Читать книгу Bees Knees and Barmy Armies - Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day - Harry Oliver - Страница 35

This phrase, meaning the largest or most desirable portion of something, owes its origin to one of Aesop’s fables. A lion and three of his friends – a fox, an ass and a wolf – go hunting. After they make a kill the lion says that he is going to keep three-quarters of the meat for himself. The reasons he provides for keeping the ‘lion’s share’ are as follows: one quarter is for him, one quarter for his lioness and cubs, and the other quarter is for his courage. The lion then goes on to inform his friends that he is prepared to part with the remaining quarter provided one of them challenges him to a fight and defeats him. The three friends refuse to take him on, preferring to leave the entire kill to the King of the Beasts.