Enslavement by Desire. Or, the Risk of Asking for Favors - No. 67. The Horse, Hunter and Stag - The Essential Aesop™-Back to Basics Abridgment Series

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.

A Horse desired something: He wanted to conquer the Stag. So, the Horse asked a Hunter to help him.

The Hunter agreed, but said: “To help you, I must place this piece of iron in your mouth to guide you to your enemy, and this saddle upon your back to keep steady as we follow him.”

The Horse wanted to conquer the Stag, so the Horse agreed.

After overcoming the Stag, the Horse said to the Hunter: “Thank you very much for your assistance, but, now get off, and remove those things you have put upon me.”

The Hunter replied, “Not so fast, friend. I now have gotten you under bit and spur, and I will keep you exactly as you are.”

Moral of the Story: All things have their price. Our desires make us vulnerable to manipulation, and favors are indentures.

<< Back – Forward >>

Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue

Why We Loved It: Aesop begins this fable with a clue, and the clue portends that it’s not going to go well for someone.

The clue is in the first sentence: Desire. The Horse had a Desire.

Now, the Desire itself is not an inherent flaw, nor is Desire problematic, per se, because Desire is emotive causation for action, generally to the desired objective, which might be wise or foolish. The Desire is not necessarily wise or foolish in and of itself, but made so by Wisdom’s judgment for a context, and Discipline’s constraint. Wanting a thing may be good or bad, but Wisdom decides and Discipline enforces. Thus the adages, “Primum sapientiam, deinde disciplinam.” (“Wisdom first, then discipline.”) and “Sapientia ars eligit, sed disciplina rectam tenet.” (“Wisdom chooses the tactic, but Discipline holds the line.”)

So, Aesop tells us the Horse has a desire to conquer the Stag. Importantly, why that desire exists is immaterial to this fable—perhaps it’s a friendly game, perhaps the Horse is envious of the Stag’s antlers or jumping abilities or running grace. The wisdom or foolishness in the reason for the desire is not this lesson, which is why Aesop omits it. Aesop wants our attention on the desire itself.

For this lesson, it is enough that the Stag desired something, which was the cause…to ask for a favor from the Hunter.

Asking for a favor is a form of debt, and it often needs to be paid back or is a lien on a relationship, in some way, in some form—often tacitly and self-evidently admitting a loss of self-empowerment.

The Horse’s desire (irrespective of why) was cause to place himself into the debt of the Hunter, and more importantly, to take on a catastrophic risk. The Hunter gladly obliged, having his own long-term self-interested agenda, that the Horse failed to appreciate by the clouded eye of his desire.

Therefore, the Horse placed himself under the control of the powerful Hunter, consenting to the bit that Aesop even says is iron, which is naturally distasteful. We cannot say the Horse was motivated by vice, because Aesop does not need that attribute of this lesson. It’s enough here that the Horse desired, which was the cause for the Horse to fail in wise judgment of context, evidenced by his surprise when the Hunter refused to remove the instruments of enslavement.

Some requests for repayment are more subtle than others. And, some ways of repayment are more expensive, or last longer, than others. Aesop’s lesson here is profound: We accept enslavement by our desires, and then evidence our foolishness when we are enslaved by the result. It only took one moment for the Horse to concede to allowing the Hunter to insert that bit, with the reins. “Oculus sapientiae semper vigilans debet esse, sicut stulti in ictu fiunt.” (“The eye of wisdom must be ever-vigilant, as fools are made in a blink.”)

Aesop gives us the distasteful instrument of voluntary enslavement to satisfy our desires, not seeing the bite in the bit.

“Lorum lorum dominum non protegit si canis circum volvitur.” (“The leash does not protect the master, if the dog should turn around.”)

“He who is truly shrewd would rather have people need him than thank him. You will get more from dependence than from courtesy. He who has already drunk turns his back on the well, and the orange already squeezed turns from gold into mud. When there is no longer dependence, good manners disappear, and so does esteem. The most important lesson experience teaches is to maintain dependence, and entertain it without satisfying it. This can hold even a king.” ~ Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom

“Primum sapientiam, deinde disciplinam.” (“Wisdom first, then discipline.”) and “Sapientia ars eligit, sed disciplina rectam tenet.” (“Wisdom chooses the tactic, but Discipline holds the line.”); “Lorum lorum dominum non protegit si canis circum volvitur.” (“The leash does not protect the master, if the dog should turn around.”); “Oculus sapientiae semper vigilans debet esse, sicut stulti in ictu fiunt.” (“The eye of wisdom must be ever-vigilant, as fools are made in a blink.”) ~ grz

<< Back – Forward >>

ChatGPT Review

This Aesop fable as interpreted by Gregg Zegarelli—“The Horse, the Hunter and the Stag” [GRZ98_67]—is a powerful meditation on how desire enslaves, particularly through the instrumentality of favors. Let’s break it down by pedagogy, ethos, and then integrate it into Zegarelli’s broader system of thought.

