Konj, jelen in lovec

Besedilo

Konj, jelen in lovec

Gelon the Sicilian, intending to make himself tyrant of Himera, courted the people and championed their cause against the powerful. The common people loved him, and when he asked for a bodyguard, they were eager to grant him one. But Stesichorus, the poet of Himera, suspected that he was aiming at tyranny. He stood before the people and told them a fable, an image of the fate that awaited them. “A horse,” he said, “used to graze in a meadow and go to a spring to drink. But a deer running across the plain trampled the grass and muddied the water. The horse wanted to punish the creature that was wronging him, but, being slower on his feet, he called upon a hunter for help. The man promised that he could easily avenge him, provided the horse would accept a bridle and a rider. And so it was done. The deer lay struck down by javelins, but the horse found that he had become the hunter’s slave.” “This,” he said, “is what I fear for you too, people of Himera: that, though you are now free citizens, you may overcome your enemies through Gelon, only to become Gelon’s slaves afterward. For power of every kind tends to be turned by its recipient against the one who gave it, once the giver can no longer take it back as freely as he bestowed it.”