Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE SOOTHSAYER AND THE THEFT
There was a soothsayer who used to sit in the marketplace and predict the future.
Someone suddenly appeared and told the soothsayer that the doors of his house
had been forced open and that everything inside had been stolen. The soothsayer
groaned and sprang to his feet, rushing off to his house. Someone saw him running
and said, 'Hey you! You claim to be able to tell what is going to happen to
other people in advance, so why were you not able to predict your own future?'
This is a fable for people who do a poor job of managing their own lives
but who nevertheless make pronouncements about things that are none of their
business. |
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 161: Gibbs (Oxford) 316 [English]
Perry 161: L'Estrange 88 [English]
Perry 161: Townsend 195 [English]
Perry 161: Chambry 233 [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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