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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

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

THE RAVEN, THE SWALLOW AND THE SEASONS

The swallow and the raven were quarrelling with each other about who was more beautiful. The raven said to the swallow, 'Your beauty is seen only in the springtime, and when winter comes it cannot hold out against the cold. My physique, on the other hand, holds up admirably both during the cold of winter and the summer heat.'
This fable shows that the strength and well-being of the body are superior to physical beauty or the charms of youth.

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 229: Gibbs (Oxford) 192 [English]
Perry 229: L'Estrange 159 [English]
Perry 229: Townsend 24 [English]
Perry 229: Chambry 348 [Greek]
Perry 229: Syntipas 3 [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.