HERACLES AND ATHENA

Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

HERACLES AND ATHENA

Heracles was making his way through a narrow pass. He saw something that looked like an apple lying on the ground and he tried to smash it with his club. After having been struck by the club, the thing swelled up to twice its size. Heracles struck it again with his club, even harder than before, and the thing then expanded to such a size that it blocked Heracles's way. Heracles let go of his club and stood there, amazed. Athena saw him and said, 'O Heracles, don't be so surprised! This thing that has brought about your confusion is Contentiousness and Strife. If you just leave it alone, it stays small; but if you decide to fight it, then it swells from its small size and grows large.'

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 316: Gibbs (Oxford) 534 [English]
Perry 316: Chambry 129 [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.