Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE BUTCHER, THE SHEPHERD AND THE LAMB
A shepherd and a butcher were walking along the road together. They saw a plump
little lamb who had wandered away from the flock and had been left behind by
his fellow sheep. The shepherd and the butcher both rushed to grab the lamb.
This was back in the days when animals spoke the same language as people, so
the lamb asked the two men why they wanted to grab him and carry him off. After
the lamb found out what they both did, he turned and offered himself to the
shepherd. 'You are nothing but an executioner of sheep,' he said to the butcher,
'and your hands are stained with the blood of the flock! This man, on the other
hand, rejoices if we thrive and prosper.' |
 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 465: Gibbs (Oxford) 9 [English]
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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