The Satyr and the Traveller (or Peasant) is one of

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

and is numbered 35 in the

Perry Index The Perry Index is a widely used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. The index was created by Ben Edwin Perry, a professor of classics at the U ...

. The popular idiom 'to blow hot and cold' is associated with it and the fable is read as a warning against duplicity.

The Fable

There are Greek versions and a late Latin version of the fable by

Avianus Avianus (or possibly Avienus;Alan Cameron, "Avienus or Avienius?", ''ZPE'' 108 (1995), p. 260 c. AD 400) was a paganism, pagan writer of fables in Latin."Avianus" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes Ltd, George Newnes, 1961, Vo ...

. In its usual form, a

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr (, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( ), and sileni (plural), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated erection. ...

faun The faun (, ; , ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were ghosts ( genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their chief, the god Faunus. Before t ...

comes across a traveller wandering in the forest in deep winter. Taking pity on him, the satyr invites him home. When the man blows on his fingers, the satyr asks him what he is doing and is impressed when told that he can warm them that way. But when the man blows on his soup and tells the satyr that this is to cool it, the honest woodland creature is appalled at such double dealing and drives the traveller from his cave. There is an alternative version in which a friendship between the two is ended by this behaviour. The idiom 'to blow hot and cold (with the same breath)' to which the fable alludes was recorded as ''Ex eodem ore calidum et frigidum efflare'' by

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

in his

Adagia ''Adagia'' (singular ''adagium'') is the title of an annotated collection of Greek language, Greek and Latin proverbs, compiled during the Renaissance by Dutch Humanism, humanist Erasmus, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Erasmus' repository of p ...

(730, 1.8.30). Its meaning was further defined by the

emblem book An emblem book is a book collecting emblems (allegorical illustrations) with accompanying explanatory text, typically morals or poems. This category of books was popular in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Emblem books are collection ...

s of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, particularly those that focused on fables as providing lessons for moral conduct. While

Hieronymus Osius Hieronymus Osius was a German Neo-Latin poet and academic about whom there are few biographical details. He was born about 1530 in Schlotheim and murdered in 1575 in Graz. After studying first at the university of Erfurt, he gained his master's d ...

tells the tale of the traveller and draws the moral that one should avoid those who are inconstant,

Gabriele Faerno The humanist scholar Gabriele Faerno, also known by his Latin name of Faernus Cremonensis, was born in Cremona about 1510 and died in Rome on 17 November 1561. He was a scrupulous textual editor and an elegant Latin poet who is best known now for ...

puts it in the context of friendship and counsels that this should be avoided with the 'double-tongued' (''bilingues''). In this he is followed by

Giovanni Maria Verdizotti Giovanni Maria Verdizotti was a well-connected writer and artist who was born in Venice in about 1525 and died there in 1600. Life and work As an artist, Verdizotti is mainly remembered for his friendship with Titian, whose pupil he was, and lat ...

Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, Marc Gerard and Marcus Garret (c. 1520 – c. 1590) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, print designer and etcher who was active in his native Flanders and in England. He practised in many genres, including portrait ...

and

Geoffrey Whitney Geoffrey (then spelt Geffrey) Whitney (c. 1548 – c. 1601) was an English poet, now best known for the influence on Elizabethan writing of the ''Choice of Emblemes'' that he compiled. Life Geoffrey Whitney, the eldest son of a father of the sa ...

. However, in Francis Barlow's edition of the fables (1687), the Latin text warns against those whose heart and tongue do not accord, while

Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; baptism, bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration (England), Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writ ...

comments in English verse that "The sycophant with the same breath can praise/ Each faction and what's uppermost obeys", following

John Ogilby John Ogilby, Ogelby, or Oglivie (17 November 16004 September 1676) was a Scottish translator, impresario, publisher and cartographer. He was probably at least a half-brother to James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Airlie, though neither overtly acknowl ...

