The Stag and His Reflection

The Stag and His Reflection is a brief moral fable by Aesop that revolves around a proud stag who stops to admire his reflection in a pond. While he compliments his own beautiful antlers, he also deprecates his skinny legs. Suddenly, a hunter's arrow zips towards him, and he realizes too late that his praised antlers have got him stuck between the trees while the scorned legs could have saved him, in turn teaching a lesson about the dangers of vanity and the value in appreciating aspects of oneself that may seem less impressive.

Genre: Children

								
A Stag, drinking from a crystal spring, saw himself mirrored in
the clear water. He greatly admired the graceful arch of his
antlers, but he was very much ashamed of his spindling legs.

"How can it be," he sighed, "that I should be cursed with such
legs when I have so magnificent a crown."

At that moment he scented a panther and in an instant was bounding
away through the forest. But as he ran his wide-spreading antlers
caught in the branches of the trees, and soon the Panther overtook
him. Then the Stag perceived that the legs of which he was so
ashamed would have saved him had it not been for the useless
ornaments on his head.

We often make much of the ornamental and despise the useful.
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