Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
SOCRATES AND HIS FRIENDS
The word 'friend' is in common use but true friends are hard
to find.
Socrates had erected for himself a very modest house - and I myself would even
be willing to die as Socrates died if I could achieve an equal fame, yes, I would
be willing to suffer the same public disapproval if I too could be vindicated
after death! Anyway, just as you would expect on such an occasion, one of his
neighbours had to ask, 'Why is it, Socrates, that someone like you would build
himself such a tiny little house?' 'Ah,' said Socrates, 'if only I could fill
it with true friends!' |
 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 500: Gibbs (Oxford) 94 [English]
Perry 500: Phaedrus 3.9 [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.
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