Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
PROMETHEUS AND BACCHUS
Someone asked Aesop why lesbians and fairies had been created, and old Aesop
explained, 'The answer lies once again with Prometheus, the original creator
of our common clay (which shatters as soon as it hits a bit of bad luck). All
day long, Prometheus had been separately shaping those natural members which
Shame conceals beneath our clothes, and when he was about to apply these private
parts to the appropriate bodies Bacchus unexpectedly invited him to dinner.
Prometheus came home late, unsteady on his feet and with a good deal of heavenly
nectar flowing through his veins. With his wits half asleep in a drunken haze
he stuck the female genitalia on male bodies and male members on the ladies.
This is why modern lust revels in perverted pleasures.' |
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 515: Gibbs (Oxford) 517 [English]
Perry 515: Phaedrus 4.15 [Latin]
Perry 515: Phaedrus 4.16 [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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