's slightly earlier example of giving the story a political interpretation. But there is more nuance in Ogilby's narrative. He places the 'honest' race of satyrs among the infernal species, a point emphasised by the accompanying

Wenceslas Hollar Wenceslaus Hollar (23 July 1607 – 25 March 1677) was a prolific and accomplished Bohemian graphic artist of the 17th century, who spent much of his life in England. He is known to German speakers as ; and to Czech speakers as (). He is partic ...

print that shows the battle in heaven and the fall of

Lucifer The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for the Devil in Christian theology. He appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bib ...

as taking place outside the mouth of the cave in which the traveller is blowing on his broth. In this way the fable's interpretation is subtly redirected and its condemnation of the double-tongued turns into a sly stab at the Puritan vocabulary by the time the moral is reached: :::Fiends and Saints convertible be, for where :::We spy a Devil, some say a Saint goes there. The fable was included as ''Le satyre et le passant'' among the fables of

Jean de la Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...

(V.7) but with no alteration of moral. However, this version too was to be reinterpreted in a political sense in the 19th century. In the course of his very free version, John Matthews expanded the text to comment on the 1819 election in Westminster and advise the voters to adopt the satyr's view of blowing hot and cold. In France the satirical cartoonist J.J. Grandville also updated the meaning by showing a group of loungers reading and commenting on the newspapers in a public park next to a statue illustrating the fable (see in Gallery 4 below).

The Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a European intellectual and philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained through rationalism and empirici ...

had intervened and prominent thinkers had then attacked the logic of this fable in particular. In the article on "Fable" in his ''Dictionnaire Philosophique'' (1764),

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

remarked that the man was quite right in his method of warming his fingers and cooling his soup, and the satyr was a fool to take exception. The German philosopher

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (; ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the dev ...

asserts in one of his essays on fables that its fault 'lies not in the inaccuracy of the allegory, but that it is an allegory only', perhaps reaching towards the conclusion that the fable had been badly framed around an already existing proverb. 'The man ought really to have acted contradictorily; but in this fable he is only supposed to have done so.' By using the fable to focus on political behaviour, therefore, the writers and artists give it a justification not inherent within its narrative.

Musical settings

During the 18th century new versions of fables were written to fit popular airs. "The Satyr and the Traveller" was set to the tune "I'll tell thee Dick where I have been" and was collected among 470 other songs in the English compilation titled ''The Lark'' (London 1740). But the poem itself, consisting of four six-line stanzas beginning "To his poor Cell a Satyr led/ A Traveller with Cold half dead", was originally written by

Tom Brown Tom Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Brown (satirist) (1662–1704), English satirical writer *Tom Brown (trombonist) (1888–1958), American jazz trombonist and bandleader *Tom Brown (actor) (1913–1990), American film and televi ...

near the turn of that century and appeared in the posthumous collection of his works. Thereafter the poem was reprinted in several other compilations for well over a century. It was later joined by a different musical version of the fable beginning "When chilling wind and snow clad tree/ Made Robin seek the Cottage door". The same process of fitting new words to old tunes was also happening in France during the 18th century. There the most ambitious compilation was the ''Receuil de fables choisies dans le goût de M. de la Fontaine sur de petits airs et vaudevilles connus'' (Imitations of La Fontaine's fables set to popular airs, Paris 1746). In it is to be found the retitled "Le Satire et son Hôte", also comprising four six-line stanzas, subtitled "Duplicity" and sung to the air "''Le fameux Diogene''". In 1861 La Fontaine's own words were set to music by Pauline Thys as the second piece in her ''Six Fables de La Fontaine'' (1861), as well as by

Théodore Ymbert Henri Théodore Ymbert (10 July 1827 in Auteuil, Yvelines – 22 September 1894 at Bourbonne-les-Bains) was a French lawyer and composer. Life and career Théodore Ymbert was the son of the dramatist Jean-Gilbert Ymbert, who also practised as a ...

in the previous year. Théophile Sourilas (1859-1907) made his setting for three voices in 1900.

The fable in art

Matthias Stom - The satyr and the peasant

For a variety of reasons the fable of "The Satyr and the Peasant" in particular became one of the most popular genre subjects in Europe and by some artists was painted in many versions. It was particularly popular in the Netherlands, where it brought together the contemporary taste for Classical mythology and a local liking for peasant subjects. At the start of the 17th century the poet

Joost van den Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch playwright, poet, literary translator and writer. He is generally regarded as the greatest writer in the Dutch language as well as an important figure in the history of Wes ...

published his popular collection based on Marcus Gheeraerts' prints, ''Vorstelijke Warande der Dieren'' (Princely pleasure-ground of beasts, 1617), in which the poem ''Satyr en Boer'' appears. This seems to have appealed to the imagination of the young

Jacob Jordaens Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678Jacques Jordaens
in the Netherlands Institute for Ar ...

