The Dolphins and Whales waged a fierce war with each other. When the battle was at its height, a Sprat lifted its head out of the waves and said that he would reconcile their differences if they would accept him as an umpire. One of the Dolphins replied, “We would far rather be destroyed in our battle with each other than admit any interference from you in our affairs.”
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Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around the 6th century BCE, whose fables have shaped moral literature across the world for over two millennia. This particular fable is one of his briefest, yet its sting is precise — using the absurdity of a Sprat mediating between giants to expose the arrogance of the powerful.
