Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE GNAT AND THE LION
A gnat came to the lion and said, 'I am not afraid of you and you are not more
powerful than me. You don't agree? Well, what kind of power do you have? The
fact that you can scratch with your claws and bite with your teeth? That's the
sort of thing even a woman can do when she is arguing with her husband! I am,
in fact, far stronger than you are. If you agree, let's go and fight it out.'
The gnat sounded his trumpet and then attacked, biting the lion around the nose
where his face was not covered with hair. The lion could only wear himself out
with his claws, until he finally admitted defeat. Having emerged victorious
in this battle with the lion, the gnat sounded his trumpet and sang his victory
ode. He then flew away -- only to get entangled in the web of a spider. As he
was being eaten by the spider, the gnat bitterly lamented the fact that while
he had done battle with the high and mighty, he was about to be killed by such
an insignificant creature. |
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 255: Gibbs (Oxford) 243 [English]
Perry 255: L'Estrange 201 [English]
Perry 255: Townsend 190 [English]
Perry 255: Chambry 188 [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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