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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE MUSICIAN AT HOME

There was once a musician who had no talent whatsoever but he played his lyre in a room that had thick plaster upon the walls so when he heard the echoing sound, he concluded that he must be an excellent musician indeed. Puffed up with pride, he decided to perform on the stage. But when he made his debut at the theatre, his performance was so dreadful that the audience threw stones at him, driving him off the stage.
The fable shows that the same is true of public speakers: while they are still in school they may think that they have some talent, but they find out they are worthless when they embark on a public career.

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 121: Gibbs (Oxford) 252 [English]
Perry 121: L'Estrange 176 [English]
Perry 121: Chambry 156 [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.