Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE DECOYS AND THE DOVES
A bird catcher laid out his net, tying some tame doves to the net as decoys.
He then stood off at a distance, waiting to see what would happen. Some wild
doves flew up to the tame doves and became entangled in the knots of the net.
When the bird catcher ran up and began to grab them, the wild doves got angry
at the tame doves, since the tame doves had not warned them about the trap even
though they were all members of the same species. The tame doves replied, 'Nevertheless,
it is better for us to protect the interests of our masters than to please our
relations.'
The same is true about household servants: they should not be blamed when
their devotion to the master of the house causes them to set aside any loyalty
to their kinfolk. |
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 238: Gibbs (Oxford) 44 [English]
Perry 238: Chambry 282 [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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