# The Hares — Aesop's Fables character guide

> The Hares in Aesop's Fables by Aesop.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** The Hares, the Hares

**First appearance:** 0026-the-hares-and-the-frogs

## Snapshot

The most fearful creatures in the meadow, whose trembling dread of every shadow teaches them — and the reader — that courage is often just a matter of comparison.

## Who they are

The Hares inhabit Aesop's world as the byword for timidity, startled by their own shadows and ready to abandon life at the first sign of danger. Their panic is so total that it becomes a kind of lesson: when they flee in terror, they sometimes discover creatures even more frightened than themselves. Their fables turn cowardice inside out, showing how fear, examined closely, can shrink into something almost like resolve.

## In the story

### [The Hares and the Frogs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/fables_se/chapters/the-hares-and-the-frogs)

The Hares lament their fearful existence and resolve to end their lives, but are persuaded by a wiser elder to reconsider.

### [The Fawn and His Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/fables_se/chapters/the-fawn-and-his-mother)

The Hind, the fawn's mother, scolds her son but then flees at the sound of hounds.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/fables_se/characters/the_hares
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/fables_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/fables_se/characters