The Tortoise and the Hare

The Tortoise and the Hare, illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 Aesop anthology

The Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise. In response, the tortoise challenges his swift mocker to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise far behind and, confident of winning, he decides to take a nap midway through the course. When he awakes, however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has already won the race.

An extended version

One day a hare saw a tortoise walking slowly along and began to laugh and mock him. The hare challenged the tortoise to a race and the tortoise accepted. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race.

He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise, plodding on, overtook him and finished the race. The hare woke up and realized that he had lost the race.

The moral, stated at the end of the fable, is, "Slow and steady wins the race."

Adaptations and cultural references

The fable was adapted into a Silly Symphonies animated short subject of the same name by Walt Disney Productions in 1934. The hare was named Max Hare (a pun on the name of the boxer Max Baer) and the tortoise was named Toby Tortoise. In 1936, Max Hare and Toby Tortoise appeared in another Silly Symphonies cartoon called Toby Tortoise Returns, in which Max and Toby are engaged in another match as fighters in a boxing ring. It also served as the inspiration for three Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes cartoons co-starring Cecil Turtle. Archie Comics also turned the character of the tortoise into a Sonic the Hedgehog character named Tommy Turtle.

The Tortoise and the Hare make a cameo among the non-human Fables in the Fables comic book.

French poet Jean de La Fontaine adapted the story into a poem le Lièvre et la Tortue (in French).

In the sitcom Scrubs, Perry Cox retells the fable with Chief of Medicine Bob Kelso in place of the hare, calling the tale "The Tortoise and the Pain-in-the-ass Chief of Medicine That Everybody Hates". The story remains true to the fable until the end, when the tortoise bites the calf of the Chief of Medicine, who is then devoured by the other tortoises on the track. Cox describes it as "a disturbing children`s tale... but one that stuck with me, nonetheless".

In an episode of Garfield and Friends's U.S. Acres, Booker and Sheldon decide to make the fable more modern, by turning the characters into an intergalactic hero and villain with powerful ships. They briefly consider making the tortoise a ninja, but they realize this has already been done in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

American Dad depicts a grisly version of the fable, in which the hare (named Andy) is accidentally killed by Stan's Delorean (when Steve's head hangs out of the doorless frame). The tortoise weeps, then promises to help his friend's body to the finish line. As he is so slow, by the time he gets there some time has passed--the body is flyblown and its legs have fallen off.

Walt Disney's Fun-to-Read Library adapted the story as Goofy's Big Race, in which Goofy (in a slow old-fashioned car) and Donald Duck (in a convertible) race to an ice cream shop in Horner's Corners. Along the way, Donald, confident that he will win, gets into all sorts of distractions (such as going skateboarding with Huey, Dewey and Louie and trying unsuccessfully to help win a baseball game) while Goofy keeps his mind on the race.

MAD Magazine parodied the story as a "Modern Day Fairy Tale" comic strip in which the tortoise wins because the hare was beaten up by the Ninja Turtles.

An episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! has Yugi Mutou tell his opponent "slow and steady wins the duel" after summoning Catapult Turtle to the field.

In mathematics and computer science, the "tortoise and the hare" algorithm is an alternate name for Floyd's cycle-finding algorithm.

The Tortoise and the Hare, illustrated in a 1921 story anthology

The Moody Blues song "Tortoise and the Hare" from the album A Question of Balance is loosely based on the fable.

BJ Dooley's song "The Tortoise and the Hare for a New Age" from the album The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay retells the story with references to science, magic, and cheating.

An animated retelling of the fable was released as part of the Living Books series of children's computer games in 1993.

The online webcomic Turtle vs. Bunny shows a violent take on the classic story, with reader participation determining the outcome.

Sesame Street used the fable as the basis for two "Sesame Street News Flash" segments; in the first, Kermit the Frog accidentally wins the race, and in the second, the tortoise has a rocket attached to his shell.

An episode from the second season of The Backyardigans, called Horsing Around, alludes to the fable, although in this case it is a slow-moving donkey and his rider who beat two much faster horses and their riders.

In Copley Square in Boston, Massachusetts (the finish line of the Boston Marathon), a public sculpture by Nancy Schön depicts the characters from the story.

An abbreviated version of the fable is referenced in the often-heard expression in the business world: "You snooze, you lose."

In Germany, there is a fairy tale by a similar name, Der Hase und der Igel ("The Hare and the Hedgehog"). It was published for the first time in 1840 and afterwards made popular by the Brothers Grimm. Here, a hedgehog beats the hare in a race by situating his wife at the end of the track. Before the hare can arrive, the hedgehog's wife – who looks very similar to her husband – calls out "Ick bün all dor" (Low German, "I am here already"). The hare cannot understand his loss, sets up a new race, is tricked again… and finally dies from exhaustion. In Germany, the popular board game Hare and Tortoise is designed after this version of the story and runs under the name "Hase und Igel" ("Hare and Hedgehog"). In the satirical short story Achilles and the Tortoise and the Hedgehog, the fable has been combined with the classical paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise.

The fable was the basis of a story in the September 2008 issue of Ranger Rick, in which Becky Hare races Bosley Box Turtle; in the middle of the race, she rescues a group of box turtles being captured as pets, thus losing again to the turtle.

The fable was one of two featured prominently in Bill Cosby's animated special, "Aesop's Fables".

In an episode of the comic book Teen Titans Go! a race between young superheroes becomes a re-enactment of the fable, with Mas y Menos as the Turtle and Impulse (Allen) as the Hare.

Isaac Asimov wrote a short comic science-fiction story in which a race among pets is won by a pet "rockette" named Teddy, belonging to a boy named Sloane. The story concludes with a pun: "Sloane's Teddy wins the race."

The "Super Fast Turtle/Turtle With the Shades" joke often recited by Chuck Gonzales and Jorge Tonda is an allusion to the fable.

The Far Side by Gary Larson had a cartoon which showed the Tortoise and the Hare still at the starting line after being run over by a steamroller.

Aesop's tale has curious parallels with African stories of Kalulu, the trickster hare. In these tales, Kalulu is variously depicted as a lazy ne'er-do-well or a cunning plotter who can outwit a leopard or fox. In Aesop's story we see the revenge of other animals, a theme recently taken up in Vukani Nyirenda's children's e-book Kalulu the Hare Outwitted.

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Hare and the Tortoise (Aesop)

• Achilles & the tortoise
• Aesop's Fables
• Law of the handicap of a head start

External links

• Film: The Hare and the Tortoise (bottom of list)
• An alternate version of The Tortoise and the Hare fable
• "Another Tortoise, Another Hare," musical play by John Mucci and Richard Felnagle
• "The Tortoise and the Hare - Paradox"
• "New Story of the Hare and the Tortoise"
• One act staged rendition of Aesop's Fables concludes with a modernized version "The Tortoise and the Hare."