Download Androcles and the Lion
A slave runs away from his master and hides in the woods – then finds himself face to face with a limping lion….
The tale of Androcles and the Lion is said to have been written by Aesop – the great Greek storyteller who always summed up his stories from the animal kingdom with a moral. In the case of Androcles, the lesson is that “Gratitude is the sign of a noble soul!”
Read by Natasha. Duration 6 minutes 5 seconds
It happened in ancient times that a slave named Androcles escaped from his master and fled into the forest, and he wandered there for a long time until he was weary and well nigh spent with hunger and despair.
Just then he heard a lion near him moaning and groaning and at times roaring terribly. Tired as he was Androcles rose up and rushed away from the lion; but as he made his way through the bushes he stumbled over the root of a tree and fell down twisting his ankle, and when he tried to get up there he saw the lion coming towards him, limping on three feet and holding his forepaw in front of him.
Poor Androcles was in despair; he had not strength to rise and run away, and there was the lion coming upon him. But when the great beast came up to him instead of attacking him it kept on moaning and groaning and looking at Androcles, who saw that the lion was holding out his right paw, which was covered with blood and much swollen. Looking more closely at it Androcles saw a great big thorn pressed into the paw, which was the cause of all the lion’s trouble. Plucking up courage he seized hold of the thorn and drew it out of the lion’s paw, who roared with pain when the thorn came out, but soon after found such relief from it that he rubbed up against Androcles and showed, in every way that he knew, that he was truly thankful for being relived from such pain.
Instead of eating him up he brought him a young deer that he had slain, and Androcles managed to make a meal from it. For some time the lion continued to bring the game he had killed to Androcles, who became quite fond of the huge beast.
But one day a number of soldiers came marching through the forest and found Androcles, and as he could not explain what he was doing they took him prisoner and brought him back to the town from which he had fled. Here his master soon found him and brought him before the authorities, and he was condemned to death because he had fled from his master.
Now it used to be the custom to throw murderers and other criminals to the lions in a huge circus, so that while the criminals were punished the public could enjoy the spectacle of a combat between them and the wild beasts.
So Androcles was condemned to be thrown to the lions, and on the appointed day he was led forth into the Arena and left there alone with only a spear to protect him from the lion. The Emperor of Rome was in the royal box that day and gave the signal for the lion to come out and attack Androcles. But when it came out of its cage and got near Androcles, what do you think it did? Instead of jumping upon him it rubbed up against him and stroked him with its paw and made no attempt to do him any harm.
It was of course the lion which Androcles had met in the forest. The Emperor, surprised at seeing such a strange behavior in so cruel a beast, summoned Androcles to him and asked him how it happened that this particular lion had lost all its cruelty of character. So Androcles told the Emperor all that had happened to him and how the lion was showing its gratitude for his having relieved it of the thorn. Thereupon the Emperor pardoned Androcles and ordered his master to set him free, while the lion was taken back into the forest and let loose to enjoy freedom once more.
109 Comments
OHH!!!! i HAVE NOT YET HEARD THIS STORY THOUGH BUT… i HAVE READ THE STORY I PLAN OF DAWNLOADING IT SOON!
I HAVE HEARD OF THE COLASIUM BUT NEVER EVER NEW IT WAS A CIRCUS! 
Good job bertie of chewsing this story! Oh yah and I like the inprovements you have done on the site! 
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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I haven’t her this story but it was very fun story.
Nex time tell me a good story then bye bye
HELLO BERTIE ,
THIS IS A NICE STORY,BUT IF U CAN PUT SOME MORE OF ASEOP STORIES INTO STORYNORY PLEASE………… BECAUSE ASEOP TALES ARE 1 OF MY FAVE………
SHERYL
Hello Sheryl – Good idea – we will do some more Aesop stories – they are rather brief but very popular.
Hope to see more of the Aseop stories then……..
Byebye
sheryl
this story is so funny
THANX
HI BERTIE ,
CAN U GIVE ME SOME INFO ON WHEN THE ASEOP STORIES ARE COMING OUT ON STORYNORY????
Blablabla! I am Sueryl I ask quetions!
And I act like i know Bertie!! blablabla!!
Great story, thanks
Hi Bertie,
Sheryl Says:
And I act like i know Bertie!! blablabla!!
May 5th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Blablabla! I am Sueryl I ask quetions!
This is truly not me who wrote it!!
Something is really wrong every time that I leave a comment othrrs will use my name and speak bad!!!!
Please find out who is the culprit.
Hi Sheryl,
I’m afraid I know very little about the people who leave comments – so I can say who is impersonating you! But please don’t get too upset.
Thanks for all your nice comments.