, who went on to produce some dozen versions of the subject and did more than any other painter to popularise it. He was followed in his native Antwerp by others such as

Willem van Herp Willem van Herp (I) or Willem van Herp the Elder (variations on first name: 'Guilliam', 'Gilliam' and 'Guillaume') (c. 1614 in Antwerp – 1677) was a Flemish Flemish Baroque painter, Baroque painter specializing in religious paintings and small c ...

, David Ryckaert the younger and

Jan Cossiers Jan Cossiers (Antwerp, 15 July 1600 – Antwerp, 4 July 1671) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. Cossiers' earliest works were Caravaggesque genre works depicting low life scenes. Later in his career he painted mostly history and reli ...

, while in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

it was taken up by the group of

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

's pupils and followers,

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (19 August 1621 – 29 September 1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and a favourite student of Rembrandt. He was also an etcher, an amateur poet, a collector and an adviser on art. Biography Gerbrand was born in Amste ...

Barent Fabritius Barent or Bernard Pietersz Fabritius (or Fabricius) (16 November 1624 apt.– 20 October 1673 uried, was a Dutch people, Dutch painter. Fabritius was born at Middenbeemster, North Holland, the son of . He studied with his brothers Johanne ...

and Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert, as well as by genre painters like Benjamin Gerritsz Cuyp and

Jan Steen Jan Havickszoon Steen ( – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour. Life ...

. Although the Italians Faerno and Verdizotti were before them in literary treatments, the subject was applied to large-scale oil paintings by German and Netherlandish artists working in Italy like

Johann Liss Johann Liss or Jan Lys ( or 1597 – 1629 or 1630) was a leading German Baroque painter of the 17th century, active mainly in Venice. Biography Liss was born in Oldenburg (Holstein) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. After an initial education in ...

and

Matthias Stom Matthias Stom or Matthias Stomer ( – after 1652) was a Dutch people, Dutch, or possibly Flemish people, Flemish, Painting, painter who is only known for the works he produced during his residence in Italy. He was influenced by the work of non-I ...

, and later taken up by

Sebastiano Ricci Sebastiano Ricci (1 August 165915 May 1734) was an Italian Baroque painter of the late Baroque period in Venetian painting. About the same age as Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Tie ...

and

Gaspare Diziani Gaspare Diziani (1689 – 17 August 1767) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Roccoco period, active mainly in the Veneto but also in Dresden and Munich. The artist's canvas is the largest painting of the Hermitage Museum in St. Peter ...

. Since the southern Netherlands were then under Spanish rule and paintings from there found their way to Spain, the young Diego Velázquez also made the fable one of his subjects. French treatments were largely confined to La Fontaine's fable and include a work by Pierre Marie Gault de St Germain, painted for King Stanislas of Poland and exhibited in the 1790 Salon, and one by Jules Joseph Meynier (1826–1903), exhibited at the Salon of 1872 and purchased by the state. There was also an English treatment by E.H.Wehnert shown in 1833 at the exhibition of the New Society of Painters in Watercolours. The scene of the fable depends on the version followed. The traveller is invited into the satyr's home, which is often shown as a cave – and is specified as such in La Fontaine's version. In early illustrations the guest may be shown, illogically, as being entertained outside the dwelling, rather than sheltering within it. During the 17th century, peasant interiors served as an opportunity to crowd the picture with small details and fill the space with animals and (where the theme is the friendship between satyr and man) members of the man's family. Alternatively, members of the satyr's family are shown where La Fontaine's fable is followed, culminating in the charming little satyrs who crowd round the traveller in Gustave Doré's illustration. The Netherlands painters also show a particular interest in light, especially those near in time to

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

and the effects he achieved. Most often the light enters from the door, although in some paintings the source is more ambiguous and creates a dramatic effect as it picks out a group either at the centre or to one side of the painting. Where the main interest is in the moral of the fable, the picture space is unencumbered and serves only as an accompaniment to the story. But as interest shifts away from the story as such, detail and composition become the main focus and the fable is relegated to being the excuse for an exercise of the painterly art.

