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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

AESOP AND HIS LAMP

Once when Aesop happened to be the only slave in his master's household, he was ordered to prepare dinner earlier than usual. He thus had to visit a few houses looking for fire, until at last he found a place where he could light his lamp. Since his search had taken him out of his way along a winding path, he decided to shorten his journey on the way back and go straight through the forum. There amidst the crowds a talkative fellow shouted at him, 'Aesop, what's with the lamp in the middle of the day?' 'I'm just looking to see if I can find a real man,' said Aesop, as he quickly made his way back home. If that public nuisance had bothered to give this any thought, he would immediately have understood that as far as old Aesop was concerned, he was not a man at all, but only a pest who was bothering someone who had better things to do.

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 510: Gibbs (Oxford) 555 [English]
Perry 510: Phaedrus 3.19 [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.