Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019

War of Mice and Frogs
Anonymous (III cent. BC?)

On a hot summer afternoon, the mouse prince, Crochobob, drank water from the swamp, and met the frozen King Vzdulomorda there. He turned to him, as Homer addressed to Odysseus: "The wanderer, who are you?" what kind of you are? and came from where? "A word for word, they met, the frog planted a mouse on his back and was lucky to show the wonders of an amphibious kingdom. They floated peacefully, as the frog suddenly saw a water snake in front, scared and ducked into the water from under the comrade. The miserable muscle drowned, but he managed to say a terrible curse: "... Terrible, you will not escape from the warrior mouse!"

And indeed, the mice, having learned of the death of their prince, were excited. Tsar Hlebogrz spoke a touching speech: "I am a poor father, three of whom I lost my sons: the older one died from a cat, the middle one from a mousetrap, and the younger, beloved, perishes from a frog! So, militia, friends, and get into the trek to the frogs! .. "Mice are armed under all the epic rules, only instead of lat, they have a shaft, instead of copies of a needle, instead of helmets of the walnut. Kjugushki too: instead of shields - cabbage leaves, instead of copies of a reed, instead of helmets niche shells. "Come to battle all-armament, and everyone was full of courage ..."

Zeus, as in the Iliad, summons the gods and invites them to help anyone who wants to. But gods are cautious. "I do not like mice or frogs," says Athena, "mice gnaw my cloths and put them in a tidy place, and do not give the frogs a quack to sleep ..." And the battle already begins on the shore of the swamp and is already dying (in the perfectly Homeric expressions), the first heroes: "The first Quakoon of Slastolia hits the spear in the womb - / With a terrible crash he fell, and raged on the fallen armor. / Husband of revenge, Norolasis hits the Mud spear / Straight into a mighty chest: flew away from the dead body / The living soul, and the fallen black death has dawned. / Sonya The swamp death caused the baldollis to be flawless, / Truth rushing, and the darkness glanced at him forever ..."

Mice overcome. Especially among them is the "glorious hero of the Daisies, the famous son of Khlebashreb." Zeus himself, looking at his feats, says, "shaking his head with sadness": "Gods! I see the great miracle with my own eyes - / Soon, perhaps, this robber will beat me too!"

Zeus throws lightning from the sky - the mice and frogs shudder, but they do not stop fighting. It is necessary to apply another means - against the warriors come the crayfish. "Crooked clawed, curved, skin - like bones," they begin to mercilessly miss and mice and frogs; both of them are running out of horror, and in the meantime the sun sits - "And the end of the one-day war of Zeus will come".