Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE WOLF AND THE RAVEN
A donkey who had a sore on his back was grazing in a meadow. A raven alighted
on his back and began to peck at the wound, while the donkey brayed and reared
up on his hind legs in pain. The donkey's driver, meanwhile, stood off at a
distance and laughed. A wolf who was passing by saw the whole thing and said
to himself, 'How unfairly we wolves are treated! When people so much as catch
a glimpse of us, they drive us away, but when someone like that raven makes
his move, everyone just smiles at him.'
The fable shows that even before they act, dangerous people can be recognized
at a distance. |
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 190: Gibbs (Oxford) 390 [English]
Perry 190: L'Estrange 194 [English]
Perry 190: Chambry 274 [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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