The Cock, the Dog and the Fox

Lore & Background

In the Greek version, a cock and a dog travel together. At night, the cock roosts in a tree while the dog sleeps at its roots. When the cock crows at dawn, a fox tries to lure it down with friendly words. The cock agrees but tells the fox to ask the porter to open the door; the fox stumbles on the sleeping dog and is killed.

An ancient Indian variant appears in the Buddhist scriptures as the Kukuta-Jataka, where a predatory cat tries to woo a cock with a promise of marriage, but the cock denounces the cat for its former slaughter. The tale traveled west and was included in The Thousand and One Nights, translated by Richard F. Burton as The Pleasant History of the Cock and the Fox. In that version, the fox claims universal friendship has been declared, but the cock refuses to be fooled and mentions seeing greyhounds; the fox flees, fearing the dogs have not heard of the peace.

This version influenced European retellings, appearing in Poggio Bracciolini's Facetiae (1450), Guillaume Gueroult's emblem book (1550), and Jean de la Fontaine's Le coq et le renard (II.15). The Greek and Oriental versions were later confounded together, as seen in Francis Barlow's illustrated edition (1687), where Aphra Behn's verse follows the Eastern tale while the Latin prose follows Aesop's account.

Reader's Guide

The Cock, the Dog and the Fox is notable for reversing the typical predator-prey dynamic found in fables like The Fox and the Crow. Its significance lies in its moral of outwitting the deceiver, a theme echoed in La Fontaine's conclusion: 'Pleasure is doubled in tricking the trickster.' The fable's journey from Greek and Indian sources through Arabic literature to European emblem books and poetry illustrates the cross-cultural transmission of folk narratives. Artistic interpretations include a carving from the Bharhut stupa (150 BCE), depictions on European household china, and Marc Chagall's 1952 etchings. The fable has also been set to music by composers such as Louis Lacombe, Jean Françaix, Guy Reibel, and Lucian Cristofor Tugui. Its legacy endures as a cautionary tale about distrusting flattery and the cunning of the tricked turning the tables.

Did You Know?

• The fable appears as number 252 in the Perry Index.
• An ancient Indian variant, the Kukuta-Jataka, appears in Buddhist scriptures.
• The tale was included in The Thousand and One Nights and translated by Richard F. Burton.
• A carving of 'The Cock and the Cat' from the Bharhut stupa (150 BCE) is displayed in the Indian Museum in Calcutta.