Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE DAUGHTER AND THE HIRED MOURNERS
There was a rich man who had two daughters, but one of his daughters died. He
hired some women to do the mourning and they let loose a whole chorus of weeping.
The other daughter remarked to her mother, 'We are surely wretched women if
we cannot come up with a lament for our own loss, while these women, who are
not even members of the family, beat their breasts and grieve so deeply.' The
mother replied, 'Don't be surprised, my child: they do it for the money!' |
 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 205: Gibbs (Oxford) 395 [English]
Perry 205: L'Estrange 198 [English]
Perry 205: Chambry 310 [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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