Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
ZEUS AND APOLLO
As he made a distant shot with his bow and arrow, Apollo said to the gods, 'No
one can shoot farther than I, not even Zeus.' Zeus played along and agreed to
a contest. Hermes shook the lots in the helmet of Ares. The lot fell to Apollo,
who went first, flexing the golden bowstring and swiftly letting loose an arrow
which landed inside the Garden of the Hesperides. Zeus then covered the same
distance in a single stride and stood there asking, 'Where should I shoot my
arrow, son? There's nowhere for me to stand.' So it was that Zeus won the archery
contest without even taking a shot. |
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 104: Gibbs (Oxford) 182 [English]
Perry 104: Babrius 68 [Greek]
Perry 104: Chambry 121 [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.
|