The Tortoise & the Hare (Aesop’s Fables)

The Tortoise and the Hare is one of Aesop’s most well-known fables. It’s one of the old Greek ones, perhaps recorded as early as 600 BCE. It has a famous moral lesson, but there’s a bit more to it.

As is tradition with fables, this is a retelling in my own words.

The Fable

A hare came upon a tortoise. The tortoise had short little legs and stocky feet, as all tortoises do. The hare found this funny, and he started to laugh.

“Laugh all you like,” said the tortoise, “but I would beat you in a race.”

“Bah,” the hare scoffed. “Those are just words. Race me to the river, and you will see.”

The tortoise accepted the challenge and immediately set off toward the river, plodding along at a pathetic pace.

The hare raced ahead until the turtle was out of sight, but then his motivation wavered. There was no challenge here. No thrill of competition. So he lay down to wait for the turtle to catch up. After several minutes, the turtle was still out of sight, and the hare fell asleep.

When the hare woke, he ran to the river as fast as he could, but the foul turtle was already there waiting for him, a smug smile on his face.

The Moral

The moral of The Tortoise and the Hare is that great natural abilities can be ruined by laziness. You’ll get much further with sobriety, passion, and perseverance.

You might also hear “slow and steady wins the race.” That fits, too, though the meaning is somewhat different, and I prefer the other. The tortoise didn’t win the race because he was slow but rather because he put his full passion into it, persevering until he’d won. Even then, he only won because of the rabbit’s indolence.

If you liked this fable, you might like The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Lion and the Mouse, or The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Or perhaps you’d like a more obscure fable like The Lobster and the Lamb.

Juan Artola Miranda

I am Juan Artola Miranda, a fabulist living in the Mexican Caribbean. My friends know me by the name of my father's father, but that name grew into something bigger, my writing reaching tens of millions of readers. It was too strong for me to control. Artola Miranda is the name of my mother's mother. It's a better name for a fabulist.