Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE KITES AND THE SWANS
A story about kites and swans, exhorting us not to imitate
things that are inappropriate to us.
Nature originally supplied the kites with a voice equal to that of the swans.
But when the kites heard the sound of horses neighing, they were enchanted and
tried to imitate it. In the course of their studies, the kites lost what voice
they had: they did not learn how to neigh, and they forgot how to sing.
By imitating something inappropriate, you can lose what you had to begin
with. |
 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 396: Gibbs (Oxford) 506 [English]
Perry 396: Townsend 170 [English]
Perry 396: Aphthonius 3 [Greek]
Perry 396: Babrius 73 [Greek]
Perry 396: Chambry 136 [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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