Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE BOASTFUL ATHLETE
There was a man who had been away on a journey and had then come back home.
He strutted about town, talking loudly and at great length about the brave deeds
he had accomplished in the various lands he had visited. In Rhodes, the man
said, he had jumped such a long jump that no man alive could equal it, and he
claimed that there were witnesses who could back up his story. A bystander then
remarked, 'Alright! If you're telling the truth, here is your Rhodes: go on
and jump!'
The fable shows that talking is a waste of time when you can simply provide
a demonstration. |
 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 33: Gibbs (Oxford) 209 [English]
Perry 33: L'Estrange 85 [English]
Perry 33: Townsend 43 [English]
Perry 33: Chambry 51 [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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