The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop's Fables (Perry Index 46). It is type 298 (Wind and Sun) in the Aarne–Thompson folktale classification.[1] The moral it teaches about the superiority of persuasion over force has made the story widely known. It has also become a chosen text for phonetic transcriptions.
The wind attempts to strip the traveler of his cloak, illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 Aesopanthology.
The sun persuades the traveler to take off his cloak
The story concerns a competition between the North Wind and the Sun to decide which is the stronger of the two. The challenge was to make a passing traveler remove his cloak. However hard the North Wind blew, the traveler only wrapped his cloak tighter to keep warm, but when the Sun shone, the traveler was overcome with heat and soon took his cloak off.
The fable was well known in Ancient Greece; Athenaeus records that Hieronymus of Rhodes, in his Historical Notes, quoted an epigram of Sophocles against Euripides that parodied the story of Helios and Boreas.[2] It related how Sophocles had his cloak stolen by a boy to whom he had made love. Euripides joked that he had had that boy too, and it did not cost him anything. Sophocles' reply satirises the adulteries of Euripides:
It was the Sun, and not a boy, whose heat stripped me naked; as for you, Euripides, when you were kissing someone else's wife the North Wind screwed you. You are unwise, you who sow in another's field, to accuse Eros of being a snatch-thief.
The Latin version of the fable first appeared centuries later in Avianus, as De Vento et Sole (Of the wind and the sun, Fable 4);[3] early versions in English and Johann Gottfried Herder's poetic version in German (Wind und Sonne) also gave it as such. It was only in mid-Victorian times that the title "The North Wind and the Sun" began to be used. In fact, the Avianus poem refers to the characters as Boreas and Phoebus, the divinities of the north wind and the sun, and it was under the title Phébus et Borée that it appeared in La Fontaine's Fables.
Gilles Corrozet, who had compiled a fable collection in French verse earlier than La Fontaine, twice featured the contest between the sun and the wind in his emblem books. In Hecatomgraphie (1540), the first of these, the story is told in a quatrain, accompanied by a woodcut in which a man holds close a fur cloak under the wintry blast while on the other side he strips naked beneath the sun's rays. It is titled with the moral "More by gentleness than strength" (Plus par doulceur que par force).[4] The same illustration was used to accompany another poem in Corrozet's later Emblemes (1543), which counsels taking enjoyment and being careful as necessity demands, wisely adapting oneself to circumstances in the same way as one dresses differently for winter than for summer.[5]
Victorian versions of the fable give the moral as "Persuasion is better than force",[6] but it had been put in different ways at other times. In the Barlow edition of 1667, Aphra Behn taught the Stoic lesson that there should be moderation in everything: "In every passion moderation choose, For all extremes do bad effects produce".[7] In the 18th century, Herder came to the theological conclusion that, while superior force leaves us cold, the warmth of Christ's love dispels it,[8] and Walter Crane's limerick version of 1887 gives a psychological interpretation, "True strength is not bluster". But for Guy Wetmore Carryl in his humorous rewriting of the fable, "The Impetuous Breeze and the Diplomatic Sun", tact is the lesson to be learned. There the competition is between the man and the wind; the sun only demonstrates the right way of achieving one's end.[9]
While most examples draw a moral lesson, La Fontaine's "Mildness more than violence achieves" (Fables VI.3) hints at the political application that was present also in Avianus' conclusion: "They cannot win who start with threats". There is evidence that this reading has had an explicit influence on the diplomacy of modern times: in South Korea's Sunshine Policy, for instance, or Japanese relations with the military regime in Myanmar.[10]
The fable in the arts
Jean Restout made a painting of La Fontaine's fable for the Hôtel de Soubise in 1738. This showed a traveller on horseback among mountains under a stormy sky.[11] In his print of the same subject, Jean-Baptiste Oudry reversed the perspective to show the god riding a cloud chariot with the horseback traveller merely a small figure below.[12] This too was the perspective of Gustave Moreau's 1879 watercolour in the series he painted of the fables.[13] In modern times, the fable has been made into a 3-minute animated film for children by the National Film Board of Canada (1972).[14] It also figured as part of a 1987 set of Greek stamps.[15]
The fable was the third of five in Anthony Plog's "Aesop's Fables" for narrator, piano and horn (1989/93);[16] it is also one of the five pieces in Bob Chilcott's "Aesop's Fables" for piano and choir (2008).[17] And, under the title "The Wind and the Sun", the English composer Philip Godfrey (b.1964) has made a setting for children's choir and piano.[18]
La Fontaine's Phébus et Borée was choreographed in 2006 by Karine Ponties [fr] as part of Annie Sellem's composite ballet production of La Fontaine's Fables as a 25-minute performance for a male and female dancer.[19] Its creator has commented on the fable's theme that 'it demonstrates people's vulnerability to cosmic forces and the inner links there are between natural events and our life as humans.'[20] But for the Scottish artist Jane Topping (b. 1972), who referenced "The North Wind and the Sun" in her 2009 installation, the fable is to be interpreted in the context of subliminal persuasion via images.[21]
The fable is made famous by its use in phonetic descriptions of languages as an illustration of spoken language. In the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association and the Journal of the International Phonetic Association, a translation of the fable into each language described is transcribed into the International Phonetic Alphabet. It is recommended by the IPA for the purpose of eliciting all phonemic contrasts that occur in English when conducting tests by foreign users or of regional usage.[22] For example, the description of American English in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association includes the following as a sample text:[23]
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.
Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;
and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
The fable has also been proposed as a parallel text in comparative linguistics as it provides more natural language than the Lord's Prayer. In addition, impromptu tellings can indicate differences within languages such as dialects or national varieties.[24] The example above, for instance, has shined where British English usage is shone.[25] The previous IPA handbook transcribed shone for the Southern British and Scottish versions, but began to shine for the American English version.[26] For an illustration of New Zealand English, the fable was replaced by "The Southerly Wind and the Sun" to make it geographically appropriate.[27]
References
Citations
^D. L. Ashliman, Wind and Sun: fables of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 298 in which the wind and the sun dispute about which of them is more powerful plus a related African-American tale
^Fortenbaugh, William Wall; White, Stephen Augustus, eds. (2004). Lyco and Traos and Hieronymus of Rhodes: Text, Translation, and Discussion. Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities. Vol. XII. Transaction Publishers. p. 161. ISBN9781412827737. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
^Il y montre aussi la vulnérabilité de l'homme face aux jeux cosmiques et les liens profonds qu'il y a entre les grandes forces physiques de notre monde et la vie humaine, Dame de Pic
^Image 7 in Topping, Jane (2009). "Persuasion. [Show/Exhibition] In: Persuasion, 5-19 December 2009, Intermedia at CCA, Glasgow, UK". Retrieved 8 January 2022.
^"See for example this investigation". Retrieved 2013-03-23.
^International Phonetic Association (1999), p. 44.
^Post, Margje (2007). ""Frog Story" and "Map Task" in the Russian countryside". Poljarnyj Vestnik. 10 (10): 72. doi:10.7557/6.1316.
^See Roach, Peter (November 2004). "British English (Received Pronunciation)". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (2): 239–245. doi:10.1017/s0025100304001768. Wikipedia Commons provides a scan of this here and the corresponding audio file here.
^The Principles of the International Phonetic Association (1949), being a description of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the manner of using it, illustrated by texts in 51 languages.
^Bauer, Laurie; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007). "New Zealand English" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 37 (1): 97–102. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002830.
References
International Phonetic Association (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. p. 44. ISBN0-521-63751-1.
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The North Wind and the Sun
Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Αισώπου Μύθοι/Βορέας και Ήλιος
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The North Wind and the Sun.
