Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
HERMES AND THE COBBLERS
Zeus ordered Hermes to instill a dose of deceit in every craftsman. With a pestle
and mortar, Hermes ground the drug into a fine powder and after dividing it
into equal portions he began to apply it to each of the craftsmen. In the end,
only the cobbler was left and a great deal of the drug was still left over,
so Hermes poured the entire contents of the mortar onto the cobbler. As a result,
all craftsmen are liars, but cobblers are the worst of all.
This fable is suitable for a man who tells lies. |
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.
Perry 103: Gibbs (Oxford) 519 [English]
Perry 103: Chambry 111 [Greek]
You can find a compilation of Perry's index to the Aesopica in the gigantic appendix to his
edition of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library
(Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1965). This book is an absolute must for anyone interested
in the Aesopic fable tradition. Invaluable.
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