The Fish and the Frying Pan

The Fish and the Frying Pan. Some fish, still alive, were being cooked in hot oil in a frying pan. One of the fish said, "Let's get out of here, my brothers, in order to save our lives." Then the fish all leaped out of the frying pan together, and fell into the burning coals. Stricken by even greater pain as a result, they cursed the plan which they had followed, saying, "What a far more horrible death we are facing now!"

Pisces e Sartagine Exsilientes. Pisces, adhuc vivi, in sartagine ferventi oleo coquebantur. Quorum unus "Fugiamus hinc, fratres," inquit, "ne pereamus." Tunc omnes, pariter e sartagine exsilientes, in ardentes prunas deciderunt. Maiori igitur dolore affecti, damnabant consilium quod ceperant, dicentes, "Quanto atrociori nunc morte perimus."

Notes. This is Abstemius 20. This is another one of the few fables that Perry includes in his inventory; in fact, as number 725, it is the very last fable in Perry's listing. This is one of those fables that is like an expanded proverb, "out of the frying pan, into the fire," as we say in English.