The Crow and the Pitcher is one ofAesop's Fables, numbered 390 in thePerry Index. It relates ancient observation ofcorvid behaviour that recent scientific studies have confirmed is goal-directed and indicative of causal knowledge rather than simply being due toinstrumental conditioning.
The fable is made the subject of a poem by the first-century-CE Greek poetBianor,[1] was included in the 2nd century fable collection of pseudo-Dositheus[2] and later appears in the 4th–5th-century Latin verse collection byAvianus.[3] The history of this fable in antiquity and the Middle Ages is tracked in A.E. Wright'sHie lert uns der meister: Latin Commentary and the Germany Fable.[4]
The story concerns a thirstycrow that comes upon apitcher with water at the bottom, beyond the reach of itsbeak. After failing to push it over, the bird drops in pebbles one by one until the water rises to the top of the pitcher, allowing it to drink. In his telling, Avianus follows it with amoral that emphasises thevirtue of ingenuity: "This fable shows us that thoughtfulness is superior to brute strength." Other tellers of the story stress the crow's persistence. InFrancis Barlow's edition the proverb 'Necessity is the mother of invention' is applied to the story[5] while an early 20th-century retelling quotes the proverb 'Where there's a will, there's a way'.[6]
Artistic use of the fable may go back to Roman times, since one of the mosaics that has survived is thought to have the story of the crow and the pitcher as its subject.[7] Modern equivalents have included English tiles from the 18th[8] and 19th centuries[9] and an American mural by Justin C. Gruelle (1889–1978), created for a Connecticut school.[10] These and the illustrations in books of fables had little scope for invention. The greatest diversity is in the type of vessel involved and over the centuries these have varied from a humble clay pot to elaborate Greek pitchers.[11]
The fable was later set to music byHoward J. Buss as the fourth item in his "Fables from Aesop" (2002).[12]
The Roman naturalistPliny the Elder is the earliest to attest that the story reflects the behaviour of real-life corvids.[13] In August 2009, a study published inCurrent Biology revealed thatrooks, a relative of crows, do just the same as the crow in the fable when presented with a similar situation.[14]
pliny crow urn stones water.
