Know your expression: Lion’s share

In situations where some people are cheated out of what should rightly belong to them or go to them, we hear people make mention of the expression The Lion’s share.

The expression derives from the plot of one of the fables ascribed to Aesop, the Ethiopian who was taken to ancient Greece as a slave long before Christ was born.

Note that a fable is a story with animal characters who behave as humans. At the end of the story, a moral lesson is learnt.

In the fable in question, titled ‘The Lion, the Cow, the Goat and the Sheep,’ the lion and his three friends went hunting for game.
In no time, they got a deer and they felt it was enough for the day.

When it was time to share the deer, the lion cut it into four equal parts.

The cow, the goat and the sheep might have felt elated that they were going to enjoy a fair share of the booty.

But whatever joy they had from the division of the deer into four parts was short lived, for immediately after dividing the deer, the lion stood up and addressed his hunting partners thus: ‘My lords, I let you know that the first part is mine, because I’m your lord; the second because I’m stronger than you; the third because I ran more swift than you did; and whoever touches the fourth part, he shall be my mortal enemy!’

So saying, the lion took the whole deer for himself, leaving the cow, the goat and the sheep with nothing. The lesson learnt from this rather unfortunate instance of plain and open cheating is that partnership with the mighty is never trustworthy.

Now from this story of the lion taking a whole deer to himself and denying his partners their just share has come this expression, Lion’s share, which means the larger part - or most - of something.

For example; It is proper that the leader of the three-member quiz team takes the lion’s share of the prize money - he answered almost all the questions.