Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
HERMES AND THE ARABS
Hermes filled a cart with lies and dishonesty and all sorts of wicked tricks,
and he journeyed in this cart throughout the land, going hither and thither
from one tribe to another, dispensing to each nation a small portion of his
wares. When he reached the land of the Arabs, so the story goes, his cart suddenly
broke down along the way and was stuck there. The Arabs seized the contents
of the cart as if it were a merchant's valuable cargo, stripping the cart bare
and preventing Hermes from continuing on his journey, although there were still
some people he had not yet visited. As a result, Arabs are liars and charlatans,
as I myself have learned from experience. There is not a word of truth that
springs from their lips. |
 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 309: Gibbs (Oxford) 521 [English]
Perry 309: Babrius 57 [Greek]
Perry 309: Chambry 112 [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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