Lesson’s from Aesop’s fables (#7): The Farmer and his Sons

Fable:

A father, being on the point of death, wished to be sure that his sons would give the same attention to his farm as he himself had given it. He called them to his bedside and said, “My sons, there is a great treasure hid in one of my vineyards.” The sons, after his death, took their spades and mattocks and carefully dug over every portion of their land. They found no treasure, but the vines repaid their labor by an extraordinary and superabundant crop.

Moral:

The crop and the efforts that made it is the treasure, in abstract terms. It may not be an equal value, but this does not necessarily matter because the value is great enough at hand. By propelling them to action, the father not only helped his sons cooperate, but also enabled them to take care of the farm and gain by it. Had there been a treasure, conflict will have certainly followed, in many ways. I see a very profound lesson here as it regards monotheism and polytheism. In the first, the hopes for eternal Heaven and the “pleasure of God” is always used as a motive for good action, but this is a continual illusion of and for the treasure. The good is now tainted because of servitude and pathology. In polytheism however, the “treasure” is momentary and metaphorical, as in the fable–whatever we do is for our own good, not so much to please the Gods per se but to secure their favor, protection & patronage. We give that they may give; this is done directly or indirectly, and when they do not give back directly, they will somehow do so indirectly.