Aesop Language Bank: recordings and texts of languages from all over the world
Linguistics Handbook Downloads — Audio samples of The North Wind and the Sun in various languages, from the International Phonetic Association. 16 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
15th-20th century book illustrations of "The North Wind and the Sun online
15th-20th century book illustrations of "The Sun and the Wind online
Librivox Dialect and Accent Collection Vol. 1 — Audio samples of The North Wind and the Sun, from Internet Archive, recorded by LibriVox volunteers
The North Wind and the Sun in Phonetics on Jo Verhoeven's website (University of London)
Laboratory of Edinburgh University — Audio samples of The North Wind and the Sun in 70 languages
January 13, 2023
north, wind, aesop, fables, perry, index, type, wind, aarne, thompson, folktale, classification, moral, teaches, about, superiority, persuasion, over, force, made, story, widely, known, also, become, chosen, text, phonetic, transcriptions, contents, story, app. The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop s Fables Perry Index 46 It is type 298 Wind and Sun in the Aarne Thompson folktale classification 1 The moral it teaches about the superiority of persuasion over force has made the story widely known It has also become a chosen text for phonetic transcriptions Contents 1 Story and application 2 The fable in the arts 3 Use in phonetic demonstrations 4 References 4 1 Citations 4 2 References 5 External linksStory and application Edit The wind attempts to strip the traveler of his cloak illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 Aesop anthology The sun persuades the traveler to take off his cloak The story concerns a competition between the North Wind and the Sun to decide which is the stronger of the two The challenge was to make a passing traveler remove his cloak However hard the North Wind blew the traveler only wrapped his cloak tighter to keep warm but when the Sun shone the traveler was overcome with heat and soon took his cloak off The fable was well known in Ancient Greece Athenaeus records that Hieronymus of Rhodes in his Historical Notes quoted an epigram of Sophocles against Euripides that parodied the story of Helios and Boreas 2 It related how Sophocles had his cloak stolen by a boy to whom he had made love Euripides joked that he had had that boy too and it did not cost him anything Sophocles reply satirises the adulteries of Euripides It was the Sun and not a boy whose heat stripped me naked as for you Euripides when you were kissing someone else s wife the North Wind screwed you You are unwise you who sow in another s field to accuse Eros of being a snatch thief The Latin version of the fable first appeared centuries later in Avianus as De Vento et Sole Of the wind and the sun Fable 4 3 early versions in English and Johann Gottfried Herder s poetic version in German Wind und Sonne also gave it as such It was only in mid Victorian times that the title The North Wind and the Sun began to be used In fact the Avianus poem refers to the characters as Boreas and Phoebus the divinities of the north wind and the sun and it was under the title Phebus et Boree that it appeared in La Fontaine s Fables Gilles Corrozet who had compiled a fable collection in French verse earlier than La Fontaine twice featured the contest between the sun and the wind in his emblem books In Hecatomgraphie 1540 the first of these the story is told in a quatrain accompanied by a woodcut in which a man holds close a fur cloak under the wintry blast while on the other side he strips naked beneath the sun s rays It is titled with the moral More by gentleness than strength Plus par doulceur que par force 4 The same illustration was used to accompany another poem in Corrozet s later Emblemes 1543 which counsels taking enjoyment and being careful as necessity demands wisely adapting oneself to circumstances in the same way as one dresses differently for winter than for summer 5 Victorian versions of the fable give the moral as Persuasion is better than force 6 but it had been put in different ways at other times In the Barlow edition of 1667 Aphra Behn taught the Stoic lesson that there should be moderation in everything In every passion moderation choose For all extremes do bad effects produce 7 In the 18th century Herder came to the theological conclusion that while superior force leaves us cold the warmth of Christ s love dispels it 8 and Walter Crane s limerick