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The Gnat & The Bull - Summary and Analysis | Aesop Fables

 This fable tells us the story of a Gnat who thought he was very important. I narrated The fable and you can find it by pressing the link The Gnat & The Bull.

The Fable: 
A Gnat flew over the meadow with much buzzing for so small a creature and settled on the tip of one of the horns of a Bull. After he had rested a short time, he made ready to fly away. But before he left he pompously begged the Bull's pardon for having used his horn for a resting place. ‘I will go now so as not to burden you any longer" The bull, merely raised his eyes and replied "Much obliged, but I did not even know you were there". 


The Moral Lesson is that "we often think ourselves of greater importance than we really are."

In different versions of this fable there are similar morals such as "we are often of greater importance in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbor" or "the smaller the mind the greater the conceit".
The fable applies to feeble people, whose presence or absence is neither helpful nor harmful. In spite of their insignificance those people think highly of themselves. Thus the Gnat asked for the Bull's pardon for having used his horn as a resting place, when in fact the bull did not even realize he was there. The Gnat's coming and going made no difference to the Bull. In believing they are so important, pompous people might gain the scorn of others. In fact the fable comments on the Gnat's character from the beginning by letting us know that it made "much buzzing for so small a creature". 

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