Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE WOLVES AND THE DOGS
The wolves wanted to make friends with the dogs, so they said, 'Since we have
so much in common, why don't you treat us as your brothers and friends? It is
merely our attitude that divides us. We wolves all live a life of freedom, while
you dogs are the slaves of people who make you wear collars around your necks
and who beat you with sticks whenever it pleases them. And that is not your
only hardship: you even have to guard their flocks and, what's worse, when they
are eating their dinner, they toss you nothing but the bones as your share.
If you will agree to our bargain, you can turn everything over to us and we'll
eat our fill together.' Right away the dogs agreed, so the wolves attacked the
flock and killed the dogs, so that the flock could not call out for help against
the wolves.
The fable shows that these are the wages of people who betray their country. |
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 342: Gibbs (Oxford) 30 [English]
Perry 342: Townsend 171 [English]
Perry 342: Chambry 216 [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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