Laudator Temporis Acti

Babrius 120 (tr. Ben Edwin Perry):

That denizen of the swamps who likes the shade,
the frog, who lives beside the ditches,
once came forth on dry land and bragged to all the creatures:
"I'm a physician, skilled in the use of drugs
such as no one, doubtless, knows, not even Paean
who lives on Olympus, physician to the gods."
"And how," said a fox, "can you cure someone else,
when you can't save yourself from being so deathly pale?"

Ὁ τελμάτων ἔνοικος ὁ σκιῇ χαίρων,
ὁ ζῶν ὀρυκτοῖς βάτραχος παρ' αὐρίποις,
εἰς γῆν παρελθὼν ἔλεγε πᾶσι τοῖς ζώοις·
"ἰατρός εἰμι φαρμάκων ἐπιστήμων,
οἵων ταχ' οὐδεὶς οἶδεν, οὐδ' ὁ Παιήων,
ὃς Ὄλυμπον οἰκεῖ καὶ θεοὺς ἰατρεύει."
"καὶ πῶς" ἀλώπηξ εἶπεν "ἄλλον ἰήσῃ,
ὃς σαυτὸν οὕτω χλωρὸν ὄντα μὴ σώζεις;"

Haim Schwarzbaum, Mishlé Shu'alim (Fox Fables) of Rabbi Berechiah Ha-Nakdan: A Study in Comparative Folklore (1979; rpt. Leiden: Brill, 2025), p. 205 (Fable #34):

A Frog espied some Oxen ploughing near his abode of reeds. In order to get acquainted with them, he started bragging and vaunting of his supreme wisdom and acumen, particularly as far as Leechcraft is concerned. He said: "I am able to cure every disease and sickness and to procure an efficient, adequate specific for the remedy of all sores and ailments. My accurate diagnosis is well-known, and my medical skill has achieved wonders and brought much relief to many a patient."

An old Ox addressed the boasting Frog as follows: "You brag of your wisdom, medical dexterity and wonderful achievements as a most gifted physician, but why do you look like a withered, half-dead person? Why is your complexion more decayed and wretched than that of any other reptile? Why are you devoid of any blood-red healthy colour? Everybody turns up his nose at your loathsome, repulsive, sickly-green colour!"

Our pseudo-doctor was thus put to the blush. He hid his diminished head and went quickly away in order to conceal himself in the screened reeds and marshes.

Related post: Physician, Heal Thyself.