Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE OLD WOMAN AND THE WINE JAR
An old woman saw a wine jar that had been drained empty, but the lees of the
exquisite wine still sent forth a pleasant odour from the noble vessel. The
woman greedily imbibed the smell, deeply inhaling through both nostrils, and
said, 'Oh sweet spirits, I do declare, how excellent you must once have been
to have left behind such fine remains!'
People who know me will be able to say what this fable is about. |
 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 493: Gibbs (Oxford) 572 [English]
Perry 493: Jacobs 81 [English]
Perry 493: Townsend 94 [English]
Perry 493: Phaedrus 3.1 [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.
|
