Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE SHEPHERD AND THE LION
A shepherd had lost one of his sheep and begged the god for help. The man vowed
that if he succeeded in finding the sheep, he would offer up another sheep to
the god as a sacrifice. As he wandered about, he saw the carcass of the missing
sheep chewed to pieces by a lion, and then the man began to pray, 'O god, if
I can just escape the threat of this wild animal, I will offer up yet another
sheep as ransom for my life!'
This fable shows that each man holds his own life dearer than any amount
of wealth or profit. |
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 49: Gibbs (Oxford) 229 [English]
Perry 49: L'Estrange 200 [English]
Perry 49: Townsend 17 [English]
Perry 49: Babrius 23 [Greek]
Perry 49: Chambry 74 [Greek]
Perry 49: Syntipas 12 [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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