Bertie
ok,
those people are a little stupid not to say i want to say them.it is so odvice that they want to use my name and can copy it wrongly.
sheryl:D:D:D:D
I read the story,I have a question. I learning the languae engilish. you can present the story that easy for me,Because this story is dificullt for me
thank you so much
Please, I beg of you, more Aesop Fables.
yyyyyyyyyyyyyyooooooooooooooooo
i know you
Hi Bertie guess what? My name is Bertie too!! And i think your friend Sheryl is awsome!!! Tell me, what is aseop stories are??? I mean what difference do they make compere to the other ones???
sheryl says
Bertie the frog
has a name no one has so i do not belive that bertie has a copycat!
and pls daon’t use mmy na,me 4 no resond!!!!to all those who like to make fun of peeople when writing comments!!!
dude, this is like the mouse and the lion, i love it:D
ahhhhhhhhh! i gots a weird face!
this is a nice & a big stoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it smells in there.
this story is alright but i dont think that would really happen and i tink it very long and i rather the tortoise and the hare. I LIKE PIE!
hey gang this story is good.it would be cool if a lion really rubbed up against u like a pet
the story was so short…
Hai
YOUR TOYS ARE GERATE
I really enjoyed this story and the message it conveys.
thank you very much for this good story
Wow! what a great and a funny story….Ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!
gybuiok,lp.8252828
ㅣㅋㅋㅋㅋ 파파파파ㅏ
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
i profer the other one
sfhnsoaugogoihgoihohgo0dhsg
We learned that What goes around comes around.
One good turn deserves another
Good story between boy and lion One good turn deserves another What goes around comes around
I relly loved the asop fable.
May you please put some more asop fables on storynory.com.
Hi Kellsy,
Really pleased that you liked Androcles.
We will be doing more Aesop, probably before end of the year, but in the meantime have you heard these four Aesop stories?
http://storynory.com/2007/09/02/four-aesop-fables/
I liked the part where the lion becomes a hero and the part whan the men was brave.
Thanks, Storynory. We enjoyed this story very much. All our class students had a good time listening to this story. Bye.
HI,
this story is boring stop it.
Hi all my peps what u all doing anyway i know none of u know me laters
that this story needs a bit more detail and needs to be longer, like why did Androcles run away, was he being mistreated by his master? If he was how, or how did he get captured or how did he feel in the cave with the lion, like come, I know you people can do better than this.
are you crasy
com e* tu pell je mepelle green098 sewa bonjour comse com sa
Lol Verry Nothing Fun /:
I think you must give more full stops in yer story..
Also, decrease the “and” word. Actually this make me hard to remember one to another word…
Thank you…
this one is boring!
hic bişiy anlamadım
cok guzel sacmallamıssınız
coollllllllllllllllllllllllllllll1111111l::::::::!!!”!”!!”"!!”!#!@#!@#@@#@#!@$#%$#%$%$%$$%^$&&^%$@%^&**&^%%*%(%$#E
coollllllllllllllllllllllllllllll1111111l::::::::!!!”!”!!
“”!!”!#!@#!@#@@#@#!@$#%$#%$%$%$$
E OMFG I WANNA READ THIS STORY MORE!!!!!!!!
This is a nice story for babies
next pleace
i think it was a very good story and i like how the lion and slave get a good relashon ship and it is good the slave doesent get eaten.
I liked the story because Natasha read the ending was really cool.
I like the story but it was long.
hi!!!!!!!!!
great story
this is my school assingment
great story
this is my school assingment
lolli.i never read it but its cool!
I liked the story.well, i guess i finished my homework.Cause this suppose to be social studies homework.
I like this story very much.
hi
WOW ITS GR3AT
I didn’t read it bt hayyy its gurd (y)
hahax
I didn’t bother to read that story cause I’ve already read it, but its a good story and I would recomend it to any loser. Thank-you
Byeeee!!! xoxox
Aesop’s fables always teach lessons and I like that, but I think they ought to have more details.
im hungry…
it is really nice and intreseing
Well-done! I am going to use it with a lesson on cats for my Pathfinders Club.
that was a luvly story;-)
Good way of teaching
wow
this story rocks
how sweet!
nevva heard of dat story kk cya soon story nory
Good story!
I thought that this story/book is very interesting for young children.
It’s very good. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Androcles a brave man
to take a thron out
of a lion .
that is one incredibel tale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I liked the moral of the story and i haven´t heard this before. Good to know though.
can you select tales very short?
I’m improving my english and I need little story.
Have you a agreable voice! congratulations!
This is not quite an exciting story. It would be better if had more adventures.
): (:
is relly that s berry nice
iv’e learnt fables at school but not that one so its nice to hear a new one!
SHORT BUT NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like to read more about it………..
Andrcles is a wonderful story which my children enjoyed a lot.
I loved the story. Its great!
Wow! Its great!!!!!!
I liked it to listen to it. It was fun.
I love hearing your stories and I will listen to them again sometime soon.
hi whats up
Nice moral story…..
GREAT!!!
Hi These Books Are Really Useful For Me As My Mum Never Reads Me Storys Anymore =]
Fab story, we used it in school
tnx Bertie xxx
IT IS A GOOD STORY FOR ME BUT THE TIGER WAS OUTSIDE OF IS HOUSE AND HE WAS TO AND THE LION JUMPED ON HIM THEN THE BOY SAID YOU CAN HAVE FREE DOM
IT WAS A GOOD STORY FOR ME BECAUSE THE LION LOVE THE BOY A LOT THE LION WANT TO BE FREE
good story
Good stories!!!
good
and very interesting=)
I LIKED THE MOUSE IN THE STORY.I THOUGH THAT IT WAS A GOOD STORY. I LOVED THAT STORY.
vvveeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy good
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