Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE DONKEY WHO CARRIED THE GOD
A man had placed a carved image on his donkey and was leading him along. Many
people bowed down when they met them along the way. The donkey grew arrogant,
thinking that the country folk were bowing down before him, so he began to leap
and prance. As he did so, the donkey almost threw the image of the god from
his back. The donkey's master beat him with a stick and said, 'You are a donkey
carrying a god on your back, but that does not mean you deserve to be worshipped
as a god!'
This fable can be used for vulgar people who attribute to themselves the
honour that is paid to others. |
 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 182: Gibbs (Oxford) 278 [English]
Perry 182: Townsend 2 [English]
Perry 182: Townsend 117 [English]
Perry 182: Chambry 266 [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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