Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE TWO MEN, THE EAGLE AND THE FOX
An eagle was once caught by a man who immediately clipped his wings and turned
him loose in the house with the chickens. The eagle was utterly dejected and
grief-stricken. Another man bought the eagle and restored the eagle's feathers.
The eagle then soared on his outspread wings and seized a hare, which he promptly
brought back as a gift for the man who had rescued him. A fox saw what the eagle
was doing and shouted, 'He's not the one who needs your attention! You should
give the hare to the first man, so that if he ever catches you again, he won't
deprive you of your wing feathers like the first time.'
The fable shows that we should give appropriate thanks to our benefactors,
while avoiding evil-doers. |
 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 275: Gibbs (Oxford) 83 [English]
Perry 275: Townsend 305 [English]
Perry 275: Chambry 6 [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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