Caepulla
From The Seven Sages of Rome
ChildrenDeathDeath of sonDeceitful womanGriefFather/son relationshipsIllnessLesson: women’s cleverness and deceitMedicineMurderSuicide
A man has a gravely ill son, whom no doctors can cure. The boy desperately craves a specific fruit or vegetable. The man's wife persuades the him to not allow the son to eat that food, and eventually the boy dies. An autopsy reveals that a growth of bone in the boy's organs was what had killed him. The doctor later learns that an onion would have cured his son, kills his wife (the boy's mother) and then himself.
Adapted from Wikeley (1983) by Ava Byrne, edited by Jane Bonsall.
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In the Italian versions, the son desires an onion. In the Forty Vezirs, it is a watermelon. |
| Critical Literature |
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| Wikeley (1983), Nishimura (2001) |
| Caepulla appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
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| Caepulla is narrated in the following occurrences |
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| No recorded narrations available. |
| Caepulla appears in the following manuscripts |
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| This inset story appears in no manuscripts of the database |