🧭 PEDAGOGICAL STRUCTURE

Zegarelli’s method here is Socratic through omission and Roman in its disciplinarian framing. His didactic strategy unfolds in three phases:

1. Initiating Motive (Desire)

“The clue is in the first sentence: Desire.”
Zegarelli identifies the emotional catalyst that motivates the Horse. He emphasizes that Aesop intentionally does not explain why the Horse desires to conquer the Stag. This absence is instructional—it invites the reader to focus on the structure of desire, not its justification.

2. Mechanism of Loss (Favor as Instrument)

“Asking for a favor is a form of debt…a lien on a relationship…”
The favor is not benign; it is the medium of voluntary subjugation. The bit and saddle are physical metaphors of legal and emotional control: consensual constraint that becomes enduring bondage.

3. Outcome (Surprise at Enslavement)

“Surprised when the Hunter refused to remove the instruments…”
This underscores the failure of judgment not at the end, but at the inception of desire. The pedagogical warning is: the cost is incurred the moment you consent, not the moment you regret.

Zegarelli strengthens the teaching with layered Latin maxims (e.g., “Wisdom chooses, Discipline enforces”) and a closing aphorism from Gracián, positioning manipulation through dependence as a perennial strategy of the powerful.

💠 PHILOSOPHICAL ETHOS

This fable serves as a cornerstone in Zegarelli’s ethos on dependency, autonomy, and self-possession:

Concept	Expression in the Fable	Zegarelli’s Core Principle
Desire	The Horse’s unexplained urge	Emotion is not sin, but unchecked desire is a liability
Favors as Contracts	The bit and saddle	All favors come with implicit terms and control
Surprise as Folly	The Horse’s shock at not being released	Ignorance of power asymmetry is culpable
Dependency Doctrine	Gracián’s maxim on needing others	Power = being needed, not being thanked
Voluntary Enslavement	“The leash does not protect the master…”	Freedom lost by willing hands, not by violence

Zegarelli presents freedom not as a state, but as a function of discretion, discipline, and skepticism about assistance—especially unsolicited or costless help.

🔍 INTEGRATION INTO BROADER ZEGARELLI SYSTEM

This article links directly to other dependency-based fables and teachings:

Related Article/Fable	Thematic Tie
[GRZ98_64] The Dog and the Wolf	Comfort vs. autonomy, and the cost of being fed
[GRZ13] The Cat-Maiden	Nature reasserts itself despite pretensions
[GRZ98_48] The Two Pots	Choosing partners with awareness of asymmetry
[GRZ98_77] Hercules and the Waggoner	Self-reliance over prayer or complaint
[GRZ209] The Two “Master Virtues”	Wisdom and Discipline as the guardians of voluntary action

This fable sits squarely in Zegarelli’s “Doctrine of Self-Power” — a running thread through his Aesop analyses, constitutional commentary, and leadership teachings. It is not only pedagogical but civically existential: societies too, not just individuals, may bargain away autonomy for the illusion of fulfillment.

🪶 TAKE-AWAY

🏇 Desire invites assistance, assistance installs control, and control rarely uninstalls itself.

You may conquer your enemy, but you may lose yourself in the process.

The deepest lesson Zegarelli extracts is not about horses or favors—it’s about the moment we sacrifice discretion in pursuit of emotional satisfaction, and how that moment is almost always irreversible without cost.

20250516.4o

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enslavement-desire-risk-asking-favors-67-horse-stag-zegarelli-esq-

This Site https://greggzegarelli.com/_set-the-essential-aesop/enslavement-by-desire-or-the-risk-of-asking-for-favors-no-67-the-horse-hunter-and-stag-the-essential-aesop-back-to-basics-abridgment-series/

Related Articles:

Entire Article Index

GRZ98_67.20250516 GRZUID98_67

<< Back – Forward >>

Enslavement by Desire. Or, the Risk of Asking for Favors – No. 67. The Horse, Hunter and Stag – The Essential Aesop™-Back to Basics Abridgment Series

ChatGPT Review

🧭 PEDAGOGICAL STRUCTURE

1. Initiating Motive (Desire)

2. Mechanism of Loss (Favor as Instrument)

3. Outcome (Surprise at Enslavement)

💠 PHILOSOPHICAL ETHOS

🔍 INTEGRATION INTO BROADER ZEGARELLI SYSTEM

🪶 TAKE-AWAY