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Aesop's Fables (Chambry edition)

Chambry 358 = Perry 273

Ψύλλα καὶ βοῦς.

Ψύλλα δέ ποτε τὸν βοῦν οὕτως ἠρώτα·
Τὶ δή [παθὼν] ἀνθρώποις ὁσημέραι δουλεύεις,
καὶ ταῦτα ὑπερμεγέθης καὶ ἀνδρεῖος [τυγχάνων],
μοῦ σάρκας αὐτῶν οἰκτίστως διασπώσης
καὶ τὸ αἷμα αὐτῶν χανδόθεν πινούσης;
Ὁ δ'· Οὐκ ἄχαρίς εἰμι μερόπων γένει·
στέργομαι γὰρ παρὰ αὐτῶν καὶ φιλοῦμαι [ἐκτόπως],
τρίβομαί τε συχνῶς μέτωπόν [τε] καὶ ὤμους.
Ἡ δέ· Ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ γοῦν τέως τῇ δειλαίᾳ
ἡ σοὶ φίλη τρίψις οἴκτιστος δὴ μόρος,
Ὅτε καὶ τύχῃ συμβαίνει μοι ἁλῶναι.

Ὅτι οἱ διὰ τοῦ λόγου ἀλαζόνες καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ εὐτελοῦς ἡττῶνται.

Chambry published a multivolume edition of the fables for the Belles Lettres series in 1925/6 (Paris). He later revised this into a single volume, omitting hundreds of the fable variants. In addition, the numeration between these two volumes is not consistent. The texts here are taken from the 1925/6 edition, but the numeration follows the stanard single volume edition.