Το φίδι που όλοι το πατούσαν (Αίσωπος). A snake that everybody were stepping on. (Aesop).

It was a snake that everybody stepped on. So it made its complaints to Zeus, and asked him to protect him from this injustice. But the god answered: It’s only your fault. Because if you had bitten the first person who stepped on you, there would not have been a second one to attempt it. The myth teaches us that our right alone is not enough. We must also defend it.