Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE HUNTER AND THE FISHERMAN
A hunter was coming down from the mountain after the hunt while a fisherman
was walking along with a basket full of fish and the two men crossed paths.
The hunter preferred to have fish fresh from the sea, while the fisherman preferred
wild game caught in the fields so they exchanged the things that they were carrying.
From then on they always traded their catch so that they could both enjoy more
appetizing dinners. Eventually someone gave them this advice: 'Be careful, because
too much familiarity will eventually spoil the goodness of these things, so
that each of you will long to have what was originally yours.' |
 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 327: Gibbs (Oxford) 461 [English]
Perry 327: Townsend 93 [English]
Perry 327: Babrius 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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