Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE FARMER AND THE SEA
A farmer saw a ship and her crew about to sink into the sea as the ship's prow
disappeared beneath the curl of a wave. The farmer said, 'O sea, it would have
been better if no one had ever set sail on you! You are a pitiless element of
nature and an enemy to mankind.' When she heard this, the sea took on the shape
of a woman and said in reply, 'Do not spread such evil stories about me! I am
not the cause of any of these things that happen to you; the winds to which
I am exposed are the cause of them all. If you look at me when the winds are
gone, and sail upon me then, you will admit that I am even more gentle than
that dry land of yours.' |
 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 168: Gibbs (Oxford) 276 [English]
Perry 168: Townsend 298 [English]
Perry 168: Babrius 71 [Greek]
Perry 168: Chambry 245 [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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