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Aesop's Fables (Chambry edition)

Chambry 96 = Perry 63

Δημάδης ὁ ῥήτωρ.

Δημάδης ὁ ῥήτωρ δημηγορῶν ποτε ἐν Ἀθήναις, ἐκείνων μὴ πάνυ τι αὐτῷ προσεχόντων, ἐδεήθη αὐτῶν ὅπως ἐπιτρέψωσιν αὐτῷ Αἰσώπειον μῦθον εἰπεῖν. Τῶν δὲ συγχωρησάντων αὐτῷ, ἀρξάμενος ἔλεγε· Δήμητρα καὶ χελιδὼν καὶ ἔγχελυς τὴν αὐτὴν ὁδὸν ἐβάδιζον· γενομένων δὲ αὐτῶν κατά τινα ποταμόν, ἡ μὲ χελιδὼν ἔπτη, ἡ δὲ ἔγχελυς κατέδυ· καὶ ταῦτα εἰπὼν ἐσιώπησεν. Ἐρομένων δὲ αὐτῶν· Ἡ οὖν Δήμητρα τί ἔπαθεν; ἔφη· Κεχόλωται ὑμῖν, οἵτινες τὰ τῆς πόλεως πράγματα ἐάσαντες Αἰσωπείων μύθων ἀντέχεσθε.
Οὕτω καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀλόγιστοί εἰσιν ὅσοι τῶν μὲν ἀναγκαίων ὀλιγωροῦσι, τὰ δὲ πρὸς ἡδονὴν μᾶλλον αἱροῦνται. 


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.