The Listening Grove · Aesop's Fables
Fable 19: The Gnat and the Bull
A Charlotte Mason fable lesson. Press play, with the lesson.
What is Aesop's fable The Gnat and the Bull about?Parent review
Aesop's Fable 19, The Gnat and the Bull, is a short, sly story about how little we sometimes matter to others. A tiny Gnat lands on the horn of a great Bull, rests a while, and then politely begs the Bull's pardon for troubling him, sure the Bull must be glad to see him go. But the Bull replies that it is all the same to him, for he never even knew the Gnat was there.
Say what you remember!
Tell what you remember from the last fable.
What happened in Aesop's fable The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf?Have a look
In the last fable, The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf, a bored boy amused himself by crying "Wolf!" and laughing when the villagers came running for nothing. He did it twice, so when a real wolf came at last and he cried out in earnest, no one believed him.
Back to the previous lesson: The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf →The Books come Alive!
Read or listen to The Gnat and the Bull, the Kindred Thicket Revised Edition.
Read by Kindred Thicket, from the Kindred Thicket Revised Edition.
Read along with the fableRead along
A Gnat flew over the meadow with much buzzing for so small a creature and settled on the tip of one of the horns of a Bull. After he had rested a short time, he made ready to fly away. But before he left he begged the Bull's pardon for having used his horn for a resting place.
"You must be very glad to have me go now," he said.
"It's all the same to me," replied the Bull. "I did not even know you were there."
Memory becomes Action!
Use the character cards* to remember who is in the fable. Choose one way to narrate.
*Character cards are free with the email list; the Composition Prompt and Drawn Narration Sheet are in the Companion Guide.
What is the list of the names, people, characters, and places that are important in Aesop's fable The Gnat and the Bull?The Gnat, The BullHave a look
- The Gnat: The tiny gnat who imagines the great bull must notice him coming and going.
- The Bull: The great bull who never even knew the gnat had landed on his horn.
What is the moral of Aesop's fable The Gnat and the Bull?Have a look
“We are often of greater importance in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbor.”
The Gnat believed himself important enough to trouble the Bull, but the Bull had never noticed him at all. We are often far larger in our own eyes than in the eyes of anyone else.
The Gnat and the Bull Q & A
Common questions about this fable: the other titles it goes by, where it comes from, its lesson, and how to help your child narrate it.
This is one of the shortest fables. Is there more to it?
No, that is the whole of it. Like many of Aesop's fables, this one makes its point in a single small exchange: the gnat's grand apology and the bull's calm reply that he never noticed him at all. The little scene is complete, and the read-aloud on this page gives you every word.
Where does this story come from, and where else will my child meet it?
The Gnat and the Bull is found in the ancient Greek collections of Aesop and has been retold by fable-makers ever since. It belongs to a group of Aesop's fables about small creatures with large opinions of themselves. When your child meets it, she is meeting a gentle, very old joke about our own self-importance.
What is the lesson of this fable? Do I need to explain the moral?
The gnat is sure the great bull will feel him come and go, and the bull never knew he was there at all. You do not need to spell this out. Charlotte Mason found that children "readily appropriate the moral" of a fable on their own (Towards a Philosophy of Education, Vol. 6), and a fable does its best work when a child reaches the point herself. Read it well and let it do its quiet work.
How do I help my young child narrate this fable?
Read it through once, without stopping to quiz, then invite your child to tell it back in her own words. Mason believed a single hearing was enough, noting that "few grown-ups could 'tell' one of Æsop's Fables with the terse directness which children reproduce" (Towards a Philosophy of Education, Vol. 6). If she stalls, one gentle prompt restarts her: "Where did the gnat land? Did the bull notice him?" For a child who is not yet writing, drawn narration works beautifully here, letting her draw the tiny gnat perched on the bull's great horn. And if she needs something to hold while she tells, the character cards in our free bonus materials give her the gnat and the bull to point to as the story unfolds.
Should I go over the vocabulary before we read this fable?
Usually not, and this is where fables differ from history or science. In those subjects a single unfamiliar word can carry the whole meaning of a passage, so it is worth a quick look beforehand. A fable works the other way. Its gift is exposure, and the way a child quietly infers what a word means from the story around it. So read this one straight through and let the context do the teaching. If a word truly blocks understanding, say what it means in a breath and read on, keeping the whole of the story in one piece.