batch.motif.greek-aesop-fables-vernon-jones-gutenberg-l1138-l1159
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-aesop-fables-vernon-jones-gutenberg-l1138-l1159
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/aesops-fables-vernon-jones.md
passage_locator:
label: THE PEACOCK AND THE CRANE / THE CAT AND THE BIRDS / THE SPENDTHRIFT AND THE
SWALLOW / THE OLD WOMAN AND THE DOCTOR; lines 1138-1159
start: '1138'
end: '1159'
translation: Aesop's Fables; a new translation
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: An old woman with failing eyesight contracts with a doctor to pay him only
if he cures her. During treatment he removes her possessions from the house. Once
her sight is restored and the house is empty, she refuses payment and argues in
court that she must be blinder than before because she can no longer see any belongings
in the house.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: An old woman becomes almost totally blind because of an eye disease.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The old woman and the doctor make an agreement before witnesses about payment
depending on whether the cure succeeds.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: The doctor visits repeatedly for treatment and takes articles from the house
on each visit.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: At the final visit the cure is complete, but nothing remains in the house.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:5
text: The old woman refuses to pay the doctor, and he sues her before magistrates.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:6
text: In court the old woman states that she is blinder than ever because she cannot
see any furniture or other things in the house.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Old Woman
description: A woman who is nearly blind, enters a treatment agreement, later refuses
payment, and defends herself in court.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Doctor
description: A doctor contracted to cure the old woman; during visits he removes
household articles and later claims payment.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Witnesses
description: People present when the agreement between the old woman and the doctor
is made.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Magistrates
description: Authorities before whom the doctor brings his claim for payment.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
roles:
- id: role:1
label: patient under contract
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: She consults the doctor and agrees to pay a fee only if cured.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: physician claimant
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: He prescribes treatment and later sues for payment of the fee.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- id: role:3
label: secret taker of household goods
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: At each visit he takes away an article from the house.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:4
label: clever defendant
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: She answers the claim in court by arguing from the empty condition of the
house.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: role:5
label: contract witnesses
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: They are present when the agreement is made.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:6
label: legal authorities
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The lawsuit is brought before them.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: blindness and sight
literal_form: diseased eyes, blindness, cure, inability to see household goods
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: sym:2
label: empty house
literal_form: house emptied of furniture and other things
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- id: sym:3
label: treatment agreement
literal_form: agreement before witnesses for a high fee if cured and no fee if not
cured
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:4
label: court defense
literal_form: spoken defense before magistrates
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Conditional medical agreement
summary: The old woman, nearly blind, contracts with the doctor before witnesses
to pay him only if he cures her.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Treatment and theft of household goods
summary: During repeated treatment visits, the doctor removes articles from the
house until the cure is complete and the house is empty.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Refusal and lawsuit
summary: The old woman refuses payment, and the doctor brings her before magistrates
for the debt.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: scene:4
label: Defense based on the empty house
summary: The old woman accepts the contract terms but says she is not cured, since
she can no longer see the household goods that were formerly visible to her.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: deceptive healer steals from patient
taxonomy_refs:
- trickster_boundary
basis: A doctor charged with curing the woman removes goods from her house during
his treatment visits.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage presents deception and boundary-crossing by a professional,
but does not name the doctor as a trickster.
- id: motif:2
label: clever legal answer defeats unjust claim
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The old woman answers the doctor’s claim by using the empty house as proof
that, by the contract’s terms, she has not been cured.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
confidence: high
cautions: The wisdom motif is inferred from the successful verbal defense; the passage
does not provide an explicit moral in the supplied text.
- id: motif:3
label: literalized proof from absence
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The old woman claims inability to see anything in the house because the doctor
has removed the objects, turning absence into legal evidence.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
confidence: high
cautions: This is a descriptive motif label without a supplied taxonomy reference.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 1138-1144
quote_or_summary: The old woman is nearly blind from eye disease and agrees before
witnesses to pay a high fee if the doctor cures her, with no payment if he fails.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/aesops-fables-vernon-jones.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 1144-1149
quote_or_summary: The doctor prescribes treatment and, on each visit, takes an article
from the house until the final visit, when the cure is complete and nothing is
left.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/aesops-fables-vernon-jones.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 1149-1153
quote_or_summary: Seeing the empty house, the old woman refuses to pay; after repeated
refusals, the doctor sues her before magistrates.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/aesops-fables-vernon-jones.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: quote
locator: lines 1153-1159
quote_or_summary: The old woman says she is “blinder than ever” because formerly
she could see that the house contained furniture, but now she cannot see anything
there at all.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/aesops-fables-vernon-jones.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation used.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: uncertain
notes: The passage is straightforward for figures, actions, and scenes. Motif labels
are cautious and based only on the supplied fable text; no comparison claims are
made because the passage itself does not support cross-text comparison.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Only the supplied passage text was used; although the locator label lists multiple fables, the provided passage contains only “The Old Woman and the Doctor.”
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-aesop-fables-vernon-jones-gutenberg__l1138-l1159
passage_sha256=b2003485af8b5d780dd958e16f2a6cb6e4005efe227f9dc2f1b94663705f95ff