ABSTRACT
The moral emphasis of fairy- and folktales is shown by a large number of social parables. Adultery can be detected and exposed by a magical device which holds the adulterers fast; Homer’s Ares and Aphrodite are not the first pair to be caught in the act: an earlier Egyptian version has a tenacious magic crocodile to make the point that it does not pay to sleep with Ubainer’s wife. Murder is punished, as when Meleager is burned for the murder of his uncles by his mother’s use of a burning log with the power of sympathetic magic. Agreements must be kept, as failure to honour bargains with the supernatural will result in the loss of one’s children. Foolish wishes loom large, as in the cautionary tale of Midas. Hospitality is rewarded by anonymously visiting gods; insulting them may result in being turned en masse into frogs. The world of Callimachus or Ovid abounds with the obligation to play by the rules and not upset the divine. Both are at pains to remind the reader of Erysichthon, who failed to heed the warnings.