version of 1887 gives a psychological interpretation True strength is not bluster But for Guy Wetmore Carryl in his humorous rewriting of the fable The Impetuous Breeze and the Diplomatic Sun tact is the lesson to be learned There the competition is between the man and the wind the sun only demonstrates the right way of achieving one s end 9 While most examples draw a moral lesson La Fontaine s Mildness more than violence achieves Fables VI 3 hints at the political application that was present also in Avianus conclusion They cannot win who start with threats There is evidence that this reading has had an explicit influence on the diplomacy of modern times in South Korea s Sunshine Policy for instance or Japanese relations with the military regime in Myanmar 10 The fable in the arts EditJean Restout made a painting of La Fontaine s fable for the Hotel de Soubise in 1738 This showed a traveller on horseback among mountains under a stormy sky 11 In his print of the same subject Jean Baptiste Oudry reversed the perspective to show the god riding a cloud chariot with the horseback traveller merely a small figure below 12 This too was the perspective of Gustave Moreau s 1879 watercolour in the series he painted of the fables 13 In modern times the fable has been made into a 3 minute animated film for children by the National Film Board of Canada 1972 14 It also figured as part of a 1987 set of Greek stamps 15 Jean Baptiste Oudry s cosmic interpretation of La Fontaine s fable 1729 34 The fable was the third of five in Anthony Plog s Aesop s Fables for narrator piano and horn 1989 93 16 it is also one of the five pieces in Bob Chilcott s Aesop s Fables for piano and choir 2008 17 And under the title The Wind and the Sun the English composer Philip Godfrey b 1964 has made a setting for children s choir and piano 18 La Fontaine s Phebus et Boree was choreographed in 2006 by Karine Ponties fr as part of Annie Sellem s composite ballet production of La Fontaine s Fables as a 25 minute performance for a male and female dancer 19 Its creator has commented on the fable s theme that it demonstrates people s vulnerability to cosmic forces and the inner links there are between natural events and our life as humans 20 But for the Scottish artist Jane Topping b 1972 who referenced The North Wind and the Sun in her 2009 installation the fable is to be interpreted in the context of subliminal persuasion via images 21 Use in phonetic demonstrations Edit source source track The North Wind and the Sun read with Received PronunciationThe fable is made famous by its use in phonetic descriptions of languages as an illustration of spoken language In the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association and the Journal of the International Phonetic Association a translation of the fable into each language described is transcribed into the International Phonetic Alphabet It is recommended by the IPA for the purpose of eliciting all phonemic contrasts that occur in English when conducting tests by foreign users or of regional usage 22 For example the description of American English in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association includes the following as a sample text 23 Broad transcription de ˈnoɹ8 ˌwɪnd en d e ˈsʌn wɚ dɪsˈpjutɪŋ ˈwɪtʃ wez de ˈstɹɑŋɡɚ wɛn e ˈtɹaevelɚ ˌkem eˈlɑŋ ˈɹaept ɪn e ˈwoɹm ˈklok de eˈɡɹid det de ˈwʌn hu ˈfɚst sekˈsided ɪn ˈmekɪŋ de ˈtɹaevelɚ ˈtek ɪz ˈklok ˌɑf ʃʊd bi kenˈsɪdɚd ˈstɹɑŋɡɚ den dɪ ˈedɚ dɛn de ˈnoɹ8 ˌwɪnd ˈblu ez ˈhɑɹd ez i ˈkʊd bet de ˈmoɹ hi ˈblu de ˈmoɹ ˈklosli dɪd de ˈtɹaevlɚ ˈfold hɪz ˈklok eˈɹaʊnd ɪm ˌaen et ˈlaest de ˈnoɹ8 ˌwɪnd ˌɡev ˈʌp di eˈtɛmpt ˈdɛn de ˈsʌn ˈʃaɪnd ˌaʊt ˈwoɹmli end ɪˈmidietli de ˈtɹaevlɚ ˈtʊk ˌɑf ɪz ˈklok en ˈso de ˈnoɹ8 ˌwɪnd wez eˈblaɪʒ tɪ kenˈfɛs det de ˈsʌn wez de ˈstɹɑŋɡɚ ev de ˈtu Narrow transcription differences emphasized de ˈnɔɹ8 ˌwɪnd en e ˈsʌn wɚ dɪsˈpjuɾɪŋ ˈwɪtʃ wez de ˈstɹɑŋɡɚ wɛn e ˈtɹaevlɚ ˌkem eˈlɑŋ ˈɹaept ɪn e ˈwɔɹm ˈklok de eˈɡɹid det de ˈwʌn hu ˈfɚst sekˈsided ɪn ˈmekɪŋ de ˈtɹaevlɚ ˈtek ɪz ˈklok ˌɑf ʃʊd bi kenˈsɪdɚd ˈstɹɑŋɡɚ den dɪ ˈʌdɚ dɛn de ˈnɔɹ8 ˌwɪnd ˈblu ez ˈhɑɹd ez hi ˈkʊd bet de ˈmɔɹ hi ˈblu de ˈmɔɹ ˈklosli dɪd de ˈtɹaevlɚ ˈfold hɪz ˈklok eˈɹaʊnd hɪm ˌaen et ˈlaest de ˈnɔɹ8 ˌwɪnd ˌɡev ˈʌp di eˈtɛmpt ˈdɛn de ˈsʌn ˈʃaɪnd ˌaʊt ˈwɔɹmli end ɪˈmidietli de ˈtɹaevlɚ ˈtʊk ˌɑf ɪz klok en ˈso de ˈnɔɹ8 ˌwɪnd wez eˈblaɪʒ tɪ kenˈfɛs det de ˈsʌn wez de ˈstɹɑŋɡɚ ev de ˈtu Orthographic version The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt Then the