food that you are after, not jewellry. (Jewellry having no exchange value for a rooster.) It would be absurd for the bird to favour the diamond over the barleycorn. Imagine him strutting around wearning the jewel, often depicted as a ring or bracelet, as if this somehow elevated it above the others. What use is a diamond to a cockerel?
There is a conservatism here, of course—the beauty of the jewel can never really be appreciated by a base farm animal—as well as an elitist disdain for the humble act of seeking food. The finer things are wasted on the commoner, and so on. But what of the careless owner, why aren’t they on their knees in the muck searching for their lost treasure?
No, I’m with Alex. The rooster knows what’s what. And if you were there by his side, he’d have been able to help in your search. (The rooster, not Mr Andreou.)
