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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE FISHERMEN AND THE TUNA FISH

Some fishermen had gone out fishing, and when they had struggled for a long time but had not managed to catch anything, they became very downcast and prepared to turn back. All of a sudden a tuna fish who was being chased by some bigger fish leaped into their boat. The men seized the tuna fish and went home rejoicing.
The story shows that Luck often bestows the things that skill cannot obtain.

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 21: Gibbs (Oxford) 420 [English]
Perry 21: L'Estrange 110 [English]
Perry 21: Chambry 22 [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.