Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
467. THE MOTHER, THE CHILD AND THE CROW
Perry 162 (Chambry
294)
The mother of a small baby consulted a soothsayer who told her that her
child would be killed by a crow. Terrified, the mother ordered that a
large chest be built and she shut her baby inside, protecting him so that
no crow could harm him. She continued in this way, opening the chest at
regular intervals in order to give the baby the food that he needed. Then
one day, after she had opened the chest and was using an iron bar to prop
up the lid, the child recklessly stuck his head out. At that moment, the
iron bar -- it was a crow bar -- fell down on top of the boy's head and
killed him.
Note: In the Greek the 'crow' (or, rather, korax, the 'raven') appears
to have been an actual part of the chest, presumably a bar of black
metal with a bend at one end, shaped like an English crow bar.
Source:
Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura
Gibbs.
Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New
cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.
|