<< Home Page | Perry Index

Perry's Index to the Aesopica

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

THE WOLF AND THE DONKEY

The word of a wicked man can never be trusted. Listen to this fable, for example.
The wolf paid a visit to the ailing donkey. He began to touch the donkey's body and to ask him in what part of his body he felt the greatest pain. The donkey answered, 'Wherever you touch me!'
The same is true of wicked people: even if they pretend to be helpful and speak nicely, they are actually in a hurry to harm you.

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 392: Caxton 4.13 [English]
Perry 392: Gibbs (Oxford) 309 [English]
Perry 392: Steinhowel 4.13 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim University Library
Perry 392: Rom. Anglicus 82 [Latin]
Perry 392: Rom. Anglicus 109 [Latin]
Perry 392: Rom. Nil. (metrica) 39 [Latin]
Perry 392: Rom. Nil. (rhythmica) 2.25 [Latin]


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.