Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE EUNUCH AND HIS ACCUSER
A eunuch was involved in a legal dispute with an extremely unpleasant person
who made rude and cutting remarks, and even insulted the eunuch for the loss
he had suffered in his bodily parts. The eunuch responded: 'I admit that this
is the one thing that puts me in considerable difficulty: I don't have testi-mony,
so to speak, in support of my good character. But you are a fool to denounce
me for something that is merely a matter of fate!'
The only thing that can really bring shame on a man is a punishment that
he has justly deserved. |
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 502: Gibbs (Oxford) 595 [English]
Perry 502: Phaedrus 3.11 [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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