Sun shined out warmly and immediately the traveler took off his cloak And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two The fable has also been proposed as a parallel text in comparative linguistics as it provides more natural language than the Lord s Prayer In addition impromptu tellings can indicate differences within languages such as dialects or national varieties 24 The example above for instance has shined where British English usage is shone 25 The previous IPA handbook transcribed shone for the Southern British and Scottish versions but began to shine for the American English version 26 For an illustration of New Zealand English the fable was replaced by The Southerly Wind and the Sun to make it geographically appropriate 27 References EditCitations Edit D L Ashliman Wind and Sun fables of Aarne Thompson Uther type 298 in which the wind and the sun dispute about which of them is more powerful plus a related African American tale Fortenbaugh William Wall White Stephen Augustus eds 2004 Lyco and Traos and Hieronymus of Rhodes Text Translation and Discussion Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities Vol XII Transaction Publishers p 161 ISBN 9781412827737 Retrieved 2014 02 09 Mythfolklore net Mythfolklore net Retrieved 2013 03 23 Glasgow University Emblem 63 For example in George Fyler Townsend s collection London 1867 p 174 Mythfolklore net Mythfolklore net Retrieved 2013 03 23 Gedichte V Geschichte und Fabel 4 quoted in the German Wikipedia Fables for the Frivolous 1898 Burmalibrary org Burmalibrary org Retrieved 2013 03 23 Worldvisitguide com Worldvisitguide com Retrieved 2013 03 23 Culture gouv fr Retrieved 2013 03 23 Art Stack The North Wind and the Sun A Fable by Aesop View online The 5 drachma value Creighton edu 1987 03 05 Retrieved 2013 03 23 A performance on You Tube There is a performance on YouTube Youtube com Archived from the original on 2021 12 21 Retrieved 2013 03 23 Composer s website with sample score The last four minutes can be seen on Vimeo Il y montre aussi la vulnerabilite de l homme face aux jeux cosmiques et les liens profonds qu il y a entre les grandes forces physiques de notre monde et la vie humaine Dame de Pic Image 7 in Topping Jane 2009 Persuasion Show Exhibition In Persuasion 5 19 December 2009 Intermedia at CCA Glasgow UK Retrieved 8 January 2022 See for example this investigation Retrieved 2013 03 23 International Phonetic Association 1999 p 44 Post Margje 2007 Frog Story and Map Task in the Russian countryside Poljarnyj Vestnik 10 10 72 doi 10 7557 6 1316 See Roach Peter November 2004 British English Received Pronunciation Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 2 239 245 doi 10 1017 s0025100304001768 Wikipedia Commons provides a scan of this here and the corresponding audio file here The Principles of the International Phonetic Association 1949 being a description of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the manner of using it illustrated by texts in 51 languages Bauer Laurie Bardsley Dianne Kennedy Marianna Major George 2007 New Zealand English PDF Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 1 97 102 doi 10 1017 S0025100306002830 References Edit International Phonetic Association 1999 Handbook of the International Phonetic Association Cambridge University Press p 44 ISBN 0 521 63751 1 External links Edit Wikisource has original text related to this article The North Wind and the Sun Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article Aiswpoy My8oi Boreas kai Hlios Wikimedia Commons has media related to The North Wind and the Sun Aesop Language Bank recordings and texts of languages from all over the world Linguistics Handbook Downloads Audio samples of The North Wind and the Sun in various languages from the International Phonetic Association Archived 16 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine 15th 20th century book illustrations of The North Wind and the Sun online 15th 20th century book illustrations of The Sun and the Wind online Librivox Dialect and Accent Collection Vol 1 Audio samples of The North Wind and the Sun from Internet Archive recorded by LibriVox volunteers The North Wind and the Sun in Phonetics on Jo Verhoeven s website University of London Laboratory of Edinburgh University Audio samples of The North Wind and the Sun in 70 languages Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The North Wind and the Sun amp oldid 1119869422, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
