Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE STATUE OF HERMES AND THE TREASURE
There was a craftsman who had a wooden statue of Hermes. Every day he poured
libations and made sacrifices to it, but he still wasn't able to earn a living.
The man got angry at the god so he grabbed the statue by the leg and threw it
down on the ground. The head of the statue shattered and gold coins came pouring
out from inside it. As he gathered the gold, the man remarked, 'Hermes, you
are an unlucky god, since you take no thought for your friends. You didn't do
me any good when I was treating you with devotion, but now that I have wronged
you, you give me this immense reward. I do not understand this strange kind
of cult!' |
 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 285: Caxton 6.6 [English]
Perry 285: Gibbs (Oxford) 464 [English]
Perry 285: Jacobs 41 [English]
Perry 285: L'Estrange 105 [English]
Perry 285: Townsend 149 [English]
Perry 285: Steinhowel 6.6 [Latin, illustrated]
Mannheim
University Library
Perry 285: Babrius 119 [Greek]
Perry 285: Chambry 61 [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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