Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE FIR TREE AND THE BRAMBLE BUSH
The fir tree and the bramble bush were quarrelling with one another. The fir
tree sang her own praises at length. 'I am beautiful and attractively tall.
I grow straight up, a neighbour to the clouds. I supply the hall's roof and
the ship's keel. How can you compare yourself, you mere thorn, to such a tree
as myself?' The bramble bush then said to the tree, 'Just remember the axes
which are always chopping away at you! Then even you can understand that it
is better to be a bramble bush.'
A famous man has more glory than lesser people, but he is also exposed to
greater dangers. |
 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 304: Caxton Avyan 15 [English]
Perry 304: Gibbs (Oxford) 200 [English]
Perry 304: Townsend 86 [English]
Perry 304: Steinhowel Avyan 15 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim
University Library
Perry 304: Babrius 64 [Greek]
Perry 304: Chambry 101 [Greek]
Perry 304: Avianus 19 [Latin]
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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