Gallery 1: Fable and emblem collections

File:Osius135image.jpg, In

' ''Fabulae Aesopi'', 1564 File:Gheeraerts satyr.jpg, Print by

in ''De warachtighe fabulen der dieren'', 1567 File:Whitney bilingues.gif, In

's ''Choice of Emblemes'', Leiden, 1586 File:Patousas-satyrus.jpg, From Iohannis Patousas' edition of ''Aesop's Fables'' in Greek, Venice, 1644 File:Wenceslas Hollar - The satyr and the peasant (State 2).jpg, Engraving by

after

Adam Elsheimer Adam Elsheimer (18 March 1578 – 11 December 1610) was a German artist working in Rome, who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century in the field of Baroque paintings. His relatively few paintings were sma ...

, 1649 File:Francis_Barlow_74.jpg, In Francis Barlow's edition of ''Aesop's Fables'', 1687

Gallery 2a:Paintings from the Southern Netherlands

File:Jordaens Satyr and the peasant Moscow.jpg,

Jacob Jordaens Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678Jacques Jordaens
in the Netherlands Institute for Ar ...

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', Pushkin Gallery, Moscow, 1620s File:Jordaens Satyr and the peasant Kassel.jpg, Jacob Jordaens, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', Staatliche Museen, Kassel, 1620s File:Jordaens Satyr and the peasant Brussels.jpg, Jacob Jordaens, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'',

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (, ; , ) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They are part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and consist of six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the ...

, Brussels File:Jacob Jordaens - Satyr at the Peasant's House - WGA12002.jpg, Jacob Jordaens, the laughing satyr variant File:Le satyre et les paysans Ryckaert.jpg, David Ryckaert the Younger, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'' File:Jan van der Venne - Satyr and Peasant in a Tavern.jpg, Jan van de Venne, ''The Satyr in the Peasant's House'',

Brukenthal National Museum The Brukenthal National Museum (; ) is a museum in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, established in the late 18th century by Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803) in his city palace. Baron Brukenthal, governor of the Grand Principality of Transylvan ...

, Sibiu Ro File:Willem van Herp satyr.Jpeg,

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', File:Jan Cossiers - Satyr as a Guest of the Peasant.jpg,

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant Family'', National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan

Gallery 2b:Paintings from the Northern Netherlands

File:Benjamin Gerritsz. Cuyp - The Satyr and the Peasant Family - WGA5846.jpg, Benjamin Gerritsz Cuyp, ''The Satyr and the Peasant Family'', first half of the 17th century File:Van den Eekhout Satyr.Jpeg,

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'' File:Moeyaert satyr.jpg, Moeyaert, a chalk drawing of ''The Satyr and the Peasant'' File:Fabritius Satyr.JPG,

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen File:Jan van Noordt Satyr.JPG, Jan van Noordt, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', Bader Collection, Milwaukee File:Jan Steen - The Satyr and the Peasant Family.jpg,

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'',

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

, 1660/2 File:Satyr peasant steen.jpg, Jan Steen, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', Museum Bredius, Den Haag NL, 1660s

Gallery 3: Paintings from Italy

File:Liss-SatyrandPeasant.jpg, Jan Lis, a Baroque treatment of "The Satyr and the Peasant", Venice, 1623/6 File:Ricci satyr.jpg,

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', c.1700 File:Gaspare Diziani-Satyr.JPG,

, ''The Satyr and the Peasant'', first half of the 18th century

Gallery 4: Illustrations of La Fontaine's Fable

File:Oudry - le satyre et le passant.jpg,

Jean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry (; 17 March 1686 – 30 April 1755) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. His son, Jacques-Cha ...

, "Le satyre et le passant" from the 1755 illustrated edition File:Lecompte satyre.jpg,

Hippolyte Lecomte Hippolyte Lecomte (; 28 December 1781, Puiseaux – 25 July 1857, Paris) was a French painter best known for large scale historical paintings and ballet designs. His wife, born Camille Vernet, was the sister of the painter Émile Jean-Horace ...

, "Le satyre et le passant" from the 1818 illustrated edition File:Satyr doré2.jpg,

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6January 1832 – 23January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrati ...

, "Le satyre et le passant" from the 1867 illustrated edition File:Le-satyre-et-le-passant Grandville.jpg, J.J. Grandville's reinterpretation of "Le satyre et le passant", 1838

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Satyr and the Traveller Aesop's Fables La Fontaine's Fables English-language idioms Cultural depictions of satyrs