Androcles
Androcles (Greek: Ἀνδροκλῆς, alternatively spelled Androclus in Latin) is the main character of a common folk tale about a man befriending a lion.
| Androcles and the Lion | |
|---|---|
The slave Androcles plucks the thorn from the lion's paw. Illustration by John Batten for Europa's Fairy Book (1916). | |
| Folk tale | |
| Name | Androcles and the Lion |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping | ATU 156 |
| Region | Greece, Rome, Europe |
The tale is included in the Aarne–Thompson classification system as type 156. The story reappeared in the Middle Ages as "The Shepherd and the Lion" and was then ascribed to Aesop's Fables. It is numbered 563 in the Perry Index and can be compared to Aesop's The Lion and the Mouse in both its general trend and in its moral of the reciprocal nature of mercy.
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