Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE DOG, THE MEAT AND THE REFLECTION
A dog seized some meat from the butcher shop and ran away with it until he came
to a river. When the dog was crossing the river, he saw the reflection of the
meat in the water, and it seemed much larger than the meat he was carrying.
He dropped his own piece of meat in order to try to snatch at the reflection.
When the reflection disappeared, the dog went to grab the meat he had dropped
but he was not able to find it anywhere, since a passing raven had immediately
snatched the meat and gobbled it up. The dog lamented his sorry condition and
said, 'Woe is me! I foolishly abandoned what I had in order to grab at a phantom,
and thus I ended up losing both that phantom and what I had to begin with.'
This fable is about greedy people who grasp at more than they need. |
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 133: Caxton 1.5 [English]
Perry 133: Gibbs (Oxford) 263 [English]
Perry 133: Jacobs 3 [English]
Perry 133: L'Estrange 6 [English]
Perry 133: Townsend 15 [English]
Perry 133: Steinhowel 1.5 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
Perry 133: Aphthonius 35 [Greek]
Perry 133: Babrius 79 [Greek]
Perry 133: Chambry 185 [Greek]
Perry 133: Syntipas 28 [Greek]
Perry 133: Ademar 7 [Latin]
Perry 133: Odo 61 [Latin]
Perry 133: Phaedrus 1.4 [Latin]
Perry 133: Rom. Anglicus 5 [Latin]
Perry 133: Rom. Nil. (metrica) 5 [Latin]
Perry 133: Rom. Nil. (rhythmica) 1.5
[Latin]
Perry 133: Walter of England 5 [Latin]
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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