Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE FOX, THE MONKEY AND HIS ANCESTORS
A fox and a monkey were travelling along the same road. They passed through
a cemetery, and the monkey said to the fox, 'All these dead people were the
freedmen of my ancestors.' The fox then said to the monkey, 'This is an opportune
moment for you to tell such lies: not a single one of the people entombed in
this place can rise up and refute what you say!'
This fable can be used to indict charlatans and anyone who deals in lies
instead of the truth. |
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 14: Gibbs (Oxford) 188 [English]
Perry 14: Townsend 196 [English]
Perry 14: Babrius 81 [Greek]
Perry 14: Chambry 39 [Greek]
Perry 14: Syntipas 14 [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.
|