Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE MAN AND THE INSECT
A cicada saw that a man was trying to capture him, so he said, 'Why don't you
go and hunt those birds instead? They would actually be useful to you! You don't
stand to gain anything by catching me.'
This fable shows that we should not go chasing after things that are useless
and unprofitable. |
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 387: Gibbs (Oxford) 272 [English]
Perry 387: Aphthonius 9 [Greek]
Perry 387: Syntipas 62 [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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