Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE OLIVE TREE AND THE FIG TREE
When a fig tree lost all her leaves during the winter, a nearby olive tree made
fun of her nakedness. 'In both winter and summer,' the olive tree said, 'I am
beautifully adorned with leaves, ever green with new life, whereas your beauty
lasts only as long as the summer.' While the olive tree was boasting, a thunderbolt
suddenly fell from the sky and burned her to cinders, while the fig tree stood
there safe and sound.
The fable shows that people who boast of their wealth or their fortune can
meet with unexpected disaster. |
 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 413: Gibbs (Oxford) 203 [English]
Perry 413: Townsend 307 [English]
Perry 413: Aphthonius 22 [Greek]
Perry 413: Syntipas